Red wine, white wine, or both? We asked food & wine experts about what to drink with what to eat in today’s wine-savvy dining culture
A LOT has been written about red aged wine and its elevated status on wine menus at fine dining restaurants. But what about white wines and the role they play on the tables of today’s culinary establishments? The simple adage of matching ‘reds with dark meat and whites with seafood’ may be out of date with a culture that is growing more wine savvy, especially when it comes to pairings that fall outside of the traditional categories (which seems to be happening with more frequency as consumers grow more adventurous). And, if white wines deserve a more serious and prolific place at the table, in what settings do they shine most brilliantly?
For an insider’s take on these questions, we turned to sommeliers and wine professionals who cater to discriminating patrons at several Puget Sound area restaurants.
“There’s no need to proselytize one or the other, red, or white,” offers Doug Frost, master sommelier, master of wine, author and co-owner of Echolands Winery. Frost’s own choice for wine skews heavily to whites for daily drinking. He says that putting a bottle of red and a bottle of white on the dinner table is the best way to serve a wine dinner.
“I think it’s the only way to serve people and be hospitable. Not everyone likes red wine and not everyone likes white wine. But there are deeply complex white wines that can stand up to a wealth of foods,” Frost insists. Echolands recently planted Assyrtiko grapes, a white varietal indigenous to Greece and beloved for its texture, acidity, and minerality.
Frost points out that historically, white wines occupied a wider space than they do now. “It’s interesting, when we go back to the 19th century and the turn of the last century and look at the menus from those times, it’s heavily skewed toward white wines and Champagne. You even see people having barons of beef with Riesling, because rich wine is rich wine.” Frost, who is based in Kansas City, says that he often serves Riesling with Kansas City barbecue. “Friends of mine will ask me why I do it and I say ‘because it tastes good, that’s why,” and for Frost, that’s the best reason.
Give it a Try
That subjectivity is an important part of the equation. Chris Lara leads the wine program at Seattle’s Metropolitan Grill. “Since we are a steakhouse and it is such a driver to have red wine with dinner, white wines are 14% of our sales, and Champagne is included in that,” he says. “We will start a lot of meals with white wine, and a lot of our servers will sell half-bottles of it, for example before a meal.”
Chris Lara maintains the biggest reason their wine sales lean heavily to reds is the Met’s reputation as a prime-quality steakhouse. “I think there might be a fish back there somewhere,” he jokes. “We do see a little fish, chicken and pork, but if I were to pull the numbers, it would be astronomically one-sided on beef. It’s what the Met’s strong point is.”
He often recommends some Washington whites that give customers a chance to experience something new whether as a pre-dinner aperitif or as an alternative choice. “I just tasted a beautiful Marsanne-Viognier blend from Hedges Family Estate that is just stunning. They like it to be a little fatter and richer, so they reach a little higher alcohol content, which Marsanne likes to do anyway. In my opinion that would go great with any of our steaks.”
Matching the Wine’s Weight with the Food’s Richness
Sommelier Erik Liedholm is the wine director for John Howie Restaurants, which owns Seastar Restaurant and John Howie Steak. “I think you can make an argument for having a serious piece of protein with a big white wine,” Liedholm asserts, but quantifies it by adding, “It really is about matching the size and weight of the wine with the richness and intensity of the food.”
Seastar is known for a diverse offering of seafood, including sushi and fresh local oysters. The wine program consists of more than 750 selections and has held Wine Spectator’s Best of Award of Excellence for the past 15 years. Liedholm reports that Seastar’s wine sales are nearly 50/50 red and white. “At the steak restaurant, it’s still very predominantly red and that’s to be expected. If we’re talking to a guest and they want a white wine with their steak, we will oblige them. When we opened John Howie Steak 10 years ago, we had a lot more white wine on the list then than we do now. That’s because we listened to our guests and consumers have their own ideas of what they want,” he says.
That doesn’t mean that Liedholm doesn’t take white wines seriously. “Every so often, we will work with a producer to make our house white. We did a Riesling with Long Shadows called Schloss Howie. One that we sell by the glass that we love is an Albariño by Palencia Winery; it’s got great acidity and carries itself well. We still think Poet’s Leap by Long Shadows is a great off-dry white that we pour. There are enough good white wines made with low pH and high acidity that can be served with a number of dishes, including big pieces of protein,” says Liedholm.
