I love having a captive audience! Most nights at Jar, when pairing a bottle of wine to food, I find myself coming to a common ground on the wine that will not insult anyone's dish. Most often, with a fish on the table, I'm working with lower tannin wines that may or may not still have some body to them. Or substituting acidity for tannin.
Next Saturday, we have a charity buyout that affords me the opportunity to truly dig in and pair some wines to specific dishes. Everyone will be enjoying the same thing. When does THAT ever happen? These are the moments when I get to stretch out my legs and hope that I haven't turned into the Tin Man. So, let's shake off the cobwebs and turn it out!
One of my favorite reference books is called "What to Drink with What You Eat" by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. They basically talked to a bunch of Sommeliers and wine professionals and organized this amazing catalog of foods and wines that you can cross-reference to see what works together. And it's coming from a collection of people who are REALLY in the biz.
The cross-referencing is the best part with this book. Having pot roast? Look under pot roast and see a list of wines that are recommended. Better pairings are in bold. Mind-bending pairings are in bold and capital letters. OR - want to drink an Aglianico tonight? What should you eat with that? Look up Aglianico and find a list of dishes to pair with it. Awesome!
The weakest spot for me in this book is the cheese section. There are a lot of great cheeses listed, but it's particularly weak in the American selections. Granted, one really needs a whole book to be thorough on cheese and wine pairing, so I don't hold it against them too much.
I highly recommend having this resource close by. Sometimes, it will spark an idea that I never thought of and spawn some amazing pairings.
I'll tell you more about the menu and the wines after we hold the event. Wish me luck!
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