San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Discover a perfect wine pairing to impress guests
Are you cooking at home this year, and wonder which wine to partner with your favorite recipes? Or perhaps you’re visiting friends or family, and want to bring some wine to pair and impress.
Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are always safe bets, and go with many dishes. But why not step outside of your comfort zone a bit, and try one of these 10 delicious, different selections (bonus: you’ll have interesting details to share about each wine, too). with golden skin roast turkey, and should you be having a Dickens gathering, roast goose. Buy at www. adelaida.com.
This Sebastopol winery focuses on Pinot Noir. But for a new release, winemaker David Lattin tried something different, crafting a white (Blanc) Pinot Noir. It is made by gently removing juice from the red Pinot Noir grape skins before fermentation, so the juice stays white. The wine is a conversation starter, and a crowd pleaser, for its rich character and silky, lush texture. Gorgeous layers sing with peach nectar, honey, orange blossom and melted beeswax, with subtle, yeasty brioche-like undercurrents. It’s an excellent appetizer pairing, as it works nicely with more subtle dishes, such as soft cheeses, salads with a touch of creamy dressing, lightly smoked salmon with crème fraiche and mild flavored nuts. Buy at www. emeritusvineyards.com. finishes by caramelizing the mountains of meringue. Buy at www.langandreed.com.
Winery owners Bengt Akerlind and Katarina Bonde are Swedish, and they recommend creating a traditional Scandinavian Christmas by turning this full bodied blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese into glögg. That is hot mulled wine, and it is delicious with aromatic bites like salty blue cheese tarts, fish dip with crackers or gingerbread cookies. Simply simmer the wine with a bit of brandy or cognac, cardamom seeds, cinnamon sticks, cloves, orange rind, ginger, raisins and brown sugar. Buy the wine and find the recipe at www.west wines.com. to be mevushal (literally boiled, for religious purity), Covenant uses a new, flash-détente technique for zip-heating grapes straight out of the vineyard. So it still tastes like very good wine, in this case, lush with guava, green apple, citrus and herbs. Winery owners Jeff and Jodie Morgan have published their own cookbook, “The Covenant Kitchen: Food and Wine for the New Jewish Table,” or you can try your own favorite recipe for latkes, the salty, golden fried potatoes dressed with apples and sour cream. Buy at www.covenant wines.com.
pairs it with a delectable sausage-stuffed acorn squash casserole, layered with mushrooms, celery, onion, egg, sour cream and Parmesan. Buy the wine and find the recipe at www.acquiescevineyards.com.
Not everyone wants to drink alcohol. At this new Kenwood company, founder Georgos Zanganas and longtime Deerfield Ranch Winery winemaker and owner Robert Rex are marketing “the world’s first wine-infused non-alcoholic sparkling water.” The well water is mixed with de-alcoholized wine made from 100 percent California varietal wine grapes and natural extracts, so you get wine flavor without the buzz. Buy at www.deerfield ranch.com or at www.h2o seltzer.com.