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Gifts
A WINE
FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST
Suss out your friend's favorite chow, then match the personality
with the perfect bottle of vino. Cheers! BY FRAPPA STOUT
WINE ALWAYS MAKES a tasteful
gift, and you never have to wrap it
But how do you know T whether your
cubicle mate or running partner pre
fers a dry white or a luscious red?
Unless your giftee is a habitual dieter or true
ascetic, chances are you’ve dished about food. And
your friend’s favorite cuisine may be all the insight
you need to buy a great wine for him or her, says
Natalie Mac Lean, master sommelier and author of
Red. White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked
Journey from Grape to Glass (Bloomsbury USA, $14.95).
Here, she and chef Michael Chiarello, the Emmy
winning star of Food Network’s Easy Entertaining
with Michael Chiarello, offer tips on matching wine
to taste buds. Just add a tag to the bottle, listing the
best foods for your chosen wine.
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• ASIAN ADDICT A wine’s job is to go
with the food, but also to get you ready for
| the next bite, says Chiarello, who owns a
J Napa Valley winery. “Someone who likes
V Asian food would like wine varietals, like a
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USA WEEKEND • Dec. 21-23,2007
3s .
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German Riesling or a Gewurz-
traminer, because it will help
clear the palate between
bites. A cabernet, especially
H§!| with Thai food or some-
thing spicy, will make
the tannins feel like
gnawing on a splin
ter.” Mac Lean likes
champagne with fish,
sushi or sashimi. “A
swarm of bubbles will
wash away any fishy
taste and also refresh
your palate.”
• STEAK X
LOVER
For the red-meat
fan on your list, a ro- ***
bust cabernet sauvignon is a
sure bet. “When you’ve got a
juicy rare steak, the protein in
the steak binds with the tan
nins in the wine, and they do
a happy little dance in your
mouth,” says Mac Lean, who
has won four James Beard
journalism awards for her
wine writing. Try a cabernet
dominated Bordeaux from
FVance or a California cab.
• HEALTH NUT If your
friend is all about lean
chicken and antioxidants,
go for a low-alcohol wine.
Mac Lean suggests a pinot
noir from Oregon, or a Ries
ling, which can have as little
as 7% to 9% alcohol (most
wines are around 13%). For
the vegetarians in your life,
she says, go for a crisp New T
Zealand sauvignon blanc:
“It’s like a salad in a glass.”
• CHOCOHOLIC One yummy pleasure deserves another, and the
perfect choice for this sweets lover is a box of his favorite choco
lates paired with a luscious dessert wine, such as a true port
from Portugal or Banyuls from the Pyrenees of FVance. They
have “the richness and body to match the chocolate,” Mac Lean
says. “And they’re fortified with more alcohol, which literally /
melts the chocolate in your mouth.” £3
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* Add a tag
to the bottle that
lists his favorite
complementary
dishes, and you'll
k be a hero. A
• COMFORT FOODIE One word:
merlot and forget about all that Side
ways trash talk. “Merlot is soft jazz, it’s
fluffy sweaters, it’s an Irish setter by the
fireplace,” Mac Lean says. “It’s an easy
drinking wine with a plummy fruit taste,
and it goes well with things like stew or
shepherd’s pie.”
• FAST-FOOD JUNKIE If you think
there’s no wine out there for this budget
minded person, then you’re wrong. “ ‘Two
Buck Chuck’ at IVader Joe’s is perfect for
20-somethings,” Chiarello says. “It has be
come the jug wine of the new genera
tion.” He recommends a cab or merlot, but
Charles Shaw wine (as Two Buck Chuck
is really called) also makes chardonnay,
sauvignon blanc, shiraz, Pinot Grigio and
Valdique, similar to a Beaujolais nouveau
at $1.99 to $3.49, depending on the re
gion. Even at prices that are a little higher,
a bottle of wine can
be an inexpensively
elegant gift.
* 1
. JR
STEAK. ALAN RICHARDSON / GETTY WAGES