Valentine's Day is fast- approaching and, for many of us with significant others, that may mean that it's time for roses and chocolates. Why not strike it up a notch and bring in a bottle of good wine to complete the romantic evening? Chocolate and wine being notoriously difficult to pair up, lovebirds may want to simply take the alcoholic option.
In an attempt to stage a wine-food matching event, I called Daily editor Valerie Chung and a group of friends together for an evening of feasting and imbibing. Now, both Val and I have been weaned on wine since we were children, so I'd like to think that we can tell a good from a bad wine, a fruity wine from a dry wine, a rich wine from a light wine, and so on. However, we don't want to even attempt the title of sommeliers, nor do we pretend that we know what we're doing when it comes to matching wines with food.
Nonetheless, with the interests of Tufts students in mind (of course), we bravely volunteered our tongues, livers and stomachs, and gallantly experimented with lots of wines and good food. Armed with a rudimentary wine and food guide from the Internet, we headed over to Argana, a Moroccan restaurant in Inman Square.
We started off with a bottle of Santa Julia chardonnay to go with our appetizers of mazza (pita with mechoula, hummus and maaqooda) and Moroccan Cigars (baked filo roll-ups filled with chick pea pur?©e, seafood and feta cheese). This Argentinean wine turned out to be very young - surprisingly young. In fact, I believe it's the first time I've drank a 2004 bottle.
Try as we might, our untrained palettes were completely at a loss when it came to discerning any of the wines' "aromas of apple and pear" or "flavors of citrus and peaches." Despite these problems, however, the Santa Julia was smooth and good-and gained the approval even of the non-wine drinker in our party. Despite its age, this sweet wine complemented the strong Mediterranean flavors of our appetizers very well.
For the main course, Val ordered a glass of zinfandel (Santa Barbra, 2003) to go with her rack of lamb. Jammy Argentinean reds such as this zinfandel, or perhaps a shiraz or merlot, are ideal complements for lamb. The fruity and tangy flavor of the Santa Barbara went well with the distinct lamb flavor.
To go with my seared ahi tuna, the bartender suggested the Italian pinot grigio (Villa Carra, 2003). As someone who prefers heavy, dry red wines, I was a bit put off at first by the white pinot grigio's extremely light taste and body. However, its clean, fresh qualities turned out to be a good accompaniment to the light and delicate seared ahi. Anything heavier would have drowned out the fish completely.
As for the rest of the table, we ordered a tempranillo from Argentina (Dollium, 2003) that the manager guaranteed was as close to a Moroccan wine as one can get...short of an actual Moroccan wine. Your two Lushes would love to tell you just how well it went with the food, but we had, to say the least, had enough.
While lovely, our trip was not cheap. Running at about fifty bucks per person, it was most certainly a treat reserved for special occasions. We should hope that Valentine's Day counts as a special occasion.
There are some general principles that everyone who intends to drink wine at a meal should know (most of which are just common sense):
1. Red meat with red wine, white meat with white wine. As a general principle, this old mantra works quite well. Red wines tend to be more powerful and will drown out an order of fish. On the other hand, a rack of lamb will overwhelm a lighter white wine.
2. Spicy food with either spicy or very fruity wines. In my opinion, it's probably not the best idea to have wine with spicy foods. If you're stubborn (or an alcoholic) and insist on wine anyway, avoid sparkling wines (or any carbonated drinks, for that matter). The bubbles make the chili even more explosive. Instead, you want to go for a spicy or fruity wine (though these are subjective qualifications) that will be zingy enough to match your food.
3. Choose a wine you like. When it comes down to it, you gotta drink what you wanna drink. There are exceptions to the rules above and one can spend a lifetime exploring all the intricacies of food-wine pairing. Drink what you like! No matter what the wine snobs say, why waste your money on a pinot noir to go with your pork tenderloin if you just don't like pinot noirs?
