Tips on picking the best wine pairing for your next dinner or event Leave a comment
A glass of wine, if you are inclined, is the perfect companion in many instances. It’s a drink before every bite of your favorite meal at a restaurant or during holiday dinners, or the thing that cheers you on while you’re cooking in the kitchen. It’s even the bottle that spurs on long conversations with friends. Picking the best wine to go with these events can be tricky if you’re a beginner, but luckily two local wine experts have tips on making the first sip your best.
Ashley Simeone, Savoy Society’s resident wine guru and bartender, was involved in choosing the wines for the restaurant. Bridget Michalski is the owner at Savannah Wine Cellar, selling wine from all over the world with a unique pouring system that allows customers to taste wines before purchasing.
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Types of Wines
There are a host of different wines to choose from when browsing through a selection of bottles, but there are a few common household varieties. White wines that people are familiar with are riesling, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. For red wines it’s cabernet, merlot and pinot noir.
Each wine has characteristic flavors. Simeone described sauvignon blanc wines as dry, bright and high in acid with lots of citrus flavors such grapefruit or lemon. Cabernets are usually bigger and bolder with dark fruits like berries.
“You can try a pinot noir from the United States, maybe the West Coast, and then try a pinot noir from Burgundy and France and they’re going to be different in certain ways and similar in certain ways,” Simeone explained. “They have a unifying grape that has certain characteristics, but different characteristics come from soil type or climate, or even the winemakers own personal choices of how long they want to age the wine and what type of vessel they want to age the wine in.”
On video
Watch and listen to Bridget Michalski at Savannah Wine Cellar on how to choose the right wine for the right occasion, with this article online at SavannahNow.com/Entertainment/Dining/
For those who don’t usually like the taste of wine or are new to the taste, the different varieties in the world make it possible to find a flavor that you like. For the beer lovers, there’s even a natural sparkling wine (Pét-nat) that’ll satisfy those tastes.
The 4 S’s of wine tasting
Sight, swirl, smell and sip are essentially the four S’s of wine tasting. You can tell a lot about a wine’s body and flavor by looking at its color. Lighter wines have a refreshing and crispy taste while darker wines are higher in viscosity and have a richer, creamier taste.
Swirling wine is a practice that a lot of people might know about, but are unaware of what it actually does. The motion of wine sloshing against the glass helps bring the flavors out and when you look closely, you can see what experts call “legs.”
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“It just tells you the body style and the alcohol content,” Michalski explained. “When they fall really fast and they’re very defined, that usually indicates that there is a higher alcohol content, but also that it’s a fuller bodied-wine.”
While there are different glasses for different wines — red wines are usually in a glass with a wider opening — Simeone said the most important thing is having a stemmed glass.
“I do like a stemmed wine glass that I can swirl and put my nose in because smelling the wine is equally as enjoyable as drinking the wine for me, so it’s more about what can get the aromatics of the wine to your nose.”
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When sipping the wine, finger placement can change how you experience the wine. It’s advised to hold the wine on the stem between your fingertips. If you hold the base of the glass in the palm of your hands, the temperature of your hands can heat the wine affecting the taste and smell.
How to pair wine with food
When pairing wine with food, Michalski’s advice to keep in mind is that lighter, crispier foods pair well with lighter, crispier white wines and heavier food pairs well with red wines.
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“Red wine pairs well with steaks and meats. Light wines pair well with lighter foods like something fried. Dry white wines go really well with oysters and seafood and chicken,” Michalski said.
With foods from different countries like Italian food, it’s best to pair it with Italian wine. Michalski said, “Things that grow together, go together.”
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Picking the right wine for group events
If throwing a party or having a wedding and you’re not sure what wine to choose that works best for meeting different tastes, the advice is to have different varieties of white and red wines that people can find comfort in.
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“Have a dry white, but an approachable dry white like a pinot grigio or a chardonnay, something that most people, even if they’re not super wine savvy, have heard of and it gives them a comfort factor. They’re not too acidic, they’re not too heavy at all; they’re nice and light and easy to drink,” Michalski said. “Then have a red, medium-bodied like a pinot noir or merlot, and then a sweet option like a moscato or riesling.”
How to store wine
White wines are generally stored at cold temperatures at 35 degrees. Red wines are stored at cellar temperatures which are around 55 degrees. But Simeone said for beginners, drinking at the temperature you prefer is most important.
“For instance, with white wines many people like them ice cold, and in certain temperatures when you want something really refreshing, ice cold is great, but flavors are much more pronounced at room temperature in a white wine, so it’s more about knowing what you like,” Simeone said. “I think that’s an important thing about wine.”
What to note on the label
Labels on the bottles of wine can tell a lot about what you’re about to store in your cart. Michalski suggests looking at the grape variety which usually gives you an indication of what the wine will taste like. She also suggests looking at the back label of a wine you like for the importer because most of the time you will like other wines from that same importer.
“Also, finding a wine that’s at the price point that you’re comfortable with, that’s good quality for that price, that’s something I’m really passionate about. I don’t think you should have to spend a lot of money for a really nice bottle of wine,” Michalski said.
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Throughout the process of finding out which wines you lean more toward, the most important thing to remember is to be open to trying new things.
“Be willing to learn. Be willing to try new things and never apologize for what you like.”
Laura Nwogu is the quality of life reporter for Savannah Morning News. Contact her at lnwogu@gannett.com. Twitter: @lauranwogu_
