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Five great books on pairing and what they have to offer

Five great books on pairing and what they have to offer.

By Bill Ward, Star Tribune

Last update: November 12, 2008 - 2:07 PM

"Wine Food & Friend" ($24.95, Oxmoor House, 192 pages)

Author: Karen MacNeil, author of "The Wine Bible" (which lives up to its lofty name).

Emphasis: The good life, with feasts for the senses.

Organization: By seasons.

Quote: "Wine is, at its most elemental core, simply liquid flavor."

Unconventional wisdom: Roast pork should almost always be paired with white wine.

Nice touch: Great recipes for entire meals with different wines for each course.

"Everyday Dining With Wine" ($29.95, Broadway Books, 308 pages)

Author: Andrea Immer, TV host, sommelier and North Dakota native.

Emphasis: The title tells it, although the menus are more what I'd call "weekend meals."

Organization: Types of wine.

Quote: "Matching wine and food is a fairly free-form sport."

Unconventional wisdom: Rosemary, oregano and sage "make seafood ... delicious with red wines."

Nice touch: A tone rife with Upper Midwest sense and sensibilities.

"What to Drink With What You Eat" ($35, Bulfinch Press, 356 pages)

The authors: Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, husband-and-wife team.

Emphasis: Thoroughness, touching on every imaginable food and beverage.

Organized by: Food matches, then beverage matches.

Money quote: "Those 100-point ratings ... have nothing to do with how well those wines go with the food you enjoy."

Unconventional wisdom: The ideal pairing for White Castle hamburgers? Rosé, white zin or an off-dry riesling.

Nice touch: A fascinating look at similarities between certain wines, beers and teas.

"The Wine Lover's Cookbook" ($24.95, Chronicle Books, 224 pages)

Author: Sid Goldstein, award-winning cookbook author and Fetzer winery communications director.

Emphasis: Learning how to think about pairings.

Organization: Types of wine.

Quote: The goal is "to create harmony and synergy [where] the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts."

Unconventional wisdom: Roasted garlic is a "particularly friendly bridge ingredient" to most wines, red and white.

Nice touch: Long list of "bridge" ingredients with each type of wine.

"Williams-Sonoma Wine & Food" ($29.95, Free Press, 176 pages)

Author: Joshua Wesson, director of the Best Cellars wine stores in New York.

Emphasis: Cover the basics and all the bases, keeping it simple and straightforward.

Organization: Wine styles ("crisp whites," "juicy reds").

Quote: His first pairing (at age 5) of Concord-grape kosher wine and gefilte fish "was a match with a clear message -- don't give Moses the corkscrew again! -- but also one with a timeless message: trust your palate, rather than any rules etched in stone."

Unconventional wisdom: "Because smooth reds (pinot noir, malbec, tempranillo) are so versatile, it is difficult to pinpoint specific foods that pair well with them."

Nice touch: Old World and New World matches and alternative pairings for each recipe.

BILL WARD

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