Wine Country meals don't always have to include wine

Is wine the best or most appropriate beverage with every cuisine? That's a provocative question, especially in wine-centric Sonoma County. But why struggle to find a wine that compliments spicy Szechwan beef when beer or tea is a better choice?

Whether you are dining at home around the family dinner table or at one of the county's many ethnic restaurants, wine is but one of many beverage choices. So, it's not a betrayal of the wine covenant to consider the relevance of wine with all foods.

Cocktails are not a traditional choice with food, but they are so popular today it's hard to deny their place on the dinner table. Cocktails range in sweetness from a Dry Martini to a sweet Mai Tai. Today's most popular cocktails merge exotic ingredients, resulting in a drink that compliments nearly every dish from simple grilled fish to smoky sweet barbecue.

There is a time-worn adage about pairing wine and food: White wine with fish, red wine with meat. It's good advice, since you wouldn't want a big red with a piece of pan-fried fish.

More important, though, is how the fish or meat is prepared and seasoned and sauced. Prime rib with pan juices is nicely complimented with a medium-bodied pinot noir. Swap out the au jus for a brown sauce, especially with a lot of pepper, and you'll need to kick it up a notch to syrah or even cabernet sauvignon. But you might also enjoy that smothered hunk of beef with a smoky full-bodied stout or porter.

Heat from peppers and other spices found in a variety of dishes on Chinese, Thai or Japanese menus will over-power all white wines. Even fruity whites like gewurztraminer and riesling pale when faced with over-seasoned dishes. Spice and heat can also fight most red wines, save for the odd high-octane zinfandel or petite sirah. Hearty beers, like an IPA (India Pale Ale), have the structure and layered flavors to stand up to most spicy dishes and are particularly good with Asian or Mexican dishes that balance a little heat with complex flavors.

Mexican and Tex-Mex food is a popular staple for many Sonoma County restaurant-goers. Lightly seasoned fish tacos work nicely with a fruity white wine like dry or off-dry riesling. The touch of sweetness picks up the fish and cilantro flavors in the taco, forming a nice match with chilled fruit juice or one of the citrus-flavored Italian sodas.

Heartier Mexican dishes like burritos stuffed with beans, meat and cheese and smothered in salsa verde call for Mexican beer or a light fruity red wine such as beaujolais, California gamay or an Italian valpolicella. A more robust beer is a good call with the dark chocolate accents of a mole dish.

Italian favorite

A few years ago, a survey of America's eating habits showed that, in terms of preference, Americans like Italian food over any other ethnic cuisine, although the results were probably skewed by Americans' passion for pizza.

Of course, there is more to Italian cuisine than spaghetti and pizza. In America, Italian food is roughly divided between Northern Italian, with its emphasis more on rice than pasta, and Southern Italian, a heartier style centered on pasta and red sauce.

From the top of the boot to the toe and heel, including Sicily, Italy is virtually one long vineyard. Local wines based on different grape varieties are geared to marry seamlessly with the local cuisine.

Curiously, while Italians continue to make oceans of wine, Italian beer hardly registers among beer aficionados. So, when it comes to Italian food, while you can always opt for beer from another country, you'll never go wrong pairing an Italian wine with Italian food. Be advised, though, that the selection of Italian wines in Sonoma County is better in restaurants than it is at retail.

Still, the bottom line swirling around all this chatter about what wine or beer or other beverage goes best with what food, is whatever tastes good to you.

My wife and I were at a popular Indian restaurant in Santa Rosa recently, and a couple across from us was working their way through a bottle of California chardonnay. One dish on their table had those tiny fire-engine-red Indian peppers scattered on it, and I was wondering how the chardonnay was doing. An Indian beer would have put out the fire a lot faster and better.

Sweet finish

Finally, there's dessert, the most difficult dish to pair with a beverage, especially wine. Regardless of the ethnic cuisine, the common thread that runs through all desserts is sweetness. Some desserts are gently sweetened like French meringue, while others are tooth-aching sweet like Middle Eastern baklava.

If you must have wine with dessert, the rule of thumb is the dessert should not be sweeter than the wine.

Some sweet Belgium beers might work with fruit pie or a piece of chocolate cake, but do yourself a favor. Forget the wine or beer with dessert and have a cup of coffee.

Lest I forget, there is also the ongoing argument about pairing wine with chocolate. Some people swear that dark chocolate with cabernet sauvignon is like manna from heaven, or they might make a concession and allow syrah or even pinot noir.

I don't see it working, never have. A glass of ruby port with a chocolate truffle, maybe, or you might try a steaming mug of hot chocolate or one of the Belgium sweet cherry-flavored beers. I like both chocolate and wine, so I can't see mucking up either one by forcing them together.

Personal choice will always rule the day when deciding the best beverage with food, and with a little experimenting, you can decide the relevance of wine, or beer, or spirits, or fruit juice, or cider, or cocktails.

Gerald D. Boyd is a Sonoma-based wine and spirits writer.