I don’t like rules. And so, many years ago, while working as liaison and interpreter for a Japanese media group visiting Niagara. I was instantly enthralled by the irreverent wine pairings and mixings of Dr. Thomas Muckle at Thirty Bench Winery. The Japanese journalists were pairing wine and sushi. During that session, Dr. Muckle discovered he had some red wine in one glass, and some white wine in another, so he jocundly poured them together and swirled. The journalists were aghast. They protested. “How could you do that?” I translated. His reply, “It’s my wine. I can do whatever I like with it. And with that, he paired the sushi with his newly concocted rosé.
Wine is not all red and white. Too often we colour code or aroma code our wine pairings. It’s not necessary for wine and food to share the same nuances together in order to pair them. Pairing by flavour often backfires, too. Pairing sweet with sweet could be like brushing your teeth and then drinking orange juice-the sweet character saturates our taste buds, so all we taste of the orange juice is its sour notes. Foods low in salt will emphasize oak and tannins with unpleasant effect, so they need to be balanced with wine lower in oak.
A maple-glazed salmon will tear up a dry wine, unless balanced with mustard and salt. A bland fish will become a more versatile pairing with a touch of salt and a splash of lemon. It’s not about focusing on flavour or making it salty per se—it’s thinking about the right level of salt in the dish to keep the acid-based wine in balance.
Over lunch at Beringer Vineyards in Napa, I was treated to a voluptuous Cabernet Sauvignon that was served for pairing with a tender filet of aka-ushi wagyu beef topped with foie gras. Dayenu! But then, just for fun, I went back to the Private Reserve Chardonnay from the previous course. It was vivacious and refreshing with notes of key lime and pineapple. To my surprise, it too paired seamlessly with the juicy rare steak. The success of both of these seemingly opposing pairings had to do with how the dish itself was balanced. The right salt and acid balance of red meat can enable pairings with a wide variety of wines, including white wine.
Sidling up to the bar at Toronto’s Allen’s on the Danforth, I ordered a thick bone-in ribeye with a side of crunchy ancho chili onion rings. Combining the acidity and robustness of the red meat and the richness and spice from the onions, the vibrant strawberry and cranberry notes of a rosé from Stratus Vineyards hit the target. As renowned Niagara producer, Charles Baker shared with me, “You want to avoid high alcohol and high spice. Those two combat each other. The high alcohol emphasizes the heat.
Think about all the light reds that Italians drink with pasta with red sauces. It’s because the acids of tomatoes are very prominent. The acids in rosé are very prominent too, so it softens out.” On a tour of Niigata, Japan, I paired luscious slices of Murakami wagyu beef with a sweet and aromatic Junmai Daiginjo from Taiyo Sake Brewery.
Saké, unlike wine, doesn’t have the tannins or the same level of acidity, and so it’s a very different paradigm. It is understated and doesn’t fight with food, but rather plays a supporting role and even acts as a palate cleanser between courses. More mature pasteurized sake works well with sashimi, while un-pasteurized, younger sake pairs with bolder flavoured foods. Generally, sushi and sashimi are paired with medium-grade saké.
Stronger flavours require stronger saké; lighter flavours like lighter saké; and of course, higher acid levels pair with more fatty, oily foods. Obata Shuzo Brewery‘s Manotsuru Genshu Junmai Ginjo, unrefined and unpasteurized, has a stronger flavour that pairs with fried meat like pork tonkatsu, and complements fatty seafood and marbled steak. If the beef is grilled, even the full-bodied, intense fruity aroma of Kikusui Brewery‘s coconut-textured Perfect Snow could be ideal.
Wine pairings are like match-making: it’s about chemistry. Like love connections, it’s a question of balance, and the courtship is half the fun. From my time acting in theatre, sometimes the roles that were most engaging were when they were cast against type. They still had to gel with the ensemble and the context of the play, of course, but the results could be astonishing. Applying that same logic to pairing wines with a meal can be as rewarding.
