Continued from Nut and Wine pairing story
THE OVERLOOKED NUT
The cool thing about Ken’s sommelier experience is that he can call attention to common details that make a huge difference in how you might choose wine or nuts. Like this one: Nuts are probably not the main course in your holiday feasts. Duh-oh! They will be the snack that tides you over until the guests are called to the table and the turkey or tofurky is carved. Therefore, rule number one, is to keep the amuse bouche light. Small dishes of nuts placed in the social rooms, not giant bowls, will do. Nuts are a great pre-dinner snack, but they are filling, he said.
And it goes without saying that nuts have been generally ignored in holiday wine-pairing round-ups like this one, with most of the interest on pairing with the main courses. Actually, Ken said it. “This is the first time I’ve been interviewed on pairing nuts and wine.” I took this to mean I am terribly clever and unique. I will later retract that impression.
Meanwhile a nut-serving host or hostess trying to be as clever as I am, can read on to learn Ken’s second big reveal of the obvious: Most Americans eat nuts that have been roasted, salted and are slightly oily. Although nuts have a variety of flavors, this basic similarity can inform initial choices for opening bottles.
Ken suggests white wines for pairing with most nuts including Chenin Blanc from California or a Pinot Gris from Oregon.
“I’m not a proponent of red wine with nuts,” he said. Sémillon, Viognier and other white Rhone varietals, a dry Muscat from California, and Mendocino or Lake County and coastal California whites are his short list of pairings with nuts grown in the West.
Details, I ask him in a hurry, because my retired winemaker friend has just suggested Pinot Blanc and Riesling and looks about to launch another story off-topic.
You can’t go wrong with a St. Innocent Pinot Blanc, Ken agrees, and now it is me telling a story about my recent brunch at that small Willamette Valley vineyard where the winemaker/chef, Mark Vlossak, sat down with us and told us his story, all without knowing I was writer (I’m not that famous).
Ken graciously brings me back to earth, and expands on Alsatian-style Rieslings, Gewurztraminers, and Pinot Gris, a bit more acidic and full-bodied and great for nut pairings. Then he takes his own brief detour into the weeds to talk about the importance of the winemaker to the wine, and how we should all be reading the labels for the names of winemakers we love and trust.
Here we go again, the two men name-dropping “winemakers we love” while I check my notes for the next question. I do perk up on the suggestion that a good winemaker’s name on a less expensive wine is made with the same care as his or her more expensive wines.
What about red wine with walnuts, I ask. Chillable light reds like a true Oregon Gamay from Love and Squalor, or J. Lohr Valdiguie from Arroyo Seco/Monterrey would work, Ken said.
NUT NERD OF NAPA
If Ken Collura is the wine nerd of this story, perhaps Schecky Miluso of Napa Nuts can be dubbed the Nut Nerd (the moniker “Food Nerd” actually appears in his e-mail signature) -- I don’t use the term loosely. Miluso put together a 126-page wine and nut pairing guide with full color charts, tasting notes and other visuals. It was as if he were that straight-A student you knew in high school who always overdid the class project. This makes some sense, as Schecky, before he returned to the family business, was a high school teacher. Schecky and his sister Bonnie now own the family business his mother Maxine and later father Allen established in 1990.
Schecky said he assembled the voluminous guide – available online – to distribute and educate wholesale customers. How’d that work for you? I asked, stealing Dr. Phil’s famous line delivered to people who had done something a little crazy. Schecky laughed. “It was a little too long,” he said.
Still, I found it an intriguing read, and a little different than Ken’s suggestions. So maybe I should have said this: pairing is not an exact science, because every tongue is different. You can educate the mind, but the tongue is idiotically stuck on what it likes.
Schecky’s pairing suggestions are not tied to particular wineries, although the company’s location in the Napa Valley is telling. However, his general suggestions and tasting notes are handy for pairing wine with specific nuts, both salted and unsalted.
I’ll start with a simple list of nuts he lists as pairing with dark reds, light reds, roses, whites, sweet wines and bubbles – in other words, any good wine. These include: roasted and salted almonds, Marcona almonds and cashews. Unsalted roasted almonds he would pair with all but the sweet and bubbly wines.
Roses, whites and sweet wines are paired with smoked almonds and pine nuts.
Schecky suggests pairing toasted and lightly salted California-grown pistachios with a variety of wines except for the dark reds. Avoid pairing raw pistachios with any red wine. The smooth taste and low bitterness of the nut and the wine creates a creamy mouth feel.
Walnuts are beloved for their tannic astringency, subdued in California nuts with a hint of sweetness. The strong tannins pair well with dark and light reds with similar qualities.
Mixed roasted nuts -- cashews, almonds and pecans – with an added salt or garlic flavor or spice would pair well with sweeter roses, whites and bubbles , according to Schecky’s notes, while those same raw mixed nuts can show off some light red, rose and white wines that have a bit more acid. Lightly roasted mixed nuts without salt are great with dark and light reds. If your roasted and salted mixed nut blend includes hazelnuts, go for the reds, light or dark. A similar savory flavored blend is perfectly paired with sweet or bubbly wines.
“Some red wines are known as smokey, peppery, or spicy. For wines like this, nuts with a smooth or creamy flavor tend to mellow out the strong flavors of the wine. We recommend roasted and salted almonds, California walnuts, and dark chocolate almonds,” Schecky wrote in his blog.
Not serving nuts for your holiday happy hour? Napa Nuts Wine Pairing Guide has you covered. Much of the guide’s content suggests wine pairings with the company’s dried fruits, crackers, pretzels and fruit-nut-blends, cracker-pretzel blends, and candies.
You may be able to talk Schecky into sending you a copy of that 126-page pairing guide, but he suggests you wait for the updated version, now in progress. His contact info is at NapaNuts.com.
