BALANCING THE FOOD AND WINE HIGH WIRE ACT
By Panos Kakaviatos

To close a deal, you decide to take a potential business partner to a fancy restaurant. You've reviewed your briefs and you are dressed to impress. But the restaurant wine list overwhelms you, especially when she orders something with both meat and fish. What if the wine you choose tastes awful with her food?

She orders seared scallops with boudin sausage en croute in a fennel puree. Panic sets in, because the conventional and thoroughly uninspired "wisdom" calls for white wine with fish and seafood, red with meats. But don't sweat a drop. The best wine and food pairings are not based on tired formulas. Take into account how the food is prepared.

More specifically, the scallops are topped with a thin coating of minced wild mushrooms and pepper, while the sausage, made from savory pork parts and added spices, is framed by a rich pastry crust. The rather soft-yetflavorful fennel puree lends contour to the combination.

A slightly evolved red - without too much tannin - would work better to complement the wild mushroom flavors on the scallops and meaty notes from the sausage. Light tannin can match seafood, but too much tannin in red wine tastes metallic with seafood or fish… A slightly aged topnotch villages cru from Beaujolais - perhaps an old vines Morgan - would work. A savory Chianti or a light Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley would both work, too. Try also a Burgundy from a slightly more rustic appellation - good for the sausage especially - such as Mercury or Givry. Merlot-based Bordeaux with some age. Those may also do the trick, especially with smooth tannins and some earthy truffle notes, good for the mushrooms and fennel puree.

A 1961 grand cru with a cold lunch? Certainly!

I would also recommend a character-filled rosé. Not all rosés are the same, so pick the best of the best: Bandol. Rosés from that region are vinous yet remain light and elegant.

White wine may prove easier, since whites go very well with both pork and scallop. But what about them mushrooms? Top choice goes to a slightly aged Meursault, with hints of earthy evolution; its slight almond/butter notes from the oak-aged Chardonnay would complement the scallop well. But avoid too much butter or oak flavors here, as they would overcome the food.

The professionals will tell you: Matching wine and food is a delicate balancing act, not a formula. Gerard Pangaud, former Michelin chef and chief instructor at L'Academie de Cuisine Inc. outside Washington D.C. points out the plethora of wines and foods in restaurants these days, often making choices a high wire balancing act: "Thirty years ago, it was relative- ly easy," Pangaud said. "Chardonnay or Burgundy for white meat, Cabernet Sauvignon or Bordeaux for red. Now we face a multitude of wines from all over the world, with different climates influencing how a particular Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tastes with a much wider variety of food."

Jean-Claude Roset, head sommelier of the famous two-star Michelin restaurant, La Pyramide, in Vienne, notes: "The idea is to find the wine that best accompanies the flavor elements in the food, and that can mean some untraditional choices," he said.

Which reminds me: you must not have a special dinner for special wine, just things that go together. After a three-hour tasting of some 30 wines at Maison Champy - one of the oldest Burgundy wine companies - owner Henri Meurgey invited me to a simple lunch of salad, chicken and cold cuts, but with two exceptional wines, red and white.

The Corton Charlemagne, dating from 1961, was still very vibrant, possessing aromas of nuts and caramel, with clove flavors on the palate matching perfectly the spicy jambon en croute. As the tasting of this almost half-century-old white continued, we noted hints of tobacco on the nose. Then came another 1961, the red Beaune Bressandes tasting of truffle and leather. It countered the powerful epoisse cheese that we enjoyed at the

end of the lunch very well. I

Panos Kakaviatos is a wine writer for decanter.com and is currently sommelier at the Chanticleer in 'Sconset. Visit his website at http://www.connectionstowine.com.