Feature (Red Wine and Fish)

Uncorked January 11, 2012

There are a few rules so universal in the world of food and wine that even non-gourmands know them. Bread plate on the left, glassware on the right. Use the small fork for your salad. And never drink red wine with fish.

The No Red With Fish rule is so well-ingrained that the mere suggestion of violating it casts you immediately as a yahoo. But the dictum creates quite a big problem for me. Like many wine drinkers, I generally prefer reds to whites. I’m also trying to eat more fish these days, what with the brain and heart benefits it’s supposed to offer. Plus, my cellar is invariably full of reds that I’d like to drink, while the whites tend to disappear on arrival.

Drinking red wine with fish turns out to be more than socially gauche. It’s also scientifically suspect. In 2009 a Japanese wine and spirits company conducted an experiment in which professional wine tasters sampled scallops with over 60 wines, red and white, to figure out which wines were most likely to leave tasters experiencing a “fishy aftertaste.” The findings: Wines with higher iron content — reds — made fish taste unpleasantly fishier. But hey, even Einstein got it wrong once. Could I figure out how to pair red wine and fish? Science and Miss Manners were against me, but I was determined to make a go of it nonetheless.

I thought back to my prior encounters with fish and red wine and realized that it wasn’t fishiness that ruined the experience. It was, in a way, the lack of it — specifically, big reds that came across as ultra-bitter when paired with fish, while the fish itself lost its delicacy. It soon became clear that not every pairing was going to work — but that’s true of just about all dishes, not just those featuring our friends from the sea.

Ultimately I experimented with pairings of red wines and various fish dishes over the course of several months — and consulted a few chefs and winemakers about their favorite yet unlikely combinations of seafood and reds. Our combined wisdom:

It’s not the crustacean, it’s the preparation

It turns out the protein on your plate doesn’t matter nearly as much as the way it’s cooked: Chimichurri anything always works with Malbec, for instance. Rich sauces, thicker soups, and less-delicate preparations of just about any fish tend to work best with red wine. Jerk spice on salmon lends itself well to Montes Alpha Syrah from Argentina.

Tannins are the enemy

I can’t comment on whether cabernet has more iron than pinot, but it’s got way more tannin, and that’s where the trouble lies. Tannins often take a massive turn toward the bitter when paired with fish, and there’s no way around it. I never found great seafood pairings with cabernet sauvignon or cabernet franc.

Complex dishes enjoy bolder wines

Chef Parind Vora, of Austin’s Jezebel, suggests big and even “rough” wines with his daring dark El Rey chocolate and dried spice crusted Atlantic salmon with caper and garlic-infused olive oil, recommending A. Clape Cornas from the Rhône Valley, or oddball reds like Château Mousar Rouge from Lebanon or Miolo Lote 43 from Brazil to pair with the dish. Says Vora, “This dish works with red wine because the dark chocolate is not sweet, capers brings bursts of acidity, and olive oil has a lot of viscosity in the mouthfeel that works with big, tannic reds.”

Everything goes with pinot noir

When in doubt, pair lighter pinot noir styles —try Anderson Valley, Carneros, or Oregon — with, well, anything from the sea. The more fruit-forward the wine, the better it tends to work with lighter fish preparations. Pinot is already a long-established natural mate with salmon, but I haven’t found a sea creature short of raw oysters with which it clashes. Check out St. Innocent’s Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, tart and fruity yet light as a feather.

Regional dishes go with regional wine

Chef Nick Strawhecker of Omaha’s Dante Pizzeria keeps his wine selection region-appropriate for his meals. He’s paired crispy-skin branzino (with cippolini, pancetta, littleneck clams, and tomato brodo) with Tenuta della Seta Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Rovisci, a Sangiovese-based wine. Says Strawhecker, “The smokiness and fattiness from the La Quercia pancetta that we use pairs extremely well with this Montepulciano. And tomato cuts it well, too. Branzino is a versatile fish and holds up to the big flavors of this dish and the wine.”

In the end, there’s only one way to determine whether you share Nick’s opinion, and that of course is to sample this Vino Nobile — or any, for that matter — with his tomato-based stew.

Crispy-Skin Branzino with Cippolini, Pancetta, Littleneck Clams and Tomato  Brodo

Courtesy of Nick Strawhecker, chef and owner of Dante Pizzeria Napoletana, Omaha, NE.

Wine pairing:  2008 Tenuta di Gracciano Della Seta, Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano  

Serves 4

Littleneck Clams

2 cups chicken stock
20 littleneck clams 1 cup dry white wine
1 shallot, chopped
4 sprigs thyme
4 pieces flat-leaf parsley with stem, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped

Sweat the shallot and garlic in butter, then add the thyme and parsley. Deglaze with the wine. Reduce by half. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil and add the clams. When they start to open, remove one at a time. When all are open, let cool. Remove the meat from the shells. Strain liquid and reserve.  

Tomato Brodo

½ cup pancetta, cut into 1/2-by-2-inch batons
2 cups canned San Marzano tomatoes, strained and roughly chopped
10 Cippolini onions, peeled
2 whole garlic cloves
Reserved liquid from littleneck clams
½ cup red wine (2008 tenuta della seta) 
Reserved clams 
Two fingerling potatoes, sliced thin lengthwise and seared, set aside

Render fat from the pancetta, cooking till semi-crisp. Remove from the pan, reserving the fat. Sear the cippolini in the fat until caramelized. Add the garlic cloves and sauté. Add the tomato and sauté for a minute or two. Deglaze with red wine. Reduce by half. Add the reserved liquid and simmer until the cippolini is soft . Stir in the clams and potato right before serving.