Food & Wine Pairing Contemplation
I thought I'd make a few comments on the idea of wine and food pairing, a subject on which we are constantly questioned. We hold innumerable wine dinners with celebrated restaurants and chefs and the first step is to send wines off to them. The wines are a finished product, the changes that occur from opening the bottle a little early or decanting it are small, quite important at times, but small. The chefs have absolute freedom in the food they cook, to pair with the wine.
At home of course it's a different issue. Once you have bought a shoulder of lamb or some line caught salmon, a search for the wine to compliment it begins. However, I always urge people to select the wine first because one still has the flexibility to cook the meat or fish to perfectly pair with it... see the wine as a given. In pairing wine and food are there mistakes to be made, can one actually do a disservice to both the wine and the food with a poor selection. Certain wisdoms about pairing have been established, they are exchanged as though Biblical in strength, great marbled steaks require a full complex wine to compliment them, a fruit bomb, as they are frequently described. A delicate Filet of Sole requires an equally delicate white wine for fear of overpowering it, even when a creamy Sorrel sauce has been added to the dish, a pale diffident wine, distinctly too cold from the fridge, doesn't elicit a bolder, firmer wine.
I have witnessed too many gastronomical battles fought between a large, scorched, but still bloody steak and an overpowering, blood thick Napa Cabernet, a fight conducted on Crown Derby to be resumed in a sleeping stomach. The French have always had a different approach, the great beef growing area is Burgundy from where the legendary Charolais cattle originate. Wonderful heady, beautifully balanced Pinot Noir wines share a table with perfect beef fresh from the roasting spit. Wines that age without losing their crispness, fresh and full of promise. As they age they assume dimensions, intricacies, comlexities and a fullness that does not deny its past. Rare beef, aged and seasoned, roasted fiercely but for so little time, with that dish, here in the US I am drinking a young Sutcliffe Vineyards Grenache, forgiving it its youth, delighted in it briskness, the gentle but distinct notes on the palette.
This is too detailed, but I am on a roll, so what do I pair with our legendary Trawsfynydd, the name celebrating my grandmother's birth place in Wales' glorious mountains. Lamb, our lamb, raised to scurry through the Sage and Chamisa, happy with the pears and apples that have tumbled from the tree. A shoulder of lamb. Make room between the flat bone and the meat and stuff it with breadcrumbs, finely chopped Garlic and herbs, bound together with a little olive oil. Perhaps a thin sliver of liver beside it. Tie it closed with string, encrust it with salt having scored the outside fat. Fierce oven for 20 minutes, longer at lower heat, ensure the fat is crisp, shatteringly crisp. You have the Trawsfynydd in the glass, you swill it around, take a sip, the room is scented with herbs and garlic, the lamb lies perfect on a bed of watercress.
Enjoy.
~ John Sutcliffe
