With AJ’s (www.ajsfinefoods.com)  Fine Foods Summer Wine Spectacular now underway, we thought that it would be useful to examine some of their promotional wines and suggest a food pairing idea or two.  With forty wines, all under $13, of varied styles from so many regions, there’s a wine for everyone’s budget and palate.

Root 1 Sauvignon Blanc, 2008:

Quick……..which wine do you usually pair with salmon?  I’ll bet that Pinot Noir comes to mind.  And it makes sense.  The cherry, strawberry and plum fruits, an earthy and spicy character along with bright acidity play in perfect harmony off the rich and oily fish.  But if you were to stop there, you would be missing out on an entirely different slant to wine pairing.   As most of you know, one of my mantras in pairing wine with food is to account for the preparation and cooking style.  Are you baking, pan frying, grilling or poaching the dish?  How are you accenting the dish………with spices, sauces, fruits or vegetables?  All of these play a role in the aromas and flavor profile of a given main event (you can read more about this approach in Part I and Part II of my wine and food pairing strategies posted last year).   Salmon is an oily fish, containing those famous omega 3 oils.  I won’t go into the research here, but there are numerous studies hinting at the physiological benefits of this class of oil.  As for the discussion about farm raised versus wild salmon, there are pros and cons for both but the farm raised version often tends to contain a little more fat.  You can google the information and make your own decision.   With a dish that’s on the oily side with some fat, you want a wine that can cut through the richness of the salmon yet offers lively fruit and some spice.  Thus, the rewards of pairing a domestic Pinot Noir or a Burgundy (same grape, different terroir).  A Beaujolais is a nice alternative if you’re looking for a lighter style red.  My preference is to pair these styles of wine with grilled or baked salmon, the fresh red fruits, earthy nuances and spice of the (Pinot Noir) wine working perfectly with the aromas and flavors imparted to the fish from the grill.  I had the opportunity recently, at my joint AJ’s-Wine Inquirer Wine and Seafood seminar, to sample a farm raised, fresh Atlantic salmon, baked with a raspberry-chipoltle sauce paired with the Tolosa Winery Pinot 2006 “Estate” Pinot Noir from Edna Valley, California.  The combination just melted in your mouth.  The raspberry flavors perfectly balanced out the slight fishy nuances of the salmon while the combination just melted into the profile of the wine.

But change the cooking style, the accented sauces and spices and it opens up a universe of whites.  Poach the salmon and pair it with a buttery, lightly oaked or unoaked California Chardonnay.  Or how about a Kabinett Riesling with just a touch of sweetness?  An Alsatian or Oregon Pinot Gris work wonders with salmon in general, the Alsatian version a medium-full bodied wine with spice and floral elements while the Oregon style usually offers an apple, pear and melon bouquet.