Wine and Food Pairing Question
Wine & Foodie Lovers: A question on food and wine pairing. I whole heartily subscribe to the saying and use it with most stories about food and wine pairing is – “Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost. United and well matched, they are as body and soul: living partners” by Andre Simon.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Last week a new recipe was tried called Spinach Tomato Gorgonzola Stuffed Chicken. The result was delicious; however, the ingredients went with contrasting wines. Here are the ingredients: baby spinach, sundried tomatoes in oil, gorgonzola cheese, chopped shallot, bacon, minced garlic, fresh basil, panko, fresh oregano, kosher salt and olive oil. Each chicken breast was filleted and stuffed with the filling. The stuffed chicken breasts were first seared in a cast iron skillet and then baked. Accompanying the meal was rice and a fresh garden salad with bacon, halved cherry tomatoes and slices of purple onion.
Here is the issue on wine pairing with competing flavor profiles.
- Fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic pair well with herbal notes of Cabernet Franc.
- Gorgonzola pairs well with a sweet Late Harvest Riesling or Sauterne to complement the salty, creamy notes of the dish.
- Spinach pairs best with crisp, high-acid white wines that complement its earthy, mineral-rich and sometimes slightly bitter profile like Sauvignon Blanc Grüner Veltliner, or Vermentino which highlight green fresh flavors.
- Baked chicken pairs best with versatile wines that balance savory, delicate meat of the chicken like Chardonnay or a light-bodied Pinot Noir.
So, what wine from above list or other varieties, would you choose to complete and the meal?
Sláinte,
Michael Kelly