Forget the rules about rules. After twenty harvests I have exactly one pairing principle left: match weight with weight, and let everything else argue it out. Here are three suppers that prove it.
Roast Roots + Bordeaux Légende
Carrots, parsnips and beets roasted hard until their edges caramelise, over soft polenta. The Légende's redcurrant brightness cuts the sweetness while its tobacco-leaf earthiness shakes hands with the char. A Wednesday-night bottle wearing Sunday clothes.
Braised Beef + Heavyweight Cabernet
Short ribs, three hours, one bottle in the pot and one on the table — always cook with something you would drink. The Cabernet's blackcurrant and cedar stand up to the richness instead of drowning in it, and the firm tannins scrub the palate clean between bites.
“Cook with a glass you would drink. The pot deserves it, and so do you.”
Dark Chocolate + Anthony's Pinot
Seventy percent cacao, a little sea salt, and our single-barrel pinot at cellar temperature — not room temperature, cellar temperature, about 60°F. Cherry preserve against bitter chocolate is the pairing that converts people who claim they only drink white.
Serve It Right
Open reds an hour before supper. Decant the Cabernet, never the old pinot. And keep the bottle off the radiator — the fastest way to flatten a good wine is serving it warm.