One soup~ four wines - part 2

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Ingredients

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by Josh Eisen

Directions

: An Experiment Illustrating the Logic Behind Matching Food and Wine The Wines: 1. A dry, young Riesling that's fresh and delicate. If you can't find a Riesling, substitute a Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris instead.

2. A California Chardonnay or a Burgundy such as Puligny-Montrachet.

3. A Cabernet/Merlot blend or an inexpensive, simple young red wine made without using new oak barrels.

4. A good Cabernet Sauvignon where the oak is not a dominant flavor.

The Wine Tasting:

Start the tasting with a small bowl of the basic bean soup flavored with 1 tbs of the infused oil. The first wine you'll try is a dry Riesling This wine is aromatic, fruity and delicate. The soup is silky, full-bodied, and subtly flavored, and the olive oil gives it a complex and pungent aroma. The Riesling and soup enhance, but don't overpower each other.

Try the next wine ÄÄ a buttery chardonnay that has spent time in new oak. Compared to the Riesling, the Chardonnay has a heavy, rich, almost fat feeling in the mouth. Taste the Chardonnay with the soup and the soup's flavor seems to shrink in size. The soup's delicate aroma and silky texture are still there, but you have to look for them. The combination isn't unpleasant, but the wine is the dominant flavor. In conjunction with the Riesling, the soup was perfectly balanced. With the Chardonnay, the soup seems lackluster because the full body of the wine is out of balance with the delicacy of the soup.

Follow the Chardonnay with the Cabernet/Merlot blend at room temperature. The wine and soup makes a passable combination, but the wine obscures the beans's silkiness and subtlety ÄÄ qualities that had been exciting and delicious with the Riesling. The red wine obscures the soup, but not in the same way as the Chardonnay. The Cabernet/Merlot has too much fruit and not enough acid, and the soft fruitiness of the wine overpowers the simple soup.

Now grate about a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese into each bowl of soup and the scenario changes completely. Suddenly, the Chardonnay comes into balance and is a stunning partner for the soup. This apparent change of heart happens because the cheese makes the soup taste richer and fuller, and the Parmesan's milk fat absorbs the wine's tannins. The sweet richness of the Parmesan is a good balance for the Chardonnay's rich, vanilla fruit. If you taste the Riesling with this version of the soup, you'll find that the wine somehow has become weak and flat.

Now try this incarnation of the soup with the Cabernet/Merlot blend.

You'll find the combination has no special dimension; in fact the soup tastes rather flat. Again, the problem is the wine's fruitiness, which still overpowers the dish. Even the strong flavor of the Parmesan doesn't give the soup enough strength to stand up to the wine.

The final version of the soup incorporates a blend of slowly saut‚ed tomatoes, onions, and herbs. When you add a couple of spoonfuls of this mixture to the soup, the dish changes altogether, Now there;s a lush, succulent feel to the soup, with a full range of flavors. The tomatoes make the soup both sweeter and more acidic, and these qualities give the Cabernet/Merlot a springboard. The same qualities that made this wine a poor choice in other versions of the soup now can be enhanced. In fact, at this point it's best to serve this wine just cooler than room temperature to bring out its fruit flavors and make the acidity more prominent. Together, the soup and wine taste balanced and alive, and they're a pleasure to eat together. The wine seems bright and lively without dominating your taste buds or the soup.

If you were to try this version of the soup with a white wine, the combination would be underwhelming. White wines seem to wither and lose almost all their flavor in the face of acidic tomatoes.

The final wine is another red ÄÄ this time a Cabernet Sauvignon that's rich, concentrated, and aged in new oak. Taste this pairing and you'll find the wine dominates. The Cabernet is just too heavy, earthy, and intense for the soup, even with the tomato, onion, and herbal flavors of the sofregit. The Parmesan helps, but the combination is still merely fair, not dazzling. the lighter red wine more closely matches the soup's level of richness and intensity. Save the Cabernet for a lamb shank or veal chop which could follow the soup.

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