A marriage of mouthwatering convenience: the premeditated pairing of wine and food

Sensory Pleasures from the Kitchen and Cellar

There is a considerable difference between analyzing wines and consuming wines. Evaluation takes some work, and the satisfaction is similar to problem solving. It comes mostly from how astute we feel our judgments are. Sipping wine for the sheer pleasure of it is less systematic, more sensual, and obviously a lot more fun.

Sampling wine at events organized for wine professionals, where we generally do not swallow, can give me an accurate idea of the character and quality of a wine and of the variations among several vintages. It is certainly enough for the usual target audience, restaurant and retail store wine buyers, to make their decisions on what to purchase and resell. On the consumer side, sipping wines at a winery tasting room or wine shop tasting event conveys enough about the quality to determine if the products satisfy on a personal level and deserve to be purchased.

But the ultimate way to taste and enjoy wine is with food, in the context of a complete meal. The totality of the wine experience, the richness and complexity of the contents of that glass in front of you, the way in which it expresses the character of the grapes and the winemaking process, can only be truly fathomed when the wine is savored slowly with food that pairs or marries with the wine so that both are raised to a higher sensory level.

It is something we can easily discover at any home dinner with a single bottle just by paying a bit of attention to the choices we make. If you want to get really serious about exploring the wine and food experience, and at the same time learn a thing or two that can be useful at home, try attending a restaurant wine dinner with multiple courses and several wines. When all the components come together correctly, you’ll end the meal marveling at what epicurean pleasures the cellar and the kitchen together can produce.

I’m glad to report that such dinners have become a regular part of the restaurant scene on the East End. The most recent one I attended was also one of the most gratifying. (Or am I so beguiled by first-rate food and wine that I think that after each one?) It took place at Della Femina, on North Main Street, and although it was titled a “French Wine Dinner,” it would be more accurate to say it was a dinner with French wines and the kind of far-ranging menu at which American chefs now excel.

Jacques Franey, and the staff of Domaine Wine & Spirits, on Pantigo Road, selected and supplied the wines, while Michael Rozzi, the executive chef at Della Femina, created the original dishes for each course. Priced at only $65 (plus tax and gratuity), every table was booked throughout the evening.

All the wine and food was excellent, as I expected. But what most impressed me was the parallel experience of having these particular foods and wines together. It was as if some law of physics were at work, holding elements together by attraction and carefully balancing the divergences. Take, for example, our first course. The wine, Morin 2003, from Chitry, a village near Chablis, was supple, nuanced, with a good amount of perfectly harmonious fruit. It expressed all the elegance of the chardonnay grape as perfected in the Burgundy region, a classic wine in everything but retail price. It sells at Domaine for $16.

The accompanying dish expressed a comparable elegance and complexity with the same general weight and character as the wine. Local fluke “gourgeonettes” (incorrectly labeled: goujonnette is standard French spelling and trifling with their language has been known to cause international incidents) with a celery root slaw and morsels of caviar, lobster coral and chervil had a series of overlapping tastes with a subtle refinement similar to the Morin.

The next of five courses was a virtuoso crab salad with mache, chive flowers and, most interestingly, summer truffles. These delicate truffles were a superb choice, not nearly as pungent and overpowering as black truffles yet fragrant and intricate enough to enrich the crab and to engage with the fragrant sauvignon blanc, a marvelous Sancerre from Gerard Boulay in the village of Chavignol ($25 at Domaine).

Each course exhibited the manifold pleasures of pairing distinguished wine with skillfully prepared food—at times complimenting, at other times, contrasting. Some pairings were new and unexpected, but correct. Others, like a grilled lamb loin served with Chateau Presquie Quintessence 2001, revealed traditional roots, in this case from the Rhone valley where lamb and red Rhone wines are classic. I found the Chateau Presquie comparable in quality to a minor Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but at $25 retail, costing less.

Michael Rozzi, still young, has consistently demonstrated an astute understanding of ingredients and a rigorous ingenuity in constructing dishes that are precisely on target. That he is able to customize his cooking to pair with specific wines is a signal that he is a chef of considerable erudition and sophistication. Perhaps the most memorable pairing of the evening, and certainly the most essential, was the culinary flair of Mr. Rozzi with the expertise of Mr. Franey and his associates.