BUBBLING OVER
"Sparkling wine is the perfect pairing, because you feel it's a cleansing of the mouth," Mejia said. "Instead of stuffing your mouth with a big bite of potato salad, you get a nice, delicious, effervescent feeling."
In fact, wine and food experts know that the effervescence, acidity and flavor profile found in sparkling wine and champagne make them great matches for a range of foods. During summer, when many foods are grilled or barbecued, a cold glass of sparkling wine can be quite pleasing with the meat's charry, smoky flavors.
Fridays during the summer, tasting-room visitors at Iron Horse Vineyards in Sonoma, Calif., are treated to morsels of rare grilled steak with tastes of the winery's sparkling Brut Rose. And each year, Florida's South Beach Wine & Food Festival starts with the Bubble Q, a beach bash that pairs barbecue by celebrity chefs such as Bobby Flay and Norman Van Aken with Moet & Chandon champagne.
At the recent Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colo., guests at the Mumm Champagne Maison Cordon Rouge event sipped several styles of champagne along with Southern barbecue. Chef James Corwell, an Atlanta native, cooked up his favorite foods, including spicy pulled pork, planked salmon basted in apple butter, and fried quail. The chef, who is used to pairing wines with his cuisine, said the champagne enhanced the sweet, smoky and spicy flavors in the food without overpowering it.
"Good champagnes have high acid and a balanced sweetness and a texture of being bubbly on the palate," said Corwell, who is executive chef at the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, Calif. "I think bold-flavored foods tend to go well with champagne."
There's no denying that beer has been a traditional barbecue beverage. But as Americans become more enamored of wine-drinking, they are exploring all the possibilities.
Karen MacNeil, a wine educator and author of "The Wine Bible," has long been a fan of combining sparkling wines with grilled foods. She devoted a segment of her PBS show "Wine, Food & Friends With Karen MacNeil" to proving the point with a visit to a barbecue restaurant in Texas.
"I took these guys who were drinking beer and blindly poured sparkling wine in a beer glass and asked them to taste it," she said. "They were eating beef brisket and big slabs of pork, and it was fabulous."
MacNeil, who heads the wine education program at the Culinary Institute of America, has found that almost any food that goes well with beer also pairs with sparkling wine. Both are served cold, making them refreshing; both have bubbles, which energize the mouth; and both are dry and crisp on the palate.
"For something like barbecue, you need something that's bracing, and both sparkling wine and good beer ... have that slap that comes from the bubbles," she said.
Elizabeth Karmel, known as America's female barbecue expert, thinks that bubbly makes a superior choice over beer. On her Web site, www.girlsatthegrill.com, she touts the pairing of her Asian-style hoisin-glazed pork ribs with Schramsberg sparkling rose.
"I like sparkling wine, because it's not quite as heavy as beer," said Karmel, who is based in Chicago. "And you have all those wonderful fruit notes that complement the barbecue that you don't have in the beer."
WHAT TO DRINK WITH WHAT
Since the days of rigid white-with-fish, red-with-meat pairings are over, we're free to drink any wine we like with our favorite foods. But it's important to make sure the flavors are balanced so the wine doesn't overwhelm the food or vice versa.
"With barbecue, you have the meat and the spice, and very often I have found that lighter styles of champagne don't work at all," said Agnes Laplanche, global brand manager for Champagne Mumm. "You can do much better if you use a champagne which has a good foundation of pinot noir."
Classic champagnes from France and other sparkling wines made in the French method are a blend of three grapes: pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier. Chardonnay is about lightness and elegance; it's pinot noir that adds richness and power.
Laplanche recommends wines that have at least 40 percent pinot noir for pairing with grilled foods. On the label, the words "blanc de noirs" - literally "white from blacks" - indicates a wine made from just pinot noir and pinot meunier.
Rose sparkling wines, which have a rosy hue but are not sweet, are usually a blend of all three grapes. The best roses have subtle aromas and flavors of juicy summer fruit - strawberries, raspberries, plums - which play off spicy and tangy foods.
"When you think of the blanc de noirs or rose style, those really can go quite nicely, whether with grilled salmon, ribs or chicken," said Hugh Davies, head winemaker at Schramsberg Vineyards in Calistoga, Calif.
Davies, who now runs the winery his parents founded, said their sparkling rose has been selling briskly in recent years - especially in trend-setting markets such as Miami and San Francisco - as more people discover how delightful it is with food.
This year, Schramsberg is debuting a 1998 vintage rose version of its top-of-the-line J Schram sparkling wine.
ON THE SWEET SIDE
When it comes to barbecued foods, the sauce - whether sweet, spicy or tart with vinegar - adds another flavor dimension.
