• White wine, red meat? While checking out a "little" Chablis in our Burgundy series, we test the conventional food-pairing wisdom. • Jean-Marc Brocard 2005 Domaine Sainte Claire Petit Chablis ($22.99) A pleasant balance of appetizing baking apples and yeasty rising bread dough makes for an attractive Chardonnay, but my local price was no bargain. • Terroirs of Burgundy with Robin Garr Sample the glory of Burgundy in a tour designed for value-seeking wine lovers. • Administrivia Change E-mail address, frequency, format or unsubscribe.• Terroirs of Burgundy with Robin Garr Last call coming up! If you've been putting off a decision, you're running out of time to join us on this memorable July tour of a great wine and food region. "Red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat" may be one of the most widely recognized rules of thumb in wine-and-food matching. But we find all sorts of delicious exceptions to the white-meat rule, including such glorious combinations as Pinot Noir with wild salmon or a mature Bordeaux with roast chicken.

How about breaking the rules in the other direction, though? For me, at least, "white wine with red meat" isn't intuitively appealing. Naturally, ever the skeptic, I couldn't resist giving it a try. With a couple of nice grass-fed filet mignons in hand and a 2005 Petit Chablis from Jean-Marc Brocard up for tasting, the stage was set. best red wine hair dyeI pan-seared the steaks in olive oil and garlic to a perfect medium-rare ... chilled the white wine just to cellar temperature and uncorked, er, unscrewed the cap ... and ... meh!dry white wine australia In fairness, the combination wasn't awful. cheap wine blue nunThe beefy, earthy character of the grass-fed steak didn't actually war with the appley, tart wine. best wine for turkey 2016

But the flavors didn't really create a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts synergy as the best food-and-wine pairings do. The wine washed down the steak, but you could do that with iced tea or a Coke. There was nothing wrong with the wine: I re-capped the bottle and stuck it in the fridge to finish another day. best wines 2014 christmasWe finished the steak with a splendid California Syrah (Domaine de la Terre Rouge 2003 "Ascent" from the Sierra Foothills) that worked with the beef as a fine red wine should. best red italian wine 2015Its dark fruit and nuances of earth, "grilled meat," firm tannins and chocolatey oak played a natural counterpoint to the flavor and texture of the steaks.best white wine for dinner party Red wine and red meat: Makes sense to me.best port wine recipe

Petite Chablis, by the way, literally translated as "little Chablis," as the name implies is a sort of little brother to classic Chablis. Located in a sub-region of Chablis that lacks the vineyard exposure and the chalky soil of the main region, Petit Chablis produces decent, pleasant white wines without the longevity or the cachet of the real thing. best red wine amazonBrocard's "Domaine Sainte Claire" offering is a fine dry white in the 2005 vintage, with plenty of good, appley Chardonnay fruit and well-balanced acidity, but I don't find the complexity or the minerality that makes Chablis special. It's competitive in the lower teens but outrageous at the (perhaps mis-marked) $20-plus toll that I paid locally. Jean-Marc Brocard 2005 Domaine Sainte Claire Petit Chablis ($22.99)Aromas focus on baking apples and rising bread dough, standard-issue Chardonnay without obvious oak. Clean, appley fruit adds a touch of lemon on the palate;

good body and crisp acidity. Nicely structured if a bit on the simple side - you won't find much of the region's fabled minerality in the Petit Chablis bottlings - but it's appropriately young and fresh. U.S. importer: Martine's Wines Inc., Novato, Calif. (May 17, 2007) FOOD MATCH: Its pleasant if rather neutral Chardonnay style makes it versatile enough to wash down just about any fare, even - as in our experiment - red meat such as steak. It's really best suited, though, for freshwater fish, poultry or even lighter-style pork dishes. VALUE: Unreasonable at this local price, but shop with care, as this item shows up at an unusual range of U.S. prices from $12 to $23. WHEN TO DRINK: Petit Chablis isn't made for aging, but the sturdy modern metal screw cap should hold this nicely balanced wine fresh for a couple of years. The 2006 vintage has already been released in France. Petit Chablis = "Puh-tee Shah-blee" Jean-Marc Brocard's Website is published in both French and English.

