#ENQUIRING OR INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW FREE#
Nick’s credo: continuous experimenting results in instinctive behavior.Get a writing assignment done or a free consulting with He also offers personalized wine tastings and wine travel services. Nick is a member and program director of the Wine Media Guild of wine journalists. Nick Antonaccio is a 45-year Pleasantville resident. For over 25 years, he has conducted wine tastings and lectures. Raise your glasses to the versatility and adaptability of the other white wine. Lobster rolls (with French fries)? Yes, Yes, Yes! It won’t pair well with a porterhouse steak but enjoy it with pork tenderloins in a white wine/garlic sauce. It won’t pair well with a rich fettuccine with wild boar sauce, but it will gracefully enhance the simple yet exotic flavors of spaghetti carbonara. But for my palate, it comes the closest of all wines. Is sparkling wine the answer to all of our pairing conundrums? No. It can cut through the saturated fat of a classic French cream sauce that coats your tongue and dulls your taste buds, thus revitalizing your palate with each sip. It can restore your taste buds when inflamed by a Sichuan-inspired fiery shrimp dish. Why? It’s the effervescence of sparkling wine. When confounded by the overwhelming number of choices of wines when planning a dinner menu, consider sparkling wine.
When attempting to pair multiple dishes to a single wine from a restaurant list, consider sparkling wine. When confronted with a difficult pairing decision, consider sparkling wine. They pair as well with chicken piccata as they do with oysters, as well with hot dogs as they do with foie gras.Įvery refrigerator should be stocked with at least one bottle (magnum?) of this palate-pleaser. Sparkling wines, in my opinion, are the most versatile of wines. Underappreciated and vastly misunderstood, they have been pigeonholed as special occasion wines for decades, even centuries. In my mind, sparkling wines are the stepchild of wines. Having reached this ah-ha moment, I began to mull over the misconceptions among consumers concerning sparkling wines. It does not include other “carbonated” wines, such as Prosecco, that are produced en masse, without the finesse of the Méthode Champenois wines. My reference to sparkling wines are those made in the classic French Champagne method, known as the Méthode Champenois. Why not enjoy it as a multipurpose wine whose acidity and effervescence pairs so well with light dishes, seafood and other traditional summer recipes?Įven better, why not enjoy it as a Vin de Soif – held in hand on the backyard deck, on the beach at sunset or at any other venue calling for a bright, crisp wine with the right balance of fruit and acidity that titillates your sensory membranes with each sip and never dulls the flavor receptors in your mouth?
Always a favorite of mine, it has been relegated by many as an accompaniment to spicy Asian foods. In seeking out a new favorite summer wine that complemented the most summer dishes, I needed a wine that would perk up my palate with each bite of food but would be equally suitable as a Vin de Soif – the French term for a stand-alone thirst-quencher.Īnd then it struck me: sparkling wine. What’s a fellow to do? Abstinence was out of the question. Beaujolais, slightly chilled, comes close to an all-purpose summer wine, but falls short on complexity and body. Grüner Veltliner’s minerality and crispness is refreshing, but it doesn’t pair well with a number of summer dishes. Yes, Rosé is an easy go-to wine for many summer dishes, but it coexists with, rather than defines, most dishes. My palate had been getting fatigued with most of my go-to summer wines: ubiquitous Rosés from just about every major wine region, Spain’s Albariño and Austria’s Grüner Veltliner for whites, and France’s Beaujolais and Côte du Rhônes for reds.Īs enamored as I am with each of these refreshing summer wines, they were becoming a bit too predictable, especially when paired with the foods of summer. I’ve been enjoying my “new favorite” summer wine that I’ve recently rediscovered. It’s been a quirky summer so far, for whatever reason, – and there’s no relief – or consistency – in sight.
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