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Wine Tips, from the Author of 'The Wine Bible'
Expert Urges Wine Lovers to Expand Their Tasting Universe
 Listen to Susan Stamberg's report.
 Read tips from The Wine Bible.
April 10, 2002 -- In the world of wine, expert Karen MacNeil subscribes to the truism that "variety is the spice of life." In her 910-page book, The Wine Bible, MacNeil says wine drinkers should make a point of trying different wines, because even wine buffs can run across a vintage they've never tried, but discover they like.
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Karen MacNeil.
Photo: Workman Publishing
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"It is only by drinking wines that are unfamiliar to you and tasting them in a focused way with an open mind that you vault your wine knowledge into a higher realm," she writes.
In an interview with NPR's Susan Stamberg on Morning Edition, MacNeil explains: "If someone said to you tomorrow, 'All you can eat for the rest of your life are carrots, chicken and walnuts,' you'd think, 'Oh my God, but what about mangoes, what about steak, what about salad?'" With thousands of varieties of wine to choose from, MacNeil says, "there's just a lot of pleasure out there waiting for you and why not go after it?"
One way to experience that pleasure is to taste wine carefully. MacNeil, who heads the wine department at the Culinary Institute of America in California's Napa Valley, says there is really something to swirling wine around in your mouth before gulping it down. "The faster you swallow, the less likely you are to really taste it," she says. "So if you've sprung for that $30 (bottle), why not hold the wine in your mouth, swirl it around a little bit and really get the sensory impact of $30?"
MacNeil's The Wine Bible is a guide to the world's wines by regions, types and tastes. The following excerpts offer pointers on buying, storing and selecting wine.
On buying wine
If you're trying to describe to the clerk the kinds of wines you like and you're at a loss for words, think about foods. Wines can be big and juicy like a steak; fresh and light like a salad; or spicy and bold like a Mexican sauce. It isn't necessary to use technical wine terms; in fact, they can get in the way. One day, wanting an adventure, I asked a wine clerk to give me a wine like Robin Williams. Amazingly enough, and without a minute's hesitation, he did just that.
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Photo: Workman Publishing
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The price is right
Realize that no price is too little. You don't have to spend a fortune to drink good wine. If you are going to a friend's house for lasagna, a $60 bottle of wine is not only unnecessary, one could argue it's out of place. ...wine professionals often buy very reasonably priced wines. Wine pros care about what's inside the bottle and the cheaper the price, the better. It's often people who don't know a lot about wine who pay enormous amounts for it, hoping that price will be some sort of assurance. It doesn't really work that way. Unlike cars and stereo systems, there are very good wines at all prices.
On storing wine
Wine doesn't care if it's stored in a $10,000 custom-built cellar, in a damp basement, or between shoes in the closet, as long as three things are true: (1) The environment is cool. (2) The bottle is lying on its side or upside down (but not standing upright). (3) There is no direct sunlight.
On pairing wine with food
Beginning in the 1980s, wine and food pairing became something of a national sport. Restaurants offered wine and food dinners; food magazines began to suggest wines with certain recipes; the back labels on bottles of American wines began to suggest accompanying dishes. It was all very exciting. But as time went on, what started out as an exploration meant to heighten enjoyment began to border on the neurotic...
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"Ultimately, taste preferences are highly individual. So where does that leave us?... Squarely in the realm of instinct. People who pair wine and food together well don't have a set of rules as much as they have good instincts. And good instincts can be acquired."
Karen MacNeil in The Wine Bible
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The problem with this sort of approach is that it has very little connection -– today or historically -– to how we actually behave when we cook, eat, and drink.... We sometimes choose wines as much to match the mood as the food...
That said, it's certainly true that extraordinary flavor affinities do exist, and that most of us have had at least a few of those "wow" moments when the wine and food combination was unbelievably good. How do you create those moments?...
Ultimately, taste preferences are highly individual. So where does that leave us?... Squarely in the realm of instinct. People who pair wine and food together well don't have a set of rules as much as they have good instincts. And good instincts can be acquired. It's simply a matter of drinking lots of different kinds of wines with different kinds of dishes and paying attention to the principles that emerge. After years of doing precisely that, here's what I've discovered:
• Pair great with great, humble with humble.
• Match delicate to delicate, robust to robust.
• Decide if you want to mirror a given flavor or set up a contrast.
• Think about flexibility.... Though chardonnay is wildly popular, it's one of the least flexible white wines with food.... For maximum flexibility, go with a sauvignon blanc or a dry German or Alsace Riesling....
• The most flexible red wines either have good acidity, such as Chianti, red Burgundy, and California and Oregon pinot noir, or they have loads of fruit and not a lot of tannin.
• Saltiness in food is a great contrast to acidity in wine....
• Saltiness is also a stunning contrast to sweetness....
• Desserts that are sweeter than the wine they accompany make the wine taste dull and blank.... Wedding cake, for example, can ruin just about anything in a glass, though happily, no one's paying attention anyway.
Source: Excerpted from The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil, copyright 2001. Reprinted with permission of Workman Publishing.
Previous NPR Coverage
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Other Resources
• Read another excerpt from The Wine Bible.
• Visit the Wine Spectator Web site.
• Learn about pairing food and wine.
• Explore the history of wine.
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