Wednesday, August 16, 2006

DICK ROSANO

This menu is a "wrap-around," one in which all the dishes complement one another, each part leading to flavors of every other part. When you're choosing wines, that's a good thing, since there are no discordant notes.

But to find the best wine, focus on the main dish, Grilled Deviled Chicken. Luckily, the best wine for the grilled chicken -- a white Burgundy or lightly oaked chardonnay -- works perfectly with all the other flavors on the table.

White Burgundy, which is stylistically unoaked or only lightly oaked, shows bright fruit and vivid acidity and is a perfect match. It avoids the frequently too-plush flavors of an over-oaked American chardonnay and is just the thing for the deep, spicy flavors of the main dish. The more aggressively oaky chardonnays would be too heavy and would deaden the dazzling array of flavors in the several dishes included in this meal.

So let's begin with affordable options from France. There's the Maison Louis Jadot 2004 Macon-Villages (France, $10), featuring fresh apple and citrus flavors; or the 2004 Pouilly-Fuisse from the same estate ($22), with citrusy flavors and a hint of minerality.

Outside France, try the Chehalem 2004 INOX Chardonnay (Willamette Valley, Oregon, $17), with its refreshing flavors of lemon, lime and green apple; the Benziger 2004 Los Carneros Chardonnay (Carneros, $13), featuring vibrant fruit and lively acidity; or the Kim Crawford 2005 Unoaked Chardonnay (New Zealand, $17), showing crisp acidity and flavors of pineapple, apple and citrus.

All these wines provide the necessary acidity to lift the flavors of the grilled chicken and stand up to the complexity of the menu.

Dick Rosano, author of "Wine Heritage, the Story of Italian-American Vintners" (Wine Appreciation Guild), teaches wine and food pairing at L'Academie de Cuisine. His pairings appear on this page monthly.