In the Kitchen With Karen
Episode #110
Karen MacNeil invites two of her favorite chefs to pair some of their favorite
dishes with some of Napa Valley’s best wines. First she is joined by
Bill Briwa, chef-instructor at the Culinary Institute of America’s
Napa Valley campus to match two if his delicious dishes with wonderful white
wines. Then Greg Cole, owner and head chef at Cole’s Chophouse, prepares
two of his signature dishes for Karen to demonstrate the mouth-watering marriage
of meat and red wine. 
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On this episode, corn chowder paired perfectly with Chardonnay. The rich creaminess of the chowder complimented the buttery richness of the wine. One tip: choose a Chardonnay that doesn’t have a lot of oak and you’ll have a lot more flexibility when it comes to pairing. Then we made a warm goat cheese salad that married with Sauvignon Blanc. The herbs and salad greens mirrored the green, grassy flavors in the wine. Next, we turned our attention to two bold red wines. Filet mignon topped with a cherry compote was the perfect companion for Merlot. The cherry flavors in the compote acted as a bridge between the meat and the fruit flavors in the wine, while the charred texture of the steak was a delicious counterpoint to Merlot’s velvety smoothness. Finally, we prepared a duck breast with wild mushroom risotto to match the explosive flavors and big body of the Shiraz. Shiraz is a wine that works best with foods that are hearty and meaty, just like our duck and mushrooms.
Most of us age a wine for about as long as it takes to get it home from the supermarket. But is that a big mistake? Let’s say a friend gave you a bottle of wine for your birthday. Should you open it tonight or sequester it away for a few years? The answer is: it depends. The components in wine that allow it to age are sweetness, acidity, and tannin. A wine has to have one of those in fairly significant amounts if it’s going to withstand the test of time and actually taste better. Sweetness is pretty easy to understand because most people have a jar of honey somewhere in their kitchen that’s been there for years. Sweet desert wines, like that jar of honey, last a really long time, even decades. Wines like champagne or German Rieslings that are crisp and have a lot of acidity also last a long period of time and still manage to taste fresh and lively. And then there’s tannin. Wines like a Cabernet or Bordeaux that are high in tannin also age well over time because tannin is a preservative. So if you want to put a wine away, it’s got to have either sweetness, acidity, or tannin. If it doesn’t have one of these, you may as well just drink the wine tonight!
Culinary Institute of America
http://www.ciachef.edu
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