Organic wine match of the day: Meinklang Pinot Noir & Swedish meatballs

 Angela and Werner Michlitsch

There’s a lot more to Pinot Noir than Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the Russian River or Santa Barbara in California, or even Burgundy in France.  From Austria, for instance, the 2007 Meinklang Pinot Noir (about $18) is an absolute stunner, as seductive as any in the world:  redolent of fragrant, wild strawberries – a lovely, lush, juicy fruitiness, unfettered by oak or lower earth tones – and on the palate, a soft yet firm, rippling, fruit driven texture, electrified by lively (but not sharp) acidity. 

Think of a young, dark eyed, black haired waif in skintight red dress – maybe a tiny bit of a tart, but intoxicatingly perfumed, with neither an ounce of body fat nor hard, angular edges.  Very unique; and yes, very Austrian, as Pinot Noirs go.

As much of this Pinot’s purity is can be attributed to the lower Alpine terroir of Burgenland, at the far eastern side of Austria bordering Hungary, as the natural yeast/small batch fermentation (utilizing extremely unorthodox, egg shape concrete containers) as well as the biodynamic fashion in which Werner and Angela Michlitsch practice on their Weingut Michlits estate.  In accordance with the self-sustaining principles of biodynamic viticulture, the Michlitschs also raise about 300 head of Angus cattle (plus horses and pigs) on their property, providing both sustenance and the manure going into their compost, which they combine with plant extractions to produce their green tea sprays, from the chamomile, yarrow, horsetail, dandelion, stinging nettle and other plants cultivated with equal attention in and around their vineyards.

When I think of food for this style of Pinot Noir, I think of something simple – not too complicated to prepare – with a leaner meatiness, a textured sauce, and a bright fruitiness to highlight the wine’s fragrance.  A perfect match?  Dig this IKEA hacked recipe for Swedish meatballs, which soak up the taste of a lush, fruit driven Pinot Noir like an organoleptic sponge.  Use of lean ground veal or pork with beef is essential to matching this style of Pinot, and both allspice and sweet onions connect with the wine’s sweet spice like ringing bells.  A stock lightened cream or half and half adds the silky texture you find in the wine; and in lieu of lingonberry preserves (but if you can find the lingonberry, in IKEA or on gourmet retail shelves, get it!), cranberry sauce does an amazing job of highlighting the strawberry fruitiness of Austrian grown Pinot Noir.

WINE BASICS #26:  How are wines and foods matched?

We always talk about commonsense wine and food matches; like the fact that zesty, dry white wines like Sauvignon Blanc are as natural with white fish as a squeeze of fresh lemon.  Or the fact that it makes sense to serve a full bodied, full tannin red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon with full, fatty red meats such as beef and lamb.  It doesn’t take a Master Sommelier’s degree to understand these things.  If you know that ketchup tastes good on a hamburger, and that hot fudge tastes great over vanilla ice cream, then you can easily get to know what wines make the most sense for just about any dish.

The intelligent approach to grasping how wines and foods are matched is in two different ways:  similarities and contrasts.  That is to say, similarities between the taste components in the wines and ingredients in a dish, and contrasts between the taste components in the wines and ingredients in a dish.  As long as there is some positive interaction involving contrast and/or similarity, a wine and dish will complement each other.  This is why it’s important to know the basic taste components and flavor profiles of wine grapes.