Table and Vines

What to pair with? Try big fruity wines when serving grilled meats that feature a sweet sauce. Zinfandel is the lovely option with its showy fruit characteristics, medium tannins and medium to high acidity. Notes of spice, smoke and tobacco compliment the grilled flavors and compliment the meat.

Try one of the rosés we have featured this week!

Pair with… cerveza of course! A light, crisp refreshing lager is a great pick. For a wine paring you need to consider the spice level of the dish and the cheese. I would go with something that has high acid but also some body. Avoid oaky wines or high tannins as they will mask the flavor of the food and have a tendency to add bitter notes. An unoaked Chardonnay or White Bordeaux for whites and a Beaujolais or Valpolicella for reds would be my choice.

If you want to go old-school, red-checkerboard tablecloth style of restaurant head directly to a simple Chianti. Other choices would include a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or Nero d’Avola. All of these delightful wines will provide mouthwatering cherry and berry fruit flavors with a medium body and clean finish.

Pinot Gris (Grigio) and Albariño both typically have this profile. There is also Godello from Spain that would be a perfect pairing. If you can’t find these, a Sauvignon Blanc, especially from the Northwest US, is a great choice.

There are lots of warming spices in this dish, so pick a light, fresh fruit-forward white wine. Look for wines that show peach, apricot or melon notes to round out the dried apricot and compliment the spices. Pinot Gris (Grigio) and Albariño both typically have this profile. There is also Godello from Spain that would be a perfect pairing. If you can’t find these, a Sauvignon Blanc, especially from the Northwest US, is a great choice.

A smokey full-bodied white wine is a good choice for this recipe to compliment both the spice and the fatty sausage. Look for your favorite California Chardonnay or White Burgundy to serve with this recipe.

For this dish, I want a big bold red. Look for a Zinfandel or Grenache to compliment the beef as well as the spices. Both of these wines are great for BBQ as well!

I am a sucker for Sauvignon Blanc in the spring. Its citrusy zing wakes up the palate and pairs with just about any dish best suited for white wines. Sauvignon Blanc is grown all over the world and each area expresses different characteristics of the grape from grapefruit to melon to fresh cut grass. All will have a signature acidity and almost all will be unoaked.

Salmon is a meaty, fatty fish so there are many wines to pair with it. I tend to prefer full-bodied white wines such as Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc or Pinot Blanc. In red wines, I would look for light-bodied Pinot Noir or Beaujolais. Think about what other foods and flavors you are serving with the salmon and let that be your guide.

The part of this recipe that needs to be considered when picking a wine will be the spice. Usually full-bodied, high-acid white wines are paired with spicy dishes (think Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Blanc). However this dish would also shine with reds that have prominent fruit characters and even some oak influence. Did you know that there are Mexican wines as well? Ask about them at the shop!