AnuvaBlog

For those of you who feel overwhelmed in making choices about wine at restaurants or at wine shops and supermarkets that have inordinately large selections, this blog is for you. Any restaurant with an enormous wine list (say 1000 labels or more) should have a sommelier on hand to guide your decision. Remember, a sommelier ultimately wants to sell you wine but also should ask some basic questions to help guide his recommendation.

First, the sommelier will probably ask what you are eating, or what type of event the wine is for (solo consumption, a dinner, a series of hors d’oeuvres, etc.). This will help to characterize the pairing. Usually sommeliers will go with traditional pairings: stronger wines with stronger foods, like-like combinations.

Second, the sommelier will likely ask how much money you had in mind to spend. The tendency here will be to push the price higher as most sommelier work on commission.

Third, they may ask if you have any specific preferences as to the qualities of the wine. Full-bodied, a specific varietal, etc.

Then they should make 3-4 recommendations and let you choose. Very rarely will they actually choose for you as this minimizes their risk. I find they tend to be much like lawyers in this way. Giving several options but not actually exercising their opinion on you.

And in a sense this is good because each sommelier also will have his or her own personal preferences. Some hate entire regions or varietals of wine. In a recent Food and Wine article, I read about several sommeliers who used very nasty language to describe Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and other respective varietals and one who condemned the entire Alsace region’s white wines. Thus, it is  important to know the expert or critic who is giving wine advise.  I even met a sommelier once who said he actually hates ALL wine except for muscat.

Why the heck is this guy a sommelier?

We cracked open a bottle of the Mudai Pinot Noir, just to spite all of my home grown Oregon Pinot lovers. Earthy and red fruit rich, the Mudai is quite a treat. What really impressed me though, was the pairing of the Mudai with last night’s dinner. I cooked shrimp in a red onion with butter sauce as an appetizer which we ate with a lemon and garlic butter. We then followed this with a grilled salmon filet, which I did in olive oil with lemon and lime juice, and red onion as well. Washing down the seafood with the pinot was just delightful. Not too strong but not too soft either. A nice balance of body, fruit and acidity.

We chatted about it during dinner because the quality of the combination was so apparent. We didn’t notice only the wine, nor did we notice only the food, a great balance had been found. We decided that the Anecon Torrontés would also go well with the meal we made, the other parts of which were a mixed green salad and red potatoes. We thought about how a malbec or syrah would do with this meal and agreed that it would just be too much. Those wines, for me at least, would just overpower the natural flavors of the seafood.

That said, I still encourage you to find what works for you. A seafood pasta with a cream base may stand up better to fuller wines and conversely, a seafood salad may not go too nicely with a Pinot Noir requiring a lighter white. But this is what makes it fun, the searching and sampling…. Que disfruten!