This time of the year – when the humidity has dissipated and nights are crisp – is one of my favorites.
While I feel lugubrious about less light-filled days, I embrace the season’s changing wardrobes from shorts and sundresses to wool sweaters, corduroy pants and heavier suit jackets. We change our “wine wardrobe,” too.
This means we bring forth wines that partner well with the season’s cool nights and hearty foods. So, what in the wine world marks the fall season like pumpkin spice lattes do in the coffee space? Hearty red wines, lush, full-bodied white wines and full-flavored fruit wines, ones made from fruits other than grapes.
I always say drink what you like anytime, but sipping a wine incongruous to the season may not bring out the best bibulous pleasures. For example, a hearty red wine on a hot summer day is like wearing a wool coat to the beach. It’s not as enjoyable. Here’s more on my fall wine wardrobe:
Hearty red wines. They include options such as cabernet sauvignon, malbec, tempranillo and amarone, the latter an Italian style of wine made from a combination of grapes. These hearty reds typically are packed with more tannins, components in the grape skins and seeds that often give that mouth-coating, drying sensation.
A wine’s tannins are great for pairing with the steaks and beef roasts often enjoyed during autumn. These red wines’ tannins bind with a meat’s protein and create a butter-like sensation on the palate instead of the drying, velvety one.
Malbec is a grape grown mostly in Argentina and southern France; tempranillo is cultivated mostly in Spain. Some of these two reds can be light bodied if fermented and aged in stainless steel or cement vats. Though most of them provide us with a sipping experience full of luxurious silkiness, coating the mouth, because of their time aging in oak barrels.
Amarone – made from grapes indigenous to Italy’s Veneto area – is a wine like no other. Extremely opulent filled with an abundance of fruit, amarone will warm you on any chilly fall evening. The perfect matches for it are pulled pork from the crockpot or oven, lamb with a dried cherry sauce and game days.
Lush, full-bodied white wines. Lush full-bodied whites encompass chardonnay and viognier, both made in a style with oak barrel aging. Viognier is a grape grown often in southern France, Washington state and sometimes California. Condrieu, France, in the northern part of the Rhône Valley, is the most famous area for viognier. It has a voluptuous body and flavors of tropical fruits, and when it rests for months or years in oak barrels, the resulting wine packs a honey punch. These richer styles of chardonnay and viognier are splendid partners for chicken and dumplings, chicken pot pie and salmon. Lastly, anything toasty or bready or foods as simple as smoked gouda cheese and roasted nuts pair well, too.
[caption id="attachment_383103" align="alignright" width="241"]
COOL COMPLEMENT: Bluet wild blueberry sparkling wine from Maine pairs well with wine biscuits made with Bluet. / COURTESY JESSICA NORRIS GRANATIERO[/caption]
Fruit-made wines. Fruit wines are those made from fruits other than grapes, such as blueberry, apple and cranberry. They can be dry or cloyingly sweet. Nickle Creek Vineyard LLC in Foster makes some of the best-flavored, sweeter fruit wines, such as its Autumn Cranberry. Sip that while nibbling on fresh cranberry and nut bread. Maine’s Bluet, made from fresh Maine wild blueberries, is a dry, slightly sparkling wine, similar to lambrusco. It’s stunning! My favorite pairings with it are wine biscuits made with Bluet.
Fruit wines are best enjoyed with only a slight chill on them. When wines are too cold, meaning just removed from the refrigerator, the flavors are masked. Wine needs time to open up and bloom. I recommend taking wine out of the refrigerator 15 minutes before you want to sip it.
Jessica Norris Granatiero is the founder of The Savory Grape, a wine, beer and spirits shop in East Greenwich.