Choose the tricolor or the Union Jack at FIND THIS WINE ONLINE: Talk About Wine Online To read and comment on today's column in our non-commercial WineLovers Discussion Group, click: Today's article is cross-posted in our Netscape WineLovers Community, where we also welcome comments and questions.I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit. PRINT OUT TODAY'S ARTICLE Here's a simply formatted copy of today's Wine Advisor, designed to be printed out for your scrapbook or file or downloaded to your PDA or other wireless device.BASICS: WINE WITH STEAK Leaner = Lighter – As a general rule, the leaner the red meat you are matching, the lighter the red wine you can use. A rich cut, such as prime rib, will pair nicely with a bold and high tannin red wine such as Petite Sirah or Cabernet Sauvignon. BASICS: WINE WITH LAMB Smooth Tannin – Because of lamb’s delicate texture and flavor, choose a bolder red wine with smoother tannin such as Syrah or Malbec.

Learn about pairing wine with… When pairing wines with leaner cuts, look for light or medium-bodied red wines. These wines should have slightly higher acidity that will cut through the texture of the lean meat. A general rule to follow is to match the intensity of the dish with the wine; so if it’s top sirloin beef stew, a slightly bolder, medium red such as Sangiovese will do nicely! Fatty meats work great with bold red wines that have high tannin. The tannin is an astringent which works as a palate cleanser to ’scrape’ the fattiness from the inside of our mouth. This is why bold reds, like Barolo or a Napa Cabernet, work so well with a filet! Lamb is a lot more delicate in flavor than most beef, so generally you can select lighter, more delicately flavored wines. Lamb also really takes on the flavor of the sauce, so consider the sauce when pairing. Opt for more medium-bodied wines or bold reds with smoother tannin. Need a few examples? Malbec, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Touriga Nacional and Petit Verdot will work wonders with lamb.

Veal is one of the few red meats that can match with white and rosé wine. A great example of this is how the classic Viennese dish, wiener schnitzel, goes perfectly with Austrian Grüner Veltliner. Of course, in this scenario, the veal’s delicate flavors are maintained by the preparation method of frying, so take a moment to understand the preparation method and the sauce used when pairing. Just like with lamb, veal also really takes on the flavor of the sauce. Try pairing it with lighter reds such as Pinot Noir, Rosé of Sangiovese, Valpolicella (made with the local Italian Corvina grape) and Zinfandel. Venison is a rich and sometimes gamey red meat. It’s also pretty lean. Look for rustic medium-bodied red wines. When you put the two together, the wines will taste fruitier and the meat will taste less gamey. Check out Côtes du Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Chianti, Valpolicella, and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. The sauce is such an important aspect of wine pairing that you can get away with pairing an even wider variety of wines with red meat.

For instance, a great match with sweet and tangy Asian dishes like Korean BBQ pork ribs would be a slightly sweet Lambrusco, a bold and fruity South Australian Shiraz or a South African Pinotage. EXAMPLES: Sweet Tangy BBQ, Pomegranate and Molasses, Korean Barbecue, Mongolian Beef, Hoisin PAIRINGS: Look for fruity red wines: Lambrusco, Gamay, Australian Shiraz, California Syrah, Zinfandel, Primitivo, Negroamaro (from Puglia, Italy!) EXAMPLES: Mint Sauce, Chimichurri Sauce, Garlic Rosemary PAIRINGS: Look for fruity bold red wines with smoother, more well-integrated tannins such as Argentinian Malbec or Monastrell. If the dish uses a lot of raw garlic and onion, seek out medium reds with higher acidity to cut through the residual allium flavor, such as a Côtes du Rhône or a Carménère. EXAMPLES: Bordelaise, Demi Glace, Poutine Sauce, Red Wine Sauce PAIRINGS: Seek out more earthy, bold red wines including Bordeaux, reds from the Languedoc-Roussillon, and Northern Italian reds such as Barbera and Dolcetto.

EXAMPLES: Espagnole Sauce, Marinara Sauce PAIRINGS: Find medium-bodied red wines with ample acidity to match the acidity in the tomatoes: Sangiovese, Merlot, Carménère, Cabernet Franc, Tempranillo and Bardolino. EXAMPLES: Yoghurt Sauce, Blue Cheese Sauce, Béarnaise, Bechamel, Stroganoff, Peppercorn Sauce PAIRINGS: Cream sauces offer a wide variety of pairing options: With a yoghurt sauce look for Grenache or even a Rosé wine. With a peppercorn sauce, match with wines with peppery notes such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz. With stroganoff opt for an earthy French Syrah. With lasagna topped with Bechamel, seek out a medium-bodied red like Valpolicella Ripasso. With Béarnaise, look for a bold red with more acidity, such as Bordeaux, Chilean Cabernet or Lagrein from Italy. Lighter red wines pair with leaner cuts and red meats that are served closer to the raw form. The magic of these pairings is the acidity of the light red cutting through the delicate texture of a rare steak.