What Wine Goes With Aspargus?

Food and wine go together like caramel and apples. Well maybe not exactly, but can you sense where I am going? Wine truly can enhance what you are eating and vice versa.

Many years ago I would have been in the majority of unbelievers of that theory, except for the fateful night when the light bulb went off in my taste buds. My husband and I were visiting a wine bar during a trip to Florida. We had ordered our favorite dinner – cheese, bread and fruit along with a bottle of cabernet.  Having just conquered the ability to drink cabernet, we decided to do a little test with the food and wine theory. Starting with the wine, I took a sip, then a bite of some fine Spanish Manchego cheese, it did taste very good with the wine, a different taste then when we drank the wine on its own. Wanting to make the experiment complete, we switched the order and started with the cheese and then took a sip of the wine. Holy cheese batman, it was such a different taste and very intense we spent the rest of the dinner sipping and tasting with all the cheeses and another bottle of Italian red wine.

My theory is that wine with food hits all those little buds on your tongue and produces what can be an explosion of flavor in your mouth, both good and bad. That being said everyone has their favorite wine and if you crave a Cabernet with walleye or Riesling with steak, go for it! But here are some of my favorite autumn food and wine pairings in case you want to try something a little different.

Butternut Squash Soup – This is my favorite cold and rainy fall day supper and the wine I like to pair with it is a French Viognier. Viognier (vee-oh-Nay) is a dry white wine with wonderful smells of apricots, peaches and pears. It goes very well with the sweetness of the squash in the soup along with the added spices. I like the French version, but there are great Viogniers also from California.

Pork Roast with Apple/Berry Chutney – A magazine I once read recommended California Pinot Noir ( PEE-noh NWAHR), now I usually don’t take the recommendations and try to find my own, but this was a winner. I love Pinot Noir and the wines from California tend to be bright and fruity which work well with the white meat of the pork and the chutney.

Caramel Apple Pie - The go to wine for me is a sweet Riesling (REEZ-ling) from Germany or Washington, if you can find it and want to spend a little more a Beerenauslese (BAY-ruhn-OWS-lay-zuh), a sweeter Riesling, would be great. Because not all my relatives and friends like sweet white wine, I may even throw in a tawny port from Australia to appease them. This also works well when you have a craving for a caramel apple with pecans stuck to it, believe me I have done this.

Now that all of you know what I am having for dinner tonight, I hope you have realized that the best wine to go with what you are eating is one that you love! Try the recommended ones like I do once in awhile, but trust your own palate and experiment with the unexpected!

Here is a wine quote that I try to remember:

"Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures."   —Michael Broadbent

Cheers!