INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

An Experiment Illustrating the Logic Behind Matching Food and Wine  by
Josh Eisen  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 Ã.Ã. 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 Ã.Ã. 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 sauted  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
Ã.Ã. 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.  From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster
collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

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