Raj Vaidya. Photo: Michael Harlan Turkell

In a career that has included wine jobs at haute dining and wine destinations Per Se, Cru and, since June, the head sommelier at Daniel Boulud's flagship New York eatery Daniel, Raj Vaidya has paired more than his share of his duck with vino.

Born in Jersey, and raised in his parents' native Bombay and Singapore, Raj's wine tutelage began well before he was of legal drinking age, enjoying vino and good food with family and company. It laid the groundwork for post-college (a degree in political science and philosophy from Rutgers University) career in the wine business, where he first started working at New Jersey's Ryland Inn and did time in the biodynamic fields at Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa.

As fall quickly approaches, we caught up with Raj to discuss the different elements one needs to consider when pairing wine with all those preparations of this wonderfully fatty, gamey bird, creamy foie gras and bloody duck à la presse.




Judging from the menu, you serve a lot of duck at the restaurant.
We sure do.

You guys use the whole duck?
Yes. Sometimes we do a dish called duck à la presse. The whole duck is roasted and the innards are used to make a bloody sauce.

Um, à la presse?
A hand-cranked press that presses the juices into the duck. We also do the duck breast and we do a foie gras preparation as well.

When you are thinking about duck, what kind of wines are you considering?
I immediately go to reds, but I go to a few whites. For both white and red I immediately think of Burgundy.

What's the flavor in the duck you are trying to pair?
It's got a fattiness in it, and it has got a gaminess to it.

Where does the white fit in?
For the white I am playing off the fattiness of it.

For the red?
I am playing off the gaminess to it. You want the savage quality. Perhaps it's just a romantic notion of the game in the forest, but it seems to work pretty well.

What wines don't work with duck?
Really, really high acid and really, really dry. Like a Grüner Veltliner. If you have a older Grüner Veltliner, it can work pretty well, but I generally stay away from it. An acidic white that is sweet, is fine. You can do something that is light, but you have to go with something that has sugar.

What would you pair with duck confit?
You have to play off the fattiness especially. You can do well with red Burgandy with confit. It works pretty well.

Breast?
I tend to do more red wine pairings. Rhone Valley. Both north and south work really well. I have a preference for the south.

Foie Gras?
I especially love Auslese and foie gras.

Are wines and foie gras a natural pairing?
Anything that is as fat as foie gras certainly goes with wine. A lot of people go for sweeter wines. Older red Burgundy. It's one of the great pairings out there.

So is sweet wine and foie gras a cop out?
It's an easy pairing. But wines with residual sugar are a great pairing for everything. It's a great pairing, but I think too many people have a habit of pairing sweet wines with foie gras when it's just as good to have something that is dry and red.

Is there one wine that you would pair universally with duck?
If I would do a white, I would go with a off dry wine from Germany. If I was doing a red, a Côte de Beaune.
When you get into the depths of winter, I tend to go with heavier wines. In the summer, lighter ones.

What about accompaniments with duck?
Duck is one of those things that is such and intense flavor, that its accompaniments are usually on the lighter side. I don't really care for beets and Pinot Noir. But that would be the only oddity.

Below, Vaidya sticks to Germany and France to give us his five favorites under $25 to pair with duck, from fresh and light Riesling to a smokey full-bodied Crozes Hermitage.

2008 'Drohn Hofberg' Riesling A.J. Adam, Germany: "Light-bodied with a fresh acidity and a touch of sugar, and nice earthy mineral notes to balance the bit of sweetness."

2005 Aligote Lucie et August Lignier, Burgundy: "Medium-bodied and somewhat creamy on the palate with notes of apple and citrus."

2006 Côte de Beaune, Rapet Pernand-Vergelesses "Les Belles Filles," Burgundy: "Light- to medium-bodied with nice earthy notes and a robust cherry fruit and floral aroma."

2005 Jobard Claudie Rully la Chaume, Burgundy: "Lovely freshness, a medium bodied yet richer option for the duck, a touch gamey even."

2005 Crozes Hermitage J.L. Chave, Rhone: "Full-bodied, spicy and smoky with some mineral notes and a long deep finish."