While the general rule of the pour is to pair lighter-colored wines with lighter foods, salmon is the fish most likely to make you want to b/files/storyimages/some rules. For starters, you’ll want a grape with both natural acidity and natural residual sugar content. While that in and of itself may sound too much like a rule, it actually gives you lots of leeway. Hence the inclusion of a Cotes du Rhone (of all things) below.
2005 Pietra Santa Chardonnay, $15
Yet another Chardonnay for people who think they don’t like Chardonnay! This one comes from Monterey Bay, Calif., and gives off aromas of both pear and melon. One of our tasters insisted he could taste muskmelon; another mentioned mangos; yet the fruitiness almost vaporizes into a quick, dry finish. The Pietra Santa has just the subtlest hint of oak, seeming at first to lack complexity, almost to the point of being “benign” for another taster. Still, its lively fruit flavors, as well as its slightly-higher-than-average alcohol content, proved quite ready to tango with the blueberries and mushrooms in the salmon sauce.
2006 Mapema Sauvignon Blanc, $13
The Sauvignon Blanc grape achieves its “purest expression,” as they say, when grown in a cool climate. The grapes used to produce the Mapema Sauvignon Blanc are grown at an elevation of 3,900 feet in the shadows of the Andean mountains in Argentina. The wine starts out with aromas of citrus and fresh herbs. Tasting leads immediately in more of a lemony direction — perhaps even lemongrass. Thus you /files/storyimages/up with a remarkable bl/files/storyimages/of zesty and creamy (acidity and body), a nice complement to the salmon’s sauce, studded with those blueberries. This kind of fruity acidity, which remains on the palate throughout the sipping, is not easy to come by cheaply, so you might want to grab a case while you can. It’s refreshing all by itself, so it’s a good thing to have on hand the moment guests walk through the door.
2005 Domaine Lafond “Roc-Epine” Cotes du Rhone, $14
This very dark French red has hues of purple (kind of like a cross between a garnet and an amethyst) and looks, in the sunlight, like something out of medieval heraldry. It makes sense when you look at its provenance. “Roc-Epine” is an old family producer that began in Tavel (20 minutes from Avignon) in 1780. Wine doesn’t get much more historical than that. Nonetheless, what you think upon first sipping this Cotes du Rhone is: youth itself! How can anything be so ripe and so bright at the same time? It’s the Simone de Beauvoir of wines. As with many things French, you can taste the structure in it. While our other tasters loved the two whites on offer, and while I tried valiantly to prefer one of them over the kind of wine I’m drawn to anyway, the Roc-Epine stole my heart. Well, no, my palate. I’m crazy about this bottle. On top of everything else, it’s dirt cheap!
— MW
