Myriads of books, articles and websites are devoted to pairing wine and food, and by now we all know to pair red wines with steak, white wines with seafood, etc. However, there are some foods that are very difficult to pair with any wines, no matter the varietal or blend. This article will be your guide to the more difficult foods to pair with wines, and provide you with suggestions for certain wines that might do the trick.
Vinegar: What usually makes a food difficult to pair is a certain flavor that clashes with almost any wine. Vinegar is the perfect example of a flavor that can make a food difficult to pair. Vinegar and wine? Yuck! (After all, vinegar is wine that has been “soured”.) Dishes with strong vinegar elements can make your wine taste spoiled. The first solution is, of course, to choose dishes that don’t have a lot of vinegar, or to water down the flavor. (Try more oil in your vinaigrette salad dressing, or substitute lemon juice in that vinegar dish.) If you are determined to serve wine with food that has a strong vinegar flavor, you will need a wine with good acidity. White wines are your best choice – try a Sauvignon Blanc or a Chenin Blanc. Both Villa Maria Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc 2009 or Simonsig Chenin Blanc 2005 are wines that will go well with this difficult food.
Smoked Salmon: Smoked salmon is another difficult food to pair with wine. You may find this surprising, as fresh salmon is one of the most versatile foods for wine pairings. But there is something about the flavor of smoked salmon that can give wines a fishy or metallic taste. You’ll need a very oaky Chardonnay, a Sauvignon Blanc or a dry sparkling wine to avoid this (experiment ahead of your dinner party to find the perfect match.) Try Chateau St. Michelle Cold Creek Vineyard’s Chardonnay 2007 with this difficult food and see if this pairing works for you.
Asparagus: Asparagus can be very difficult to pair with wine due to this food’s chemical makeup – it can make your wine taste just plain bad. If you can, modify the asparagus dish itself by using a heavy sauce (Hollandaise or something very creamy). I have also read that grilling the asparagus can help with this problem. An unoaked Chardonnay, a Champagne or Prosecco are good choices for wines to serve with this difficult food. See if Bele Casel Prosecco NV does the trick for you.
Artichokes: Artichokes are notoriously difficult to pair with wine as they can make a wine taste overly sweet. Again, the best way to remedy this is by altering the dish – use fewer artichokes, use more butter and oil to lessen the strength of the artichoke flavor, or try a little lemon juice. Your best wine choices for a strong artichoke dish are either Champagne or Chardonnay, choosing varieties of both that are on the drier side. Champagne Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut is one to try to pair with this difficult food.
Egg Dishes: If eggs are a strong element in your dish, you may find that the egg flavor will cut down on the acidity of the wine, making your wine taste a little, well, wimpy. Adding bacon, mushrooms and ham can help some red wines work with an egg dish. Otherwise try a white for this difficult food, choosing a high acidity wine such as a Riesling or Gewürztraminer. You’ll need to experiment with egg dishes and wines to find something that works for you. Egg texture matters, too; a dish of runny scrambled eggs will cause more problems with the taste of your wine than a firm egg recipe. Try Radog Riesling 2005 with your eggs and see how it tastes.
Source List:
Personal experience
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2009/04/asparagus-and-w.html
The Wine Tasting Class, by Judy Ridgway
http://www.matchingfoodandwine.com/articles/20080506
