Paul Franson

Dolores and Jack Cakebread

Each year for 20 years, Cakebread Cellars in Napa Valley has invited a team of rising and established chefs to its American Harvest Workshop to learn to better pair their food with wine. The lessons they learn are equally useful to home cooks – and all wine lovers as well.

It’s appropriate that Cakebread sponsors the workshops. The winery has been one of the nation’s leading wineries for more than 30 years, and its wines consistently rank among the most popular in restaurants. The reason is simple: Cakebread wines are created to complement food while some wineries produce blockbuster wines that impress wine critics but don’t match well with foods.

The chefs who attend Cakebread’s workshops tromp through vineyards, pick grapes, taste local produce and develop new dishes, all to learn how to create food that complements wine – and vice versa. It’s a goal innovative chefs often  overlook in a quest to be different.

The secret weapon in the effort is Michael Weiss, a professor of wine at the  prestigious Culinary Institute of America. Weiss is the co-author of the authoritative Exploring Wine, a textbook as accessible to casual wine lovers as students. Weiss points out that tasting uses a combination of senses. You eyes can see the color and clarity of the wine, surprisingly important sensations: even experienced tasters can confuse red and white wines served from opaque glasses. And the mouth also senses the thickness or “mouthfeel” of wines. The tongue can only detect four sensations, sweet, savory (salt), acid (sour) and bitter, though many feel there is another taste, unctuousness or umami.

 Many of the sensations we call tastes are really smells, and the nose can detect hundreds or thousands of aromas including most we associate with wine such as fruits, flowers and spices.

Weiss notes that our ability to detect these sensations differ widely. We’re not very sensitive to sweetness or saltiness, detecting only one part of sugar in 200, or 1 in 400 of salt, but are much more sensitive to acidity at 1 part per 30,000 and especially bitterness at 1 in a million.

Weiss offers a number of guidelines to pairing wine and food, and he warns that the old “red wine with meat, white with fish” rule needs qualification.

More important is the weight and intensity of the wines and foods: A light wine goes with light food, but a big oaky Chardonnay might be fine with meat. “Never contrast intensities,” he warns.

He says non-tannic reds such as Pinot Noir can be fine with stronger fish such as salmon or tuna, but the tannin in wines like Cabernet fights with the omega 3 oils in fish.

On the other hand, tannic wines complement the fats and bloody juices of red meats. “They taste even better together,” he says.

Weiss notes that cooking techniques can affect pairing, too. Steaming and poaching are lighter techniques, whereas roasting and grilling call for a more intense wine.

He points out that sauces and starches or vegetables can completely change a dish, calling for a different wine. Mushrooms, for example, call for earthy Pinot Noir wine, while lemon might suggest Sauvignon Blanc.   He warns: “Sugar is the enemy of wine.” Popular Asian, Caribbean and Latin-American foods often contain sweet elements, making them best with slightly sweet wines. That’s one reason Rieslings are becoming popular once again, but he notes that many California Chardonnays are also slightly sweet.   He also says chefs tend to put too many things on a plate. “The wine gets lost. Keep it simple.” Asparagus is terrible with red wines, he warns, and in general, cabbage and its cousins go best with light wines such as Sauvignon Blanc. Artichokes are tricky, making wine taste sweet, but frying or grilling them helps, as do lemon sauces.

And vinegars clash with wines; he recommends only mild balsamic and rice wine vinegars, but notes that citrus juice or wine itself is even better when you need some acidity.

Above all, he says, never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink. That doesn’t mean the wine has to be expensive, but don’t ever use wine that’s gone off or salted “cooking wine.”

If you follow Weiss’ hints, you’ll find your wine and food both taste better – and you’ll have a better dining experience.

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