Food and Wine Pairings: Two Happy Accidents

Editor’s Note: Foodista is pleased to introduce Jameson Fink as our new wine contributor. Jameson is an accomplished wine steward with much to share. Look forward to “Wine Wednesday” each week for tasting notes, pairings, and more!

As a wine steward at a grocery store, I spend a significant chunk of my day helping people select wines to go with their meal.  I take a lot of pride in making thoughtful suggestions, and I always try to have fun and keep things relaxed.  My goal is to demolish the stereotype of  boorish know-it-all wine snobs with nothing to offer conversationally but their specialized knowledge.  So while I can talk your ear off about matching food and wine for a frighteningly long time, I am often pleasantly surprised how well food and wine work together with just a modicum of effort and a little bit of luck.  Last night’s dinner was a case in point.

We started with some crostini and a fresh herb cream cheese with (because it was not rich enough already) some butter whipped in.  I just happened to bring along a very tart apple left over from last week’s trip to the Farmers Market.  The 2007 Jadot Pouilly-Fuisse, a French Chardonnay, that we began with had touches of buttery richness and texture from moderate oak influence as well as snappy fruit and acidity.  A bite of crostini with cheese, a slice of apple, and a big sip of wine turned out to be the perfect start to the evening, when it was still warm and bright enough to be outside.

For our main course we retreated inside.  I had  some baby eggplant and Walla Walla onion that I had roasted with nothing but salt and olive oil.  I dumped in some tomato sauce, wilted some arugula, finished with Parmesan-Reggiano, and served over penne.  I wasn’t sure how the 2001 Falesco Marciliano (an Italian Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc Blend) was drinking and if it would work with the food; all I knew is that I wanted to drink it.  It turned out great.  With a few years of bottle-age, the Marciliano had taken on some nice secondary, Bordeaux-like qualities.  I’m trying to think of a better way to describe these characteristics than “green” or “vegetal” but I am a bit stumped.  The wine was fantastic with the sweet, rich eggplant and the arugula bite at the end really played well with the bottle-age on the wine.  I was really surprised how well it went considering there was no meat in this dish.

So while there is a time and a place to nerd out over matching food and wine, most of the time it’s just best to enjoy the company, the food, and the wine.  The worst case scenario is that maybe you learn a little bit about what doesn’t work.  (Unless you are having something like Malbec and oysters.  That is truly awful sounding.)  So what are some of your favorite wine pairings?  Or ones you tried that made you wince?

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