If you know me you know that I love, and do I say ‘geek out’, with the magic of culinary science and wine chemistry. The challenge of finding the right balance of flavor and texture together along with how long it lingers in your mouth keeps the fun in the game going.
In this edition I want to focus on a critical ingredient that will make any dish you make more beautiful and any wine you drink more smooth and fruit forward. This ingredient is SALT. I’ll explain why. You see, salt neutralizes acid receptors on our tongue and sensitized sweet receptors. When drinking wine, an acidic beverage, pairing it with something salty will smooth the wine to a silky rose pedal texture and brighten all the lovely fruit notes naturally occurring in the wine. This is why wine and cheese is such a happy marriage. Now on the contrary, sugar does the opposite. Sugar will sensitize the acid receptors and neutralize the fruit receptors; therefore, when sweet dishes are consumed with dry (not sweet) wine most if not all fruitiness will diminish and you’ll be left with a very unpleasant experience. This is why desserts should not be paired with a dry wine. Off-dry, dessert, or Port wine would be the proper choice of wine with a sweet dish as the residual sugar in the sweet wines will balance the sensitized acids.
Here are my personal Peloton Pairing suggestions:
2020 Reserve Grenache with Calabrese salami
2019 Squire Canyon Pinot Noir with Fontina
2021 SLO Coast Chardonnay with smoked gouda
2021 Criterium with Point Reyes Blue Cheese
2019 Reserve Grenache with Coppa
2020 SLO Pinot Noir with Duck Paté
Do you use finishing salts? Finishing salts are magic. They are often infused with herbs, spices and dehydrated produce and are game changers in finishing your dish similar to adding a tidbit of fresh chopped herbs to garnish or add color to a plate. I was introduced to finishing salts by my bestie Tara Stumph, owner and founder of Phresh Food, Co. She is a culinary genious. Her product line of finishing salts can be found in our tasting room or on her web site: phreshfoodco.com Whether your sprinkling a chive & canadula sea salt on your eggs in the morning or dusting your salads or taco meat with her #1 seller Chimi Churri sea salt your mouth with explode with flavor.
So what kind of salt is best? Unfortunately it has been discovered that microscopic traces of plastics have been found in some salts. Finding a salt that is pure takes some research. To be honest, I asked AI for help. Here are a few that AI found:
Redmond Real Salt: Mined from an ancient seabed in Utah, this salt is naturally protecdted from modern pollution. It’s unrefined, rich in trace minerals, and praised for its subtly sweet flavor.
Vera Salt: Harvested from a pristine sprin in Spain, far from industrial activity. It’s third-party tested fro microplastics and heavy metals, and comes in plastic-free packaging.
Only Salt: Sourced from the Andes and the Pacific, this combo offers high mineral content and is la-tested to be microplastic-free. Great for cooking and gourmet finishing.
Hope you enjoy the wine-food pairing magic as well and that this tidbit of information will help you with creating your next culinary masterpiece.