French Bordeaux and Burgundy are competing for attention and value with more obscure wines from the Languedoc. Varietals like Malbec from Argentina or Shiraz from Australia, once known only to the cognoscenti, are now frequently Buys of the Week at local retailers. This vast selection of wines makes finding just the right wine either for a dish layered with different flavors, like our swordfish pasta, or for a menu comprised of courses with conflicting tastes, like Thanksgiving Dinner, a little easier provided we keep a few basic principles in mind. Consider the weight of the dish . We re not talking about calories here, but rather about the robustness or delicacy of the ingredients and the preparation.
Heavier foods fare better with heavy wines.
For example, roasts, stews, and even chops tend to shine when paired with heavy, full bodied wines like Cabernets and Rhone wines. Simple, light-bodied dishes like chicken breasts, flounder fillets, or sea food do better with lighter whites like Rieslings, Muscadets, or Sauvignon Blancs. Grilled salmon, because of its fatty quality, goes better, in my opinion, with a medium bodied Pinot Noir, and pork chops might do well with a fuller bodied Pinot Blanc or medium bodied Dolcetto D Alba. These wines work well because they cut through the fats and bring out the flavors in the food. Consider the sauce .