Food & Wine: 1 of 1,000,000

Last night, I ordered Veal Scallopine ala Anthony at our restaurant during staff meal. The preparation is egg battered, thinly pounded veal with a caper-butter sauce over orzo and lemon. Not the easiest dish to pair wine with, but the challenge is always fun for me.

One useful tip I have always found to work more than not is to start with the country where the dish origninated, in this case, Italy. Not every time, but this time, it was a home run, and I didn’t have to let the dish get cold while I tried 10 different selections. The Posenato Soave Classico from the Veneto proved to be a stellar match, and my dinner was complete. While mineral-driven, the Posenato also had great acidity followed by aromas of honeycomb that didn’t aggravate the lemon and capers in the dish, two difficult components to pair with wine. As my husband watched me chew and sip with delight, he lovingly said, “What if the customer doesn’t want white? They only want to drink red.”

But, of course. Doesn’t it always happen? You have the perfect white to pair with a dish, and the customer says, I don’t drink white.

Go back home. Do not pass go. Let’s keep trying.

We started tasting the dish with reds, and while none came close to highlighting the dish as well as the Soave, the Benton Lane Pinot Noir from Oregon did a decent job. Sounds trite, I know. Pinot Noir to the rescue, but it was easily the best red wine of the ones we tasted to pair with the caper butter.

As I continue to eat, and of course, contine to drink, I’m sure I will have many opportunities ahead to find other red wines with an affinity for white wine dishes. All in a night’s work, I say, so keep checking back to find out more.