Conversing with Customers
Many restaurant experts believe it’s not always a simple matter of choosing a white or red, but rather, what flavor profiles work best and whether or not the customer is open to exploring more options.
Ryan Lowell is the wine and spirits director of Russell’s Restaurant & Loft in Bothell, a popular dining destination known for their annual winemaker dinner series and iconic wedding venue. Like other wine professionals we talked to, Lowell says that typically if he is reaching for a glass of wine, it’s a white wine. “I’m totally partial to white wine, especially Sauvignon Blanc” he shares. “I don’t understand it when I hear people say, ‘I only drink red wine.’ I feel like there’s a kind of stigma associated with white wine, but I appreciate all varietals because each is unique in their own way. At the end of the day, a wine is made great by a multitude of factors.”
Ryan says that when he was a waiter, he enjoyed suggesting to patrons types of wine that were outside their comfort zone when the opportunity arose. “So, if some said they didn’t like white wine, I might say, well, have you tried this? And that presents guests with all kinds of wines and pairings they would never have known about.” Lowell admits that scenario is not always possible, but a conversation begins when a customer starts to ask questions—and opens the door to tasting something perhaps a bit different than what they’re used to.
More Choices of Washington White Wines
Amanda Reed’s love of wine began with white wine. Reed is director of beverage for E3 Restaurant Group, which owns Elliott’s Oyster House and The Lobster Shop in Tacoma (as well as the Metropolitan Grill where Chris Lara runs the wine program.) “I worked in San Francisco for a number of years and was exposed to the finer side of white wines, and there were some phenomenal ones, so I like the nuances of those and how they spoke to me. I think more and more people are jumping on that,” she says.
Reed is quick to point out that the two seafood restaurants in the group, Elliott’s and The Lobster Shop, have a much larger white wine program as opposed to the Metropolitan, but insists the Met didn’t earn an acclaimed wine program for procuring only red wines. “There are white wines that have more richness, like a Sauvignon Blanc that has seen some oak, or a rich Chardonnay, and those really go with red meat choices.”
At the seafood restaurants, which include a more diverse menu of dishes, Reed says the choices open up—and so do the choices of Washington white wines. “I’m really excited about what Washington is doing with white wines now,” she says. “There are more obscure varietals like Assyrtiko and skin-contact white wines, and a lot more diversity like Sémillon and Gewürztraminer.”
Reed is actively working to expand the selection of white wines served at all the restaurants. “You’re seeing more of these unique wines grown in Washington like Viognier. We serve Simpatico’s Viognier, which falls right in the middle of that oak and acid, and is such great seafood wine,” she says. “It pairs with things that are harder to pair with like, for example, we serve a dish at Lobster Shop with halibut, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and a potato cake, and that pairing is just phenomenal.”
She says Grosgrain Winery is making a skin-contact Sémillon that adds texture, but doesn’t take away from a food’s flavors and nuances. “I’m really interested in finding those unique wines and sharing them with our customers. When you’re pairing wine and food, you can approach them with ideas; I still offer tastes of wines,” Reed says. “It’s the best way to get customers to think about what the possibilities are. I love doing that when I can.”
Doug Frost sees the change in the American palate as being more white wine friendly, or at least white wine-approachable. “So much of our cuisine now is vegetarian, and we’re backing off of large meat portions. Red wines and their tannins are highly appropriate to fatty foods and high protein foods, but we’re increasingly eating foods that are neither of those, and what I need for that is acidity and white wine has that in spades.”
Of course, the steakhouse isn’t disappearing, or even fading away. And big bold reds will always own a share of the restaurant market. But Frost insists change is happening. “I think the paradigm that the most serious wine is the big Cab-based wine is really associated with the Boomers. The Gen Z’ers are kind of thinking, ‘whatever’ to that. The sort of ‘gimmee my steak, ‘gimmee my Cab, is just not the only choice at the table anymore.”
Written by Mark Storer