Pairing your recipes to wine

It’s wine’s version of the chicken and the egg: Which comes first, your wine selection or your recipe?

For most folks, recipes come first. But if you have a pesky guest who only drinks one wine, or you’re overstocked or if you’ve decided to pop that special bottle, here are tips to pairing your meal to popular wine styles.

Note: Grape varieties included are grown throughout the world but may be named for the region that grows them, such as white Burgundy, which is 100% Chardonnay.

Safe bets

Chardonnay: This pairing strategy comes down to a word: butter. Butter roasted turkey, salmon sautéed in butter, even butter basted steak complement Chardonnay, the world’s No. 1 selling white wine grape. Cow’s milk cheese, butter’s close cousin, also fits. For oaked Chardonnay, incorporate brown spices, roasted nuts or smoky cures into your recipe. Vegetarians, turn to mushroom recipes. For fatty dishes, such as fondue, choose a cool climate Chardonnay with ample acidity. Avoid spicy or sweet dishes.

Cabernet Sauvignon: Red meat and rich poultry pair with Cabernet Sauvignon, the world’s top-selling red grape. The Cabernet/Merlot blends of France’s Bordeaux region are Christmas classics with roasts of beef and lamb; the “meritage” blends of the U.S. honor that tradition. Vegetarians, turn to mushrooms and ample cheese, especially blue. Green herbs, especially sage and rosemary, complement Cabernet. Avoid spicy or sweet dishes.

Sauvignon Blanc: Think green when you think of Sauvignon Blanc — green herbs and veggies, green olives and olive oil. For a vegetarian feast, there’s Mediterranean cuisine, pasta and rice dishes and stuffed vegetables. For cheese, choose goat’s milk. Carnivores, enjoy herbed poultry (such as poulet aux fines herbes, the classic French herbed chicken) and seafood sautéed in olive oil. Avoid spicy or sweet dishes.

Our top wine imports

Pinot Grigio is our No. 3 selling white grape, but for rich, warming dishes, Americans turn to Italy’s reds.

International steak emporiums rely on vini rossi, with their firm to rock-hard tannin, to pair with red meats and game birds. Choose dishes in the wine’s locale for time-tested recipes. For instance, pair Chianti, Brunello and other Tuscan reds with Tuscany’s famed Bistecca alla Fiorentina (Italian steak). Veneto’s Valpolicella is a natural for ragu d'anatra alla veneta (Venetian Duck Ragu).

For casual Italian reds, cozy up with meat, rich poultry, tomato or cheesy dishes like pizza, pasta and Chicago’s own Chicken Vesuvio.

Riesling: The sommelier's choice

Sommeliers know that Riesling provides the widest range of pairing options due to its stone fruit-like flavors and palate-cleansing acidity. The trick is determining your bottle’s sweetness, which can range from bone dry to honey sweet.

Drier styles (from Austria and France) with flavors like underripe stone fruit, pair with delicately sweet or fatty dishes from sushi to sausages and France’s famed choucroute (dressed sauerkraut). Ask your retailer for wines from 0 to 20 grams per liter of residual sugar (g/l r.s.)

Moderately sweet styles, with flavors like ripe nectarines (including many U.S. Rieslings and Germany’s Kabinett and Spatlese, 15 to 60 g/l r.s.) pair with sweeter dishes, from sushi and “sweet” seafood to recipes with fruit and honey glazes, such as Duck a l’Orange or Honey Baked Ham. Here’s when to add spice to your life with spicy Asian, Cajun and three-alarm barbecue sauce.

Honey-sweet styles (Germany’s Auselese and Beerenauslese, reaching 200 g/l r.s. and more) are sublime with cheeses (try blue cheese drizzled with honey), pears and cookies. A Christmas classic pairing is lebkuchen (gingerbread).

A season to sparkle

Like Riesling’s acidity, sparkling wine’s scrubbing bubbles refresh the palate and offer a range of food options. The trick is determining the wine’s sweetness. The European Union has defined sweetness levels, which other countries may or may not follow:

Brut: Fatty and cured dishes pair with this not-sweet style, up to 12 g/l r.s. The classic pairings are cured salmon, charcuterie, egg dishes and cow’s milk cheese. Avoid spicy or sweet dishes.

Extra-dry: In sparkling wine-speak “dry” means sweet, up to 17 g/l r.s. Serve with the same dishes as Brut but expect sweeter flavors.

Dry, Demi-sec and Doux: Moderately to richly sweet, from 17 to over 50 g/l r.s, serve these bubblies with sweet, smoked, spicy or very rich dishes such as rumaki (liver or water chestnuts wrapped in bacon). Serve Moscato d’Asti (up to 200 g/l r.s.) with cannoli or blue cheese drizzled with honey for a sweet ending to your year or beginning of the new!

• Mary Ross is an Advanced Sommelier (Court of Master Sommeliers), a Certified Wine Educator (Society of Wine Educators) and a recipient of Wine Spectator’s “Grand Award of Excellence.” Write to her at food@dailyherald.com.