Food & Wine Pairing

IntoWine asked our panel of experts to share their recommendations for the best wine to pair with baked chicken: Baked chicken is a dish that can be both versatile and elusive . Honing in on just the right flavors, temperatures, glazes, marinades, and pairings can be a real task. To make things easy, I suggest any white wine that has a ‘New World’ style. Ripe melon, spices, and citrus fruit should be the hallmark flavors. A wine that has undergone malolactic fermentation (MLF) and was aged in new French oak would be ideal. Generally, Chardonnay would be my one go-to wine because ‘New World’ Chardonnay is typically fruity, buttery, and ‘toasty’. But more and more white wines are being made in a Chardonnay-like style. It is the flavor profile of well made Chardonnay that pairs so easily with chicken. If you are feeling adventurous, strike up a conversation with the wine buyer at your favorite local shop. Ask them which white wines that have that characteristic buttery style. If you have a specific recipe in mind, think of complementary flavors. Almost every wine label will have a description of the contents on back. You can get a pretty good wine (or two) within the $10 to $20 range. – Ben Spencer is a diploma student with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and an IntoWine Featured Writer.

IntoWine asked our panel of experts to share their recommendations for the best Sonoma County white wine for the price: Sonoma’s reputation for making ultra premium wines does not come without merit. Sonoma has history of making focused, sumptuous wines from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Bordeaux varieties. Recently, I came across Leo Steen’s Chenin Blanc. The wine proved to an honest expression of the classic French variety, with hints of citrus and island fruit. The palate is rich, with a clear acidity that carries through to the finish. The grapes for this wine come from a small sustainable vineyard in the Dry Creek Valley. The sandy, stony soils contribute to the vitality of this unique white wine which would pair well with just about any seafood, salad, or chicken recipe. (About $20) – Ben Spencer is a diploma student with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and an IntoWine Featured Writer.

IntoWine asked our panel of experts to share their recommendations for the best syrah for the money: Syrah seems to be ubiquitous these days but in fact it’s still an uphill battle for this grape to get the recognition it deserves. If syrah is new to you, the Liberty School Syrah ($14) is a great place to start. With plenty of blackberry, plum and boysenberry fruit and an appropriate oak and acid balance, this syrah avoids being a fat fruity wine with no finesse. Instead it’s surprisingly mature with soft tannins. I drank this with Cajun spiced quail and the beauty of this wine is that it can pair with so many foods. I wonderful go-to syrah and a terrific price point. - Michael Cervin , Wine Judge, Restaurant Critic, and IntoWine Featured Writer

IntoWine asked our panel of experts to share their recommendations for the best wine to pair with stilton blue cheese: Many people think Stilton is blue, but it’s not. A nuttier, more mature taste, Stilton needs a special wine. The Lucas and Lewellen Late Harvest Viognier ($24) perfectly matches the pungent Stilton’s texture and strong notes. Late harvests often beat up any food they’re around, too much. But the Lucas and Lewellen is soft, slightly floral nose, mild RS and soft acidity works in concert with the blue to allow it to express itself with the wine pulls back some of the potent flavors with a feminine acidity and honeysuckle flavors. A match made nearly in heaven, these two are like proverbial peas in a pod. - Michael Cervin , Wine Judge, Restaurant Critic, and IntoWine Featured Writer

IntoWine asked our panel of experts to share their recommendations for the best Sonoma County red wine for the price: Sonoma seems to always have an uphill battle as its sibling, Napa, constantly gets the spotlight. But there are exceptional wines coming from this region. The Clos Du Bois Reserve Tempranillo ($22) is ripe with blackberry, black plums, soft and spicy blackberry, blueberry and black cherry positioned correctly with oak and acid. One-fourth of this wine is cabernet sauvignon, which builds a dense, strong structure most tempranillo’s do not have. Layered with a juicy fresh crushed dark fruit mouth feel, this is a surprisingly commanding wine that at first blush seem like it might have come from Napa. But no, Sonoma wines stand on their own. - Michael Cervin , Wine Judge, Restaurant Critic, and IntoWine Featured Writer

IntoWine asked our panel of experts to share their recommendations for the best wine to pair with Mexican cuisine: Mexican food is a cornucopia of ingredient s on a plate and to find a wine to work with the diversity of flavors isn’t easy. But the Kalyra Cabernet Sauvignon Lot 6 ($22) from Santa Ynez is full of black cherry, dark raspberry, oak and pomegranate combining to create a surprisingly rich cab with an acidic backbone that can stand up to grilled meats like carne asada and the subtle nuances of rice and beans. It’s also dynamite with guacamole! Not a powerful cab, the growing condition in Santa Barbara County allow it to be mild and charming. - Michael Cervin , Wine Judge, Restaurant Critic, and IntoWine Featured Writer

IntoWine asked our panel of experts to share their recommendations for the best wine to pair with a tomato & mozzarella (Caprese) salad: Laraneta Sangiovese ($25). Ripe with raspberry, pomegranate, oak and wood notes this is another success from this small family owned winery located near Paso Robles. Simply put, their wines are just great to drink and taste wonderful. A long finish and a mild spice, it holds up against the acidity of the tomato and compliments with soft timid cheese. This wine is compelling and I usually lean toward an Italian wine with Italian food. One of the great hallmarks of a great wine is how quickly you tend to consume it; this sangiovese is deceptively good and will disappear from your glass too quickly. - Michael Cervin , Wine Judge, Restaurant Critic, and IntoWine Featured Writer

I had the pleasure of having my sister-in-law visit my wife and I yesterday, and generally whenever we have someone over to the house, I take the opportunity to cook a nice meal. Unfortunately, the primary reason for my sister-in-law’s visit was not actually to see my wife or I, but rather our new 3 month old daughter…and food was not top of mind. Additionally, the afore mentioned daughter isn’t the greatest of sleepers, I was exhausted, and didn’t really feel like cooking anyway. So….we ended up ordering Thai food.

I think Port is an underappreciated wine. At least in my life, I’ve always restricted it to dessert wine, and not being a dessert person, the bottles I acquired tended to sit around in my wine cabinet to gather dust and “age”. But, about a year ago, a friend (let’s call him John) at work called me over to his desk, pointed to an open bottle of port and a glass (fortunately he doesn’t operate heavy machinery) and asked me try his “…favorite $20 bottle of port, the best deal around”. The wine tasted very nice, but what interested me more than the flavor, was the way he thought about Port.

From apps that let you choose the type of wine, so it can choose the best food pairing, to apps that list just about every possible wine pairing for brunch, ethnic, foods and more, the 4 food & wine apps on the following list can do it all. At prices ranging from free up to $3.99, it might be worth it to add all of them to your arsenal.