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Old 04-14-2008, 08:20 AM   #1
TommyBB
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Toronto Globe and Mail Wine Pairings for the week.

Quote:
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

April 12, 2008 Saturday

In food and wine pairings, long-distance love rules

BYLINE: BEPPI CROSARIOL, bcrosariol@globeandmail.com

SECTION: GLOBE STYLE; WINES AND SPIRITS: PLAYING MATCHMAKER; Pg. L13

LENGTH: 1243 words

If it grows together, it goes together. Food-and-wine pairing experts are fond of that tidy little expression. It means wines of a certain region tend to match the local cuisine.

It's also a gross exaggeration.

Sometimes local pairings truly are classic. Take crisp, lean muscadet from the western Loire Valley and briny raw oysters from nearby Brittany. Or Barolo with dishes containing Piedmontese white truffles.

But one can easily come up with just as many counterexamples. Often what grows together, frankly, blows together.

Burgundians are fond of serving either chardonnay or pinot noir (the grapes of fine white and red Burgundy wine, respectively) with their glorious cheeses, notably the stinky local Époisses. Try the pairing once and you can't help but taste the travesty of it all - at least as far as the wine's flavour goes. Want to ruin a $100-plus Echézeaux? Serve it with Époisses, as some Burgundian winemakers have done in my presence. Better pairings include sauternes from Bordeaux, Amarone from Italy, Port from Portugal, riesling from Germany or even gewurztraminer from Alsace.

Why do many food-pairing "experts" recommend Burgundian wine for Époisses?

Because that's what the Burgundians traditionally had lying around when the cheese cart came rolling up. (Sophisticated palates reached for the local brandy, Marc de Bourgogne, a much better pairing.)

Now, think of hot, coastal regions on the rim of the Mediterranean, places where you'll often find grilled fish, fresh vegetables and olive oil instead of beef and butter. These places also tend to specialize in big, honking red wines because that's what the weather delivers. For example, primitivo in the southern Italian region of Puglia and Bandol in southern France. Those wines would scare a grilled fish back into the ocean. Better to serve a sauvignon blanc, but sauvignon blanc thrives in cooler climates such as the Loire Valley and New Zealand.

Here's an interesting thing to ponder too. Some of the most classic pairings have nothing to do with proximity. Think of Port from Portugal with English Stilton cheese. Alsatian gewurztraminer, many wine connoisseurs agree, is great with Thai food, but they don't grow gewurztraminer around Bangkok. (Curiously, a wine enthusiast with a big cellar once chastised me for recommending gewurztraminer with Thai food. He insisted the wine can't possibly be a good match for Thai food because wine is not traditional to Southeast Asia. That's like saying Ichiro Suzuki stinks at baseball.)

Here's the key reason a region's grape and grub often clash. In a sunny climate, grapes tend to ripen fully and become sweeter. More sugar in the fermenting vat means higher alcohol and bigger body in the wine. Those are not characteristics that flatter lighter flavours common to many sunny regions. Conversely, in cold regions such as Germany, heavy meats are a big deal and so is white wine. Bratwurst with riesling? If you must. But I'd be scanning the beverage list for an English ale or Italian barbera instead.

I thought of the food-pairing paradox when I noticed the lineup in this week's Vintages release in Ontario (some wines are available in other provinces, as indicated below). The theme is titled "Sun Worship" and features wines from hot-climate regions. Just don't confuse them as wines to stock up on for pool-side sipping or for salads. Many of the selections are so full-bodied and warmly alcoholic that you might prefer to drink them by a cozy fire, preferably next January (though grilled meat would do many of them justice).

That said, there are tasty and well-priced wines in this release, starting with Château de Gourgazaud Cuvée Mathilde 2006 ($13.95, product No. 958629). This medium to full-bodied French red from the southern Minervois region has a fresh, youthful, blueberry-soaked palate with good acidity and slightly gritty, puckery tannins, with notes of lavender and sage. It's a great value. Also available in Ontario and some other provinces, including Nova Scotia and Quebec, is its good sister wine, the simply named Château de Gourgazaud ($14.18 in N.S.; $13.55 in Quebec).

I liked the earthy character behind Navarro Correas Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 from Argentina ($18.95, No. 028936). Full-bodied and chunky, it's laced with notes of smoke, tobacco and clay on a core of blackberry, plum and chocolate.

In a completely different style is a big wine the connoisseurs will no doubt be rushing to buy this morning. It's called Syan Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 ($26.95, No. 062430) and it has been given the golden seal of approval by influential critic Robert Parker, which is to say a score of "91 to 93" (he offers a range when tasting an unfinished wine from barrel as opposed to bottle).

What a Parker-style wine it is too. Intensely inky and opaque, this tooth-stainer tastes uncannily like port, only with the sweetness removed. The texture is creamy smooth and carries flavours of plum jam, vanilla, blackberries and cedar, carried on soft, integrated tannins. It's good, yes, but there's an over-the-top, engineered quality to this fruit-and-oak cannon. And warning: Don't wear summery white clothing if you plan to swirl it vigorously in your glass.

Also from Australia, and available in B.C. Liquor Stores and Alberta private stores, is d'Arenberg The Footbolt Shiraz 2005 ($21.95, No. 984021; $23.99 in B.C., No. 506931). Here's an exceptionally balanced red from south Australia, with rich, warm cherry liqueur balanced by good acidity, spice and an intriguing note of cigar tobacco.

Already into its attractive maturing stages is a similarly big red from South Africa, Simonsig Frans Malan 2003 ($20.95, No. 057521). Not everyone will love its hint of rubber hose, nor what critic Stephen Tanzer daringly described as its "raw meat" flavour. I happen to like the offbeat flavours, which offer a backdrop to ripe dark-skinned fruit characters, mushroom and a hint of mulched leaves.

Turning away from the hot zones and more toward the cool-climate wines that I prefer to sip in the heat, I'd recommend Domaine Louis Moreau Chablis 2006 ($19.95, No. 072363), a classically crisp, minerally white from northern Burgundy.

Among cool-climate reds, consider Megalomaniac Vainglorious Cabernet Merlot 2006 from a new winery in Niagara ($24.95, No. 067637), with juicy black currant and crisp cherry flavours. The white from the same winery on offer today at Vintages stores in Ontario is nice, too. The Megalomaniac Narcissist Riesling 2007 ($17.95, No. 067587) is off-dry, with notes of sweet lemon, peach and melon and good length.

Not exactly in the value-price range, but excellent, is Remo Farina Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico Monte Fante 1998 ($62.95, No. 063636). Fans of Amarone, the rich Italian red made with partly dried grapes for greater intensity and body, should be pleased. Here's a classically styled Amarone with an almost syrupy texture and luscious raisiny character. And there's good acidity for balance. Already 10 years old, it's drinking beautifully. Consider serving it, instead of pinot noir, with some Époisses cheese.

Pick of the week

Château de Gourgazaud Cuvée Mathilde 2006 ($13.95, product No. 958629). This medium to full-bodied French red from the southern Minervois region has a fresh, youthful, blueberry-soaked palate with good acidity and slightly gritty, puckery tannins, with notes of lavender and sage. It's a great value.
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