Food & Wine Pairing

Food & Wine Pairing Tool

Best Wine to Pair with Roasted Chicken

We recently asked our panel of wine experts to recommend a wine to pair with roasted chicken. While a variety of recommendations came forth, the clear winner of the day was New Zealand's Spy Valley Pinot Noir as two of our experts independently suggested this gem of a wine.

I would recommend a Pinot Noir. Pinot is a great match for fowl. The roasted qualities of this preparation call for one that is perhaps a bit smoky or has some toasty oak notes (within reason). I am going to recommend a Spy Valley Pinot Noir from New Zealand.

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Wines to Go Buy This Week: Three Wines to Serve on Valentine's Day

by Brad Prescott

Valentine's Day is right around the corner which means lovers across the globe will be seeking out the right wine to romance their dates with for the evening. With this in mind, I bring you the IntoWine guide to Valentine's Day wine:

First let's handle the issue of chocolate. Despite popular opinion, wine and chocolate are actually quite difficult to pair as either the sweetness of the chocolate overwhelms the wine or, in the case of sweet wines like Port or dessert wine, the sweetness of the wine overwhelms the chocolate. So what do you serve? I find champagne to be the ideal wine pairing for chocolate as it offers a distinct contrast to the sweet chocolate in both taste and texture. Plus the bubbles can only serve to enhance your Valentine's Day mood. My recommendation: Try the Taittinger "La Francaise" Brut Champagne. An authentic, quality champagne but, at approx $35, not so expensive you'll break the bank either.

So what if you aren't seeking a wine to pair with chocolate and instead just want the right wine to sip by the fire while you romance your date? I have two suggestions for you:

Valentines Day Food & Wine Pairings to Impress Your Date

by Dave Beaulieu

Knowing how to cook pays off well throughout the year, but biggest win may come on Valentines day. First you get to avoid, expensive, overcrowded restaurants that frankly “dumb down” the food for the night, and second (and perhaps more important) you get the chance “to be excellent” in front of women. Of course the recipes and wines below can just as easily and expertly be prepared by the female cooks out there, but let’s face, it’s the guys that really need to step up on Valentines day. These are a few of my favorites as the food and wines are great, they are easy to prepare, and they are sure to impress. Hope you enjoy them!

Wines to Go Buy This Week: "Comfort Wines" - A Zinfandel by Glenn Hawk and Tulip Hill's Cabepulciano (yeah you read that right)

by Brad Prescott

I live in San Francisco and January weather here means 50 degrees and rain. Constant bone-chilling rain, or so it seems. And before the rest of America emails to remind me how good I have it and how freaking cold it is in New York or Ohio or whatever other frozen tundra they call home, I'm just gonna say that when you are cold, you are cold, and comfort food -and comfort wine- goes a long way towards warming your heart when Old Man Winter starts to have his way with you. So with this in mind, I bring you two comfort wines you should go buy this week.

Glenn Hawk Zinfandel - I typically don't gravitate to Zinfandel. I associate Zins with "cocktail wines", that is, wines that are delicious for a few sips of a single glass but can be a bit too fruity and overwhelming for those of us who tend towards enjoying multiple glasses. So I don't recommend many Zinfandels simply because I don't drink many of them. Every once in a while I stumble back down the Zinfandel path and am reminded of how good the varietal can be. I recently tried the 2009 Glenn Hawk Zinfandel from Livermore Valley (just south of Napa in the shadow of Mt. Diablo).

Wine Trends for 2012

by Loren Sonkin

Wine lovers are always asking the question, what should I be looking for now? What is that latest/greatest trend(s) in wine going to be? As we enter 2012, it seems appropriate to make a guess at what those trends will be and more importantly, what wines we should be looking for in this New Year?

Here is my Top Ten List:

10. Malbec will continue to be hot.

While the world will rediscover that France does indeed make some very good Malbecs (see Cahors), Argentina will continue to lead the way in the number of offerings and value. If price is no issue, try the upper end wines of Archaval Ferrer. For value, look for the entry level wines of Susana Balbo, Archaval Ferrer or Altos, although there are many other very good wines.

9. Malbec quality will be variable.

Unfortunately, a lot of producers, importers and distributors will want to cash in on the Malbec craze. Don’t assume that every Argentinean Malbec is created equal. As always happens with the “hot” grape varietals, Malbec will get over planted in poor vineyard sites. Others will allow the vineyards to produce at prolific rates diluting the quality of the wines. This will be especially true in Argentina, so beware. Try before you buy if possible by going to store tastings.

Food & Wine Pairing