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Five things you need to know to pair wine and food:
1. No matter how good your wine pairing is, you can’t make bad wine taste good. Make sure you have a tasty wine. That’s 90% of the battle.
2. The next 8% is avoiding clashes. Opposites tend to clash. Vinegary foods will ruin a low acid wine. Sweet food will ruin a dry wine. Heavy foods will drown out a light wine.
3. The final 2% is knowing some of the special combinations that really elevate your wine and food experience. Riesling with pork. Sauterne with foie gras. Gewurtztraminer with stinky cheese.
4. Know the safe wines. These are food-friendly wines that are very likely to go with whatever it is you’re cooking. Beaujolais, Riesling, Dolcetto, Chenin Blanc, and Pinot Noir rarely fail.
5. There are exceptions to all of the above, and a range of different views, so it’s hard to be wrong no matter what you do. Some sommeliers think that opposites complement rather than clash. Some sommeliers thing that Sauterne with foie gras is a disaster. Here are a few super safe wines for pairing with a wide range of foods:
Binner, Saveurs Prinaneurs
– An all natural field blend of Alsation grapes. Great with any “white wine” food (fish, salads, lighter meat dishes), and can also work with
Asian.
Cadette, Bourgogne Blanc
– 100% Chardonnay. But not the oaky stuff common in California, which is disastrous with most foods. This is a racy, Chablis-like Burgundy that will refresh your seafood dinner.
Brun, Cote de Brouilly
– Beautiful Gamay from one of the 10 crus of Beaujolais. Again, all
naturally made. You like your food to be natural, why not the wine you
drink with it? Flexible enough to handle most white wine foods, but big enough for roast chicken.
Produttori, Nebbiolo
– One of our biggest selling reds, no doubt because it is great with just about any meat dish. A big wine for sure, but with enough freshness to complement your dinner.
Riesling season? Yes. Rosés can be lovely, but many of us in the wine
industry puzzle over why so much of it is consumed at the expense of such
an obvious alternative. Riesling has all of Rose’s advantages. It is
refreshing. It is eminently drinkable on a roof-deck with or without
food. It is available at lower prices. But, for the same money, you get
what is usually a more delicious beverage. Riesling, without losing the
easy charm you want from a summer drink, manages to pack more complexity
into your glass. It often has a racy minerality, layered on top of
vibrant apple, peach or citrus notes. It comes in simpler varieties, like
the Erhard Rocken 2007 from Germany for $13. And it comes in older and
more complex versions, like the Hirsch, Gaisberg Riesling 2003 for $40, an
extraordinary wine that is no more expensive than Tempier Rose.
The Rieslings mentioned above are dry, the same as most of the Roses that
we sell. Riesling can also be sweet, and there is no reason to fear the
sugar. There is so much acidity in Riesling (not sour, bad acid, but
refreshing, minerally acid) that even sweet Riesling will taste drier than
the sweet ice tea that you may also enjoy drinking on your roof-deck.
Folks, we like sweetness in everything else — why not in wine? Try the Selbach, Piesporter Michelberg 2007 for $13.
Wines mentioned:
Finally, after much effort, we upgraded our web site, loading it with
features that will shock you — like a search function that actually
works! An an inventory that is actually up to date and accurate! And
that’s just a few of the gems that you will discover as you surf
seamlessly around our on-line store. Kind of like Amazon, shopping is
completely automated, right up to the calculation of shipping costs at
check out. Remember, though, that if you need same-day delivery in the
neighborhood (still free!), you must call us to make sure we process your
order right away.
The new site will be organized kind of like a blog, with lots of new
mini-articles, specials, new arrivals, and so forth, posted right here on
a regular basis. Over on the right we will start building up a collection
of more permanent articles — on different regions, wine pairing, etc. We
hope you enjoy, but don’t forget we love actually seeing customers so
please keep coming by the shop!
To say that there is a bit of confusion surrounding the terms organic, natural and biodynamic in the realm of wine may be a subtle understatement. Here at UVA, we often receive inquiries for clarification as well as requests for good examples. And the most common question is “do you have any organic wine?” YES, but first some clarification.
Organic wine (per the USDA) is wine made from organically grown grapes and vinified using organic methods (no added chemicals or preservatives etc., although it does allow for a small amount of added sulphur). There is a separate designation for wines made from organically grown grapes that don’t employ organic vinification.
Biodynamic wines are completely organic, but they follow strict, natural methods that don’t allow for such things as machine harvesting or importing fertilizer. They also plant and harvest according to the moon cycle. Finally, there are many winemakers out there who are committed to using the best, natural methods that respect their land and their grapes but who for various reasons don’t practice entirely organic or biodynamic methods.
At UVA we are always looking for these types of wines. We have a large selection of certified organic and organically grown wines plus many more wines that are made organically or biodynamically but w/out “official” certification. The vast majority of what we offer is made “naturally”, i.e. in a way that allows for the full potential of the grapes w/out sacrificing quality or the surrounding environment.
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Upcoming Tastings
7/8 Wines of Italy
7/11 Australian and South African wines from Lauber imports.
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