"wine pairings" news and stories

From stuffing to pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving's traditional dishes are rich and heavy. To complement these big flavors, the wines you choose should be full-bodied and tinged with acidic and fruit-forward notes.

As far as whites go, you'll want heavy wines with legs and complexity that can dance with Thanksgiving sides such as sweet potatoes. Reds are fair game too as long as you choose pairings that partner up with each dish.


Here are some of our $10-and-under favorites with their Thanksgiving dish match-ups.

Deep-Fried Butter. Photo: State Fair of Texas

Behold the deep-fried butter!

Last week, Slashfood reported that Abel Gonzales planned to best his fried-food record at the State Fair of Texas with a concoction that shuddered even those with the most hardened of arteries -- Deep-Fried Butter.

The dish -- which comes in four flavors: original, garlic, cherry and grape -- took top honors on Monday when fair officials gave it the Most Creative nod in the Big Tex Choice Awards.

"It's similar to having a dinner roll with a lot of butter," Sue Gooding, a spokeswoman for the fair, told us last week. "It's very good."

Ubuntu Sommelier Daniel Sarao Photo: Michelle Branton

At Ubuntu, Napa Valley's acclaimed vegetarian restaurant slash yoga studio, it falls to wine director and general manager Daniel Sarao to find harmony between the lush bounty of on-site gardens and a vino list sparkling with biodynamic sips.

The son of Italian immigrants who taught him an appreciation for wine, Sarao put himself through college and grad school working at restaurants, cutting short a trajectory towards a liberal arts Ph.D. for the life of a full-time oenophile. We chatted with him about the myths around pairing wine with veggies (yes, you can drink red!), the wonders of caramelizing and five inexpensive summer sippers to pair with grilled veggies.

Are you a vegetarian?
I am not a vegetarian. The chef is not a vegetarian and neither is the owner. But we believe that vegetables can stand on their own. We are breaking the stereotype.

How much of what you serve comes from your garden?
Right now we get about 75 to 80 percent of our ingredients from [our garden]. Our goal is to get almost everything from there. It makes an amazing difference. Squash and peppers are [in season] right now.

Learn more, plus five great wines for under $25 to pair with vegetable dishes, after the jump.

In just two years as the sommelier and wine director at New York's world-renowned Le Bernardin restaurant, 37-year-old Aldo Sohm has become a wine world heavyweight, having been recognized as "Best Sommelier in the World" in 2008 and earlier this month for "Best Wine Service" at the James Beard Awards. Trained in his native Austria, Sohm came to the United States to improve on his then "dumpy" English so he could better compete at wine competitions. We caught up with Sohm this morning to chat about the unwritten rule of pairing fish with white wine, which vino goes well with grilled salmon and that other reason why he now lives in America.

How did you become a sommelier?

Ever since I was little I had a thing of smelling food and wines. At first I didn't really like wine when I entered the industry. This was [when I was ] 16 or 17. People in the restaurant would ask me what you could recommend and I didn't know and thought this was embarrassing. [Then] I went on a wine trip with my father -- he invited me. I was 20 and I saw it, and it was kind of interesting and just went from there.

You said you moved to the United States to improve your English, but I get the sense there was another reason?

Austrians love to complain. I hate to complain so I figured it is easier to change a country than to change myself.

More about pairing rules -- and how to break them -- after the jump.

After preparing 32 pounds of potatoes in three days, Julia Moskin determines that when it comes to mashers, it's hard to go wrong. NYT Dining and Wine editors scour the archives and put together a collection of links to the best Thanksgiving stuff from the last 20 years.

Melissa Clark puts together three recipes designed to make the vegetarians at your Thanksgiving table feel loved, appreciated and well-fed. Looking for a perfect pie recipe? Florence Fabricant peaks at several cookbooks and offers up a collection of delicious recipes.

Frank Bruni reviews Harry Cipriani, with an eye on the outrageous prices and mediocre food. The Minimalist discusses gravy options and Eric Asimov gets together with some of the folks from the NYT food team to taste turkey, sides and wine in order to determine some good wines for your Thanksgiving feast.

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