Wine Pairing With General Purpose Wines

Last weekend was Mother’s Day.  Since both daughters-in-law are now mothers and their husbands want to celebrate with them on the actual day, they requested to celebrate with Goretti, my wife, on the Friday night prior.  We had salmon baked in dill weed and barbecued steaks.  I originally was planning to pull a white burgundy (2020 Jadot Macon Village) for the salmon and a Bordeaux (2003 Chateau Lagrange) to go with the steak, quite a safe and traditional pairing.  About mid afternoon, Goretti said she thought it was too much wine and wanted to do a single wine instead.  So, I finally decided on a red Burgundy, a 2018 Domaine Chantal Lescure Beaune Premier Cru.  It turned out to be quite a crowd pleaser, pairing beautifully with both the salmon and the BBQ steak.

This brings me back to this Rambling.  When you are faced with similar situations, or worse in a dinner party with a few people in a restaurant and they are ordering all different things and you are tasked with ordering wines to pair for everybody’s dinner, what is your best course forward?

I worked in sales back in the 80’s and on many occasions had to entertain clients for lunches or dinners.  My strategy is to order one white and one red.  Instead of trying to pair with everybody’s dinner, I would choose what I call food friendly and versatile wines.

If the party is small with four or five people, and everybody is having seafood and wants white wine, then a lightly oaked, light to medium weight Chardonnay will probably do very well for a range of seafood.  If everybody is having meat of some kind and all want red, then a Pinot Noir will probably be able to pair well from roast chicken to pork to steak.  If I had to order one wine only for fish and meat like our Mother’s Day dinner, a Chardonnay or a Pinot Noir would probably be your best bet.

In a bigger party, multiple bottles each of the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir will work. But if some of the meat dishes are heavier or spicier, I would substitute the Pinot with a Cote du Rhone or GSM (Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre) blend of red.  If the party is in an Italian restaurant, I would go with a Pinot Grigio and a Chianti Classico for good measure.

What other versatile wines are on my lists of possibilities?  My favourite go-to whites are: Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc.  My list of versatile reds include: Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, GSM blends, Nebbiolo, light to medium weight Spanish reds and softer right bank Bordeaux such as a Saint Emilion or Pomerol.

In the summer out on the patio, a rose or slightly chilled Beaujolais may also work for a combination of white and red meat.

 'Til next time!