When matching food and wine your goal should be to match the intensities of flavors. One of the reasons for the old adage “White with fish, red with meat” is an intense red will dominate a lean mild flavored fish and steak will overwhelm most whites.
The trick is to match the intensity first and deal with the other flavor nuances next. Let’s take the wine match with Chef Mike’s “Grilled Salmon with Lemon Beurre Blanc”. Salmon is a full flavored fatty fish. If you pair it with a Sauvignon Blanc, the flavor and fatty mouth feel of the salmon will overwhelm the wine. A Cabernet Sauvignon in turn will overwhelm the salmon and dominate the flavor of the beurre blanc. With Pinot Noir, a lighter red wine with enough richness to compliment the salmon without covering it up.
To help with your choices here is a general wine spectrum from lightest to weightiest.
Dry and off-dry whites: Soave, Orvieto, Pinot Grigio, Off-dry Riesling, Dry Riesling, Muscadet, Champagne and other dry sparkling wines, Chenin Blanc, French Chablis and unoaked Chardonays, Sauvignon Blanc, White Bordeaux, White Burgundy, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Oaked Chardonays.
Red Wines: Valpolicella, Beaujolais, Rioja, California Pinot Noir, Oregon Pinot Noir, Burgundy, Chianti Classico, Barbaresco, Barola, Bordeaux, Merlot, Zinfindel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Rhone, Syrah, Shiraz.