Rather than going the dry rose route, some people prefer a slightly sweeter sparkling wine, such as Domaine Chandon's Riche, Moet & Chandon's Nectar Imperial, or Il Rosso by Mionetto. The hint of sugar meshes with a sweet sauce and also helps soothe the palate when the food is spicy.
In Australia, sparkling shiraz is the traditional wine paired with Thanksgiving turkey. Sparkling shiraz, which has been around in Australia since the 1860s, is made just like French champagne, but with shiraz grapes. The wine has flavors of berry, leather and licorice, with a hint of sweetness and tannins.
To some people, sparkling wine may seem too elegant to serve with grilled fare. But just because a meal was cooked outdoors doesn't mean it's undeserving of a fine wine. Laplanche of Champagne Mumm said the French see nothing wrong with eating barbecued foods with champagne.
"We're excited about barbecue because it is friendly, casual and not pretentious," she said. "Just because it is not pretentious, it doesn't mean you cannot have something nice."
Grilling expert Karmel has found that when she entertains outdoors, opening of bottle of bubbly is a way to set a jubilant mood.
"Sparkling wine is the icon for a celebration or a party," she said. "Once people hear the pop of the cork ... it gets everyone excited."
PLANKED SALMON GLAZED WITH APPLE BUTTER
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dry mustard
1 (3- to 4-pound) salmon fillet, skin on, bones removed
Cedar plank for smoking fish (see note)
2 Granny Smith apples, cut in matchsticks
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup scallions, chopped (green part only)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
Salt, to taste
1/2 cup organic apple butter, for basting
Yields 8 servings.
Combine salt, sugar and mustard in bowl and mix well. Trim salmon fillet where it starts to get more narrow to remove tail piece. Reserve scraps for another use. Trim salmon to fit well on cedar plank.
The night before or at least 30 minutes before cooking, make diagonal cuts 1 inch apart and 3/4 inch deep across salmon from left to right and right to left, forming a diamond pattern. Thoroughly rub spice mixture onto salmon, making sure to get spice into cross-hatch marks. Let rest in refrigerator.
Soak cedar plank in water for at least 2 hours. Drain. Heat grill to 450 F. Place cedar plank on grill and let it heat until smoking, about 20 minutes. Remove plank from grill and place salmon on top. Return plank and salmon to grill and cook for about 25 minutes, until salmon is golden-brown with lightly browned edges and is thoroughly cooked.
While salmon is cooking, combine apples, pepper, scallion, lemon and honey. Season with salt and set aside.
When salmon is done, remove it from heat and place plank and salmon on large cutting board. Baste salmon with apple butter, letting apple butter soak in. Top with apple salad; serve.
(From chef James Corwell, Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant, the Culinary Institute of America.)
EAST-MEETS-WEST BABY-BACK RIBS
4 racks baby-back ribs (about 1 1/2 pounds each)
Wood chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes (optional)
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
4 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder (divided use)
2 tablespoons untoasted sesame oil
1 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons molasses or cane syrup
2 tablespoons apricot jam with chunks
4 teaspoons garlic-chili sauce (Sriracha)
1 knob fresh ginger, peeled, grated
1 small bunch of chives, minced
Yields 4 generous servings.
Pat ribs dry with paper towels. Build charcoal fire or preheat gas grill. Set up grill for indirect heat and, if using wood chips, place soaked chips directly on charcoal or in the smoking box.
Remove silver skin from back of ribs, if you like. Combine 2 teaspoons salt and 3 teaspoons five-spice powder in a bowl. Sprinkle spice mixture over ribs. Brush with sesame oil. Place ribs bone side down in center of grate, over indirect medium-low heat (325 degrees). Grill, covered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until meat is tender and has pulled back from ends of bones. Leave ribs untended for first 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make glaze by whisking hoisin sauce, molasses, jam, garlic-chili paste and ginger in nonreactive bowl. Taste and add remaining salt and five-spice powder if needed. Cover sauce and set aside.
After 1 hour, brush glaze on ribs and grill for 30 to 45 minutes more, or until sauce is caramelized and slightly shiny. If ribs start to burn on edges, stack them in center of grill and lower fire slightly. Twenty minutes before ribs are done, unstack if necessary and brush again with glaze. Remove ribs from grill and let rest 10 minutes before cutting into two- to three-rib portions. Transfer meat to a clean platter. Garnish with chives and serve with warmed glaze on the side.
(Adapted from "Taming the Flame" by Elizabeth Karmel, John Wiley & Sons.)
Greater Paramus News and Lifestyle Magazine
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