The right wine can turn takeout into gourmet feast
While visiting an expat college chum in St. Georges, Switzerland, we did her daily shopping rounds, stopping at the local vegetable market, the butcher, the baker and bien sûr, the wine shop for dinner provisions. On the cobblestone streets headed home to cook, she sighed “I miss Chicago.”
“What could you possibly miss about Chicago in this paradise?” I exclaimed.
Her response: “Takeout.”
In this corner of the world the diverse community does its home cooking for us, serving up global flavors with convenient, exotic and often healthy options. So even if you dinner comes from a repeatable box, you can add gourmet flair with well-chosen wine.
To avoid a second stop on your way home, have these wines at home and at the ready for you and your takeout:
Sauvignon Blanc is the No. 1 white for takeout, with flavors practically color-coded to pair with green: green herbs, green salads, even green algae! For the moderate drinkers among us, one Sauvignon Blanc bottle can complement a weeks-worth of takeout from Greek chicken to your favorite salad bar mix or seaweed-wrapped sushi.
For everyday enjoyment, look for Line 39 Sauvignon Blanc (California, widely available about $11), dry with soft lime and green pear flavors.
For a little luxury, turn toward your wine shop's French aisle. France's cool climate expresses racy herb, fresh grass and mineral Sauvignon Blanc flavors, grown in the Loire (including Henri Bourgeois Petit Sauvignon Blanc, $15) and Loire subregions Sancerre (ask for Pascal Jolivet, $22), Pouilly-Fume (Jean-Claude Dagueneau, $25).
Red wine selection depends on your dish's heft.
Pinot Noir, can be your cross-cultural red to add richness to lighter takeout, including Chinese stir-fry, burritos or barbecued wings.
For everyday enjoyment, ask for Redtree Pinot Noir (California, widely available, under-$10), dry with soft cherry and brown spice flavors. To add elegance to Asian barbecued duck, grilled salmon or smoked ribs, ask for Reata “Three County” Pinot Noir (California, $24), which adds satin texture and depth to cherry and spice flavors, or the complex and powerful Maggy Hawk “Jolie” Pinot Noir (California, $65), from the Jackson Family of Wine's “Spire Collection.”
When you crave gnash-and-tear pleasure, turn to cabernet sauvignon.
Columbia Crest “Grand Estates” Cabernet Sauvignon (Washington State, widely available, $10) belies its great-value price with plush red fruit flavors and lingering finish, for a hearty complement to broasted chicken, burgers and meaty international cuisine such as Costa Rican casado or Middle Eastern kebabs.
The Spire Collection's Mt. Brave “Mt. Veeder” Cabernet Sauvignon (California, $75) has finely-woven red fruit flavor, mineral complexity and firm, dynamic finish to add luxury to the finest red meat dish. Have the bottle open and waiting for you while you pick up your takeout.
• Write to Advanced Sommelier and Certified Wine Educator Mary Ross at food@dailyherald.com.
Ross' choice
Minervois “Plaisir d'Eulalie”
Chateau Ste. Eulalie
Languedoc-Roussillon, France
2013
• Suggest retail and availability: About $16; widely available (distributed by Maverick Wine Co., Bensenville)
France's land of great-value gives us this vibrant red, with mountain herb flavor, red fruit, pepper and licorice accents and a tickling pinch of tannin, good for good, better and best takeout or cooked-at-home faves like gyros and souvlaki, chili and beef Daube Provencale, meaty pizza and Italian-style steak.