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Wine With. . . Mac 'N Cheese
by Paul Lukacs and Marguerite Thomas
Winter came late to the Mid-Atlantic this year, but it has finally arrived on a blast of frigid air. We've a much easier time of it here than the beleaguered West and Midwest have had, but even so there's a desire to hunker down, throw a match on the logs in the fireplace, and pull a dish of something warm and soothing from the oven. And so, on a blustery Sunday evening, we invited our friend Lisa, an enthusiastic enophile, over for a Mac 'n Cheese dinner and a sampling of wines.
Macaroni and Cheese can be as simple or complex as one chooses to make it. We sometimes add peas and ham to the mix, but in truth, few things are more inviting to appetites fueled by cold weather than tender bits of macaroni enveloped in a creamy sauce and layered with good quality cheese, with no other distracting textures and flavors. (What kind of cheese to use? Surf the Net and you'll see that, when it comes to Mac 'n Cheese, a lot of folks swear by Velveeta, but to our mind nothing beats the oozy texture and rustic flavor of fine cheddar).
As the dish went through its last few minutes of bubbling and browning in the hot oven, we set about opening a dozen or so bottles of wine. We weren't certain what to expect. Since part of the charm of the dish is its basic simplicity, would white wine be best? On the other hand, with a pound of Cheddar the leading ingredient, maybe red? As it turns out, the answer is 'yes,' and 'yes'. All three palates around our table concurred that with this dish, it isn't so much a question of color or grape variety, but one of intensity. We found that bone dry and/or super-delicate wines such as the Verdelho and the lean Sauvignon Blanc in our lineup become relatively tasteless against the fat texture of melted cheese. A weightier Chardonnay was much more appropriate texturally, and its sweet fruitiness was more harmonious with the dish. A hint of sweetness, in fact, from either ripe fruit or a small amount of residual sugar, was an essential component in the wines we selected. But note that the key word here is hint of sweetness, not a wallop--a Loire Valley Vouvray and a Washington State Gewurtztraminer, for example, were both jarringly sweet. Aside from these relatively minor considerations, however, we concluded that for the most part you can hardly go wrong picking a wine to have with macaroni and cheese. And that's a comforting thought to go with the ultimate comfort food. As Nora Ephron writes:
What I love about cooking is that after a hard day, there is something comforting about the fact that if you melt butter and add flour and then hot stock, it will get thick! It's a sure thing! It's a sure thing in a world where nothing is sure.
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Chateau St. Jean, Sonoma County (California) Merlot Noir 2004
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$25 |
The sweet oak in this recently released Merlot threatened to overpower the fruit when we tasted it on its own. Yet when paired with the rich dish, the wood faded gently into the background, and the wine became a harmonious partner. The experience offered further proof that how a wine tastes by itself is not necessarily how it will taste when drunk with a meal.
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Cono Sur, Colchagua Valley (Chile) Viognier 2006
(Imported by Vineyard Brands)
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$10 |
The ripe, sweet fruit flavors in this youthful white paired well with the velvety dish. The wine's vibrancy proved a refreshing foil, while its creamy texture echoed the mac 'n cheese itself. And the price is more than right.
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Genesis by Hogue Cellers, Columbia Valley (Washington) Syrah, 2002 |
$16 |
Bright red cherry and raspberry flavors came to the fore in this very attractive Syrah. Those fruit flavors made it seem sufficiently sweet to complement the mac 'n cheese, but it never became jammy or hot, so proved refreshing as well as satisfying.
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Simi, Russian River Valley (California) Chardonnay 'Reserve' 2004
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$25 |
Another example of a wine that seemed a bit too oaky on its own but that harmonized nicely at the supper table. The fruit flavors more than held their own there, and the characteristically buttery note found in good California Chardonnay made a suitable partner for this all-American comfort food.
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Mendocinio Wine Company, Mendicino County (California) Zinfandel 'Zig Zag Zin' 2004
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$18 |
This rich but not excessively heavy or alcoholic red displayed just the right note of sweetness to accompany the meal. It tastes ripe but not hot (unlike a lot of contemporary Zins), so never dominated the match. Instead, both food and wine were enhanced by each other's presence.
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