Mark Janes is Northern Nevada’s first master of wine candidate, a certified sommelier, certified wine educator, and certified specialist of wine.

TASTE
Wine Review - Perfect pair
Combining food and wine with grace.
Written by Mark Janes

Many of you have experienced a food and wine combination that is off the charts. The first time I experienced this was in 1996 in France’s Loire Valley. I was visiting a goat farm where the owners made chèvre cheese. After the visit, which included milking a few goats (not recommended), we sampled fresh cheese with local wine of the region. It was sauvignon blanc from Pouilly Fume. The flavors from the cheese and wine perfectly wove together as they cascaded across my palate. The creamy, salty, slightly chalky texture from the cheese was perfectly framed by the fresh acidity of the wine. It was ethereal.

The following are tips for improving your food-and-wine matching abilities.

1. Serve food and wine from the same region. While this tends to work better with wines from regions that have long culinary and wine-production histories, when it works, it works quite well. For example, if you visit Beaujolais, you’ll eat a lot of chicken. Nothing seems to go better with a simply roasted chicken than gamay from Beaujolais. In Alsace, you’ll see a lot of pork on menus. Pinot blancs from this region are fantastic matches for pork. In Andalusia, Spain, you’ll eat a lot of paella. Next time you make paella at home, try serving it with a dry rosè. A little time on the Internet will take care of this part of equation.

2. For lots of solid, low-risk combinations, choose a wine that complements two or three of the most relevant aspects of the dish. Match flavors, textures, weight, degree of complexity of the dish, etc., with similar traits in the wine. For example, say you are making pan-seared chicken breast in a citrus sauce. Sauté the chicken, roast it in the oven, make a simple pan-reduction sauce with lemon, orange juice, orange rind, and cilantro. The dish has citrus flavors, is light to medium in weight, and is fresh and simple. When you go to your favorite wine store, ask for a wine that has citrus flavors, is light to medium in weight, and is fresh with high acidity.

3. Ask questions. This is one of the advantages to buying your wine from a small, local wine shop as opposed to a liquor or grocery store. The owner or employee at a good retail store should have no problem answering your questions and should be capable of describing characteristics of wines available to you. He or she also should have a basic understanding of food and wine pairing. You never know, he or she may even have milked a goat or two.

Food and wine pairing picks
The following wines are all from Whole Foods, 6139 S. Virginia St., 852-8032
2005 Las Rocas Granacha, $12. It’s 100 percent big, rich, spicy grenache. Try it with Caribbean-jerked chicken or other spicier, meat-based fare.

2005 Chateau d’Arcins, $25. This is a cabernet blend from a great vintage in Bordeaux, France. It will work well with any grilled beef, lamb, or veal.

2005 Dirler Pinot Vielles Vignes, $28. This wine is 100 percent pinot blanc and is perfect with medium-fat, white-fleshed fish dishes and pork braised in milk.