Food And Wine Pairings For (Not Just)Vegans
I’ve always felt that food and wine pairing is both subjective and overrated. Great way to start a post about food and wine suggestions, right? I’ve experienced the holy grail of wine and food pairings numerous times over the years, but more often, I’ll drink wine that can go with a variety of foods or a dish that would match well with an array of wines. This said I’ve also had wine and food pairings that have been downright terrible, some in my own experimentation and some other people’s suggestions. We often don’t know what really works until we get to eating and drinking, but there are a few basic wine and food pairing rules:
1) Flavors can be complimentary or contrasting. For example, you can make a dish with pesto sauce and look for an herbal red wine, such as a Shiraz from Australia, with eucalyptus notes that will complement the basil. On the other hand, a fruity wine, like Sauvignon Blanc, with citrus notes, will accent the dish’s flavor.
2) Hot, spicy dishes are better with wines that have low to moderate alcohol and some residual sugar. This is why German wines (which usually have lower ABV than their Alsatian and Austrian counterparts) go so well with many Asian cuisines. Give me a Scheurebe with Thai curry or Gewurztraminer with Vindaloo any day. Alcohol accentuates heat, while sugar tempers it.
3) Tannic wines work well with tough textured foods such as jackfruit and tempeh. You also have to take seasoning into account, but tempeh marinated in fresh herbs, especially sage, will often pair with a tannic Cabernet Sauvignon. Also, if you want tannins, check out orange wines, which are skin fermented white wines, especially the those from Georgia (where they are called amber), that are aged in quevri, amphora buried in the ground.
4) Dishes with a lot of fat — oil, cream — are best with higher-acid wines. Some grapes are inherently high acid; Nebbiolo, Pinot Noir, Chenin Blanc, Xarel-lo, to name but a few. However, climate also impacts acidity (cooler climate wines have more acid), so look for wines that come from colder areas.
5) There are different thoughts on desserts. Some say that the wine should always be sweeter, but others disagree. Admittedly, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I think you can go either way. If you drink a sweet wine that doesn’t have much acid, such as some Muscats, eat citrus or a fruit dessert that has some acidity.
There’s not much else you really need to know. You figure out a lot as you go along, trial and error. Also, taste changes. I used to not like chocolate with red wine, but I don’t mind it as much now.
Now, here’s one recent pairing
Pasta with Lemon Pesto Sauce, Zucchini and Tomatoes
I have a new love, Bona Furtuna pasta. It’s made from organic, heirloom wheat in Sicily and while it’s little more expensive than other dried pasta (but not super pricey), damn, it’s worth it. Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco carries it for those who live in the Bay Area. I got a box of the Busiate, a short, curly, shaped noodle, that I thought would be good with pesto and got to work.
I should mention that I rarely measure ingredients and don’t use recipes unless it’s a dish I haven’t made before…and even then, I often go off script. This said, there was nothing too different about the pesto — basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper — except the addition of lemon juice (from our crazy lemon tree), which brightened the sauce. I sauteed the zucchini with olive oil, garlic, dried farm tomatoes, salt and pepper.
Lastly, I dry roasted shiitake mushrooms, grinded them up and sprinkled them on top to see if it would give the umami quality of parmesean cheese. Honestly, it didn’t have the desired affect, but didn’t clash or distract, either. I’ve yet to find a good vegan parmesean substitute. What I’m increasingly beginning to believe is that finding substitutes for animal products is often not the way to go, hence the shiitake expermient. In retrospect, I’m not sure if it needed an umami addition as there was a lot flavor already.
There were a few wines on the table but the 2022 Unturned Stone Hatchling Sauvignon Blanc was the winning match. The grapes, which are from the perfumed Musque clone, are from the Potter Valley in Mendocino. Slightly grassy, with citrus and tropical notes, it lifted the citrus, herbal flavor of the sauce, and accented the cooked vegetables. The acid cut through the richness from the sauce. In general, sauteed tomatoes tend to go well with Sauvignon Blanc, part contrast, part complement. The wine also worked with the salad I made: tossed little gems, chervil, anise, gooseberries, and a simple lemon balsamic dressing.
One of my guests that night was Megan Sekermestrovich, from Lula, and she brought a couple of her wines, 2022 Home & Garden Rose, made from Zinfandel, and 2021 Table Talk, a Mourvedre made from Chalone AVA grapes. I’ve been tasting the trajectory of her wines since she poured her first vintage at WINeFare in 2020, and they’re really developing a personality. The rose was fresh and juicy. It worked pretty well with the salad. We couldn’t find a great match for Table Talk that night, but the search continues as she will be invited back (we’ve actually been talking about going for Ethiopian so that could be an interesting experiment). At any rate, if you look for 0/0 (no sulfur added) wines, or just want to try wine from one of California’s rising stars, check out Lula.
In the next post, at least the next wine and vegan food themed one (a feminist one is brewing), I’ll talk about the wines I drink, and why.
Salut! Pamela
