Your Holiday Wine Pairing Ideas should start with the menu!
Once you have established the menu it will help to narrow down the list of wines. First consider the progression of courses along with the progression of flavors. The order of serving wines with courses should be light bodied wines before full bodied wines. A dry wine prior to a sweet wine. Low alcohol prior to high alcohol wine. A youthful wine prior to an older wine and the simple prior to a complex wine.
At the average holiday table we plan for four food courses. First Course would be your starter or appetizers. Second Course would be a soup or salad. Third Course would be your main and side dishes. Course Four would be the dessert.
Starters or Appetizers – Course One
A festive way to start any holiday celebration is with Champagne or Sparkling wines. We like to serve our starters with a Blanc de Blanc Champagne or crisp Sparkling wine.
We are also fans of serving a light zesty Sauvignon Blanc or French Chablis. Both choices are light on the palate and allow you to build on the body of the wines served with your next courses.
For the red wine lovers in any family, a crisp French Rose’ is always a winning selection.
Soup and/or Salad – Course Two
When it comes to soups and salads you want to think about the level of spice in each dish. With a spicy soup pair a high acid aromatic Riesling. This is a great choice to cut the spiciness in the soup. With a milder or creamy soup a nice choice for wine would be a French White Burgundy or Chablis. Both of these wines are made from the Chardonnay grape.
If the decision is to serve salad the dressing is a key component to what wines should be served. When serving a vinaigrette you will want to select a light, high-acid white wine. so a Sparking wine or Champagne pairs well. You might select a Champagne Vinaigrette for a lovely match of flavors. We have several vinaigrette’s on this site. Click here for the link to the Champagne Vinaigrette recipe on our site.
Entree and Side Dishes – Course Three
This is where your wine selection can get tricky. We all have family traditions that we love to continue from holiday to holiday. Some families serve poultry, some love a standing rib roast, others prefer a seafood dish. Let’s give you a few ideas to help you navigate these waters.
When serving poultry as the entree, like turkey, goose or other poultry dishes, two wonderful wine selections would be a medium-bodied buttery Chardonnay. This can be served along with a light to medium-bodied Oregon Pinot Noir. Both wines will display an aromatic range of flavors with delicate floral notes that make a beautiful pairing.
If you decide on Prime Rib or Filet Mignon your selection of wine should steer you to the big full-bodied red wines. A Cabernet Sauvignon, a full-bodied Zinfandel or an Italian Sangiovese would all be excellent wines to pair with these dishes.
With the choice of a seafood dish your wine selection can vary. Here are a few great choices for the different fish dishes you might select. If you decide on oysters, a great option is Champagne or Sparkling wines. With crab or shellfish, a nice buttery Chardonnay goes well. You can also look at a crisp Pinot Gris with cold shellfish or a refreshing Riesling with warm shellfish.
With a pasta seafood dish, a crisp white wine makes a great pairing, and a Pinot Gris, Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc are all excellent pairings.
With a more meaty or dense fish, like salmon or halibut, you can introduce light and lovely Rose’ or light to medium bodied Pinot Noir. These dishes also pair well with a light crisp Chardonnay or Pinot Gris.
Dessert and After Dinner drinks – Course Four
So here is where the fun begins and your imagination can take off.
The dessert course can be formal or light and include after dinner wines or liqueurs. Here are a few ideas for you to consider:
- Port Wines are a wonderful dessert companion. Either Ruby or Tawny Port can accompany many dessert selections.
- If you are serving a heavy cake or tort look into the late harvest dessert wines at your local markets. They make a wonderful companion.
- Sherry Wines such as a Fino or an Oloroso make a wonderful dessert course. Fino can also accompany meat and wild game. Oloroso pairs well with shellfish.
- Different liqueurs can accompany many kinds of desserts and make a sweet addition to an after dinner coffee. In the past, we have provided a liqueur bar, so everyone can make their own choice.
Once you have your menu in place, and the Holiday Wine Pairing Ideas complete, it will have you singing along with the best Holiday Carolers.
Enjoy a very festive Holiday Season!
A very special thank you to our dear friend Kathy A. for sharing her wine country Christmas photos for this post.
]]>There are some simple truths of pairing food and wine. Below we will give you some guidelines for your next get-together or dinner party
In today’s kitchen, long gone is the old myth of red wine pairing with red meat and white wines pairing just with fish and poultry!
Luckily, we now make decisions on choosing a wine to pair with food based on whether we want to complement or contrast the dishes or snacks we are serving
Five simple things to consider when pairing food and wine:
- Try to match the regionality of the food and wine by pairing the county of origin of both
- Consider the occasion and/or the weather. For example, is it summer or winter?
- Wine can be served at least as sweet as the food it is served alongside
- You can beat the heat in food with some sweetness in the wine you choose
- Food that is smoked always goes well with an oaky wine
Remember:
The most important thing is to drink what you like!
The simple truth about wine:
A simple truth about wine is that the flavor of the wine will change when served with food. The wine’s flavor and characteristics, when tasted on its own, will not be the same as when it is tasted with food.
We differentiate with four sensory tastes:
- sweet
- salty
- sour (acidity)
- bitter
The Impact of Food on Wine:
If you apply some simple basics of food and wine pairing it will help you start down the road to great new adventures. These adventures can lead to exploring wines from different regions and countries. Begin to try pairing wine with foods from the same regions and the related season.
We hope this will help to open your mind to discovering new wines, regions, and their countries of origin.
Continue to follow us and look for additional information to learn more about the amazing art of pairing food and wine.
Some of our favorite snacks and appetizers to pair with wine:
]]>With fellow Pinot Noir lovers assembled we headed up the Santa Cruz Mountains to Regale Winery. Walking into the grounds of Regale is an experience unto itself because it is built to resemble an Italian old world villa. The landscape alone takes your breath away. The garden patio offers colorful flowers, water fountains, beautiful arbors, olive trees, and an outside fireplace. They just added a bocce ball court and cornhole game to enhance your wine tasting experience!
Pinot Noir and Pizza are the perfect pair
On National Pinot Noir Day the owners of Sleight of Hand Pizza were firing up the pizza oven and offering a variety of yummy delights. We got to pick our favorite pizza and once we made our selection the fun began! Today we selected the Lemon Pepperoni pizza, which included pepperoni, preserved lemons, mozzarella, goat cheese, basil, and tomato sauce. It was out of this world!
Look for Sleight of Hand Pizza at Regale Winery on the 1st or 3rd Sunday’s of each month or in the San Jose Bay Area. Better yet follow them on Instagram @sleightofhandpizza or hire them for your party.
Regale Winery offers a variety of fine wines, but today called for Pinot Noir with our pizza. We decided to sample the 2014 Estate Pinot, 2014 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir and the 2014 Carneros Pinot Noir, all of which paired perfectly with our pizza.
Regale Pinot Noirs
2014 Carneros Pinot Noir is a well-balanced wine with aromas of dark cherry and plum. On the palate, you will find layers of raspberry and baking spices. This wine pairs well with food!
2014 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is soft like velvet on the palate, with flavors of raspberry and blackberry. On the nose, it delivers the aroma of berries and cocoa toffee. It is well balanced and fruity.
2014 Estate Pinot was our favorite of the day. On the nose, it presents dark red fruit with hints of sweet tobacco and cocoa. This Pinot has a silky smooth finish. A truly wonderful food pairing wine.
Regale is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays. Next time you are traveling between San Jose and Santa Cruz go visit them! https://www.regalewine.com/
]]>