Bacon makes everything with which it’s eaten, from eggs to ice cream, just taste better. One reason is its salt, of course, but another is its high glutamate content, a pronounced factor in any cured meat. Pair bacon with another food, such as salmon, also high in glutamate, and the savory quotient ratchets up —and then up again. All that juicy deliciousness suggests certain wines over others, those also multilayered in taste and savor. No monotonic fruit bombs here, but a crisp zesty white and two reds all with nuance, built-up flavors, and long, beckoning aftertastes. Perhaps most crucial, however, [...]

Nature is a thing of beauty, as is wine. When the natural approach to making wine is enlisted, a rather unique and expressive version of fermented grape juice is the result. While it is currently on an upward trend among buyers and consumers alike, this style of wine making is not new, and it can even be traced back to the eighth century BC. Natural wines are, in short, a result of minimal intervention from the winemaker, and they are quite unlike other wines on the market. Moreover, in drinking these wines one may even feel as if the juice [...]

Simplify pairing wine with food by attending less to the texture, flavor, or weight of each and more to elements such as salt, sweet, acid, and fat. For instance, foods with salt (as the tamari soy sauce here) really appreciate wine that is high in acidity. Acidity enlivens, cleanses and balances. Poke is pronounced "poh-kay," rhymes with "okay," and means "chunk" in Hawaiian. Its recipe always carries salt and always benefits from wines high in acidity.  HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:• 3/4 pound #1 ahi tuna, sliced into 1/2-inch cubes (on special at Marczyk Fine Foods this week for $27.99/lb (reg $29.99/lb))• 2 Ela Family [...]

A spoonful of sugar makes more than the medicine go down; it makes everything taste better. But sweetness can be a bugaboo to tasty wine pairings. When a dish is sweet — as here with the peach chutney or the milk of the cheese — but the wine is dry, in the way most wines are, then it's the wine that will taste like medicine. The best partners to sweetness in a food are a bit of sweetness in the wine or a marked fruitiness (as is the case with all three wines this week) wrapped tightly with acidity. Because [...]

Tis’ the season for pink bubbles. With so many options regarding style, format and price point, there is plenty of reason to branch out and dive into Lambrusco.  The word Lambrusco may conjure thoughts of sweet, cloying, syrupy wine that is dense and one-dimensional. On the contrary, Lambrusco can be made into rather elegant wine that both treads lightly and delivers depth. While these wines do possess a fizz, their bubbles are not quite as alive and animated as those found in Champagne, Cava or even most Proseccos. Specifically, Lambrusco is the type of grape, which encompasses over 60 different [...]