Winemaker Reveals How to Pair Wines with Wild Game
by Passalacqua Winery
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Passalacqua Winery is a small-production winery near Healdsburg, California. The winery’s owner, Jason Passalaqua, is a fourth-generation vintner, avid hunter, and forager. Guided by a commitment to flavor, quality, and connection, Jason wanted to create wines that complemented his love of the outdoors. As a result, Passalacqua Winery produces wines that are intended to pair well with wild foods.
Passalacqua’s winemaker, Jessica Boone, takes an attentive but minimalist approach to making wine. Balance is a guiding principle of her winemaking and how she pairs food and wine. Because wild foods have a distinct purity of flavor, Jessica makes wines that are not overly manipulated; Instead, she allows for the quality of the fruit from local, exceptional vineyards to speak for themselves.
Read more from our conversation below as Jessica shares her thoughts on pairing wines with wild foods.
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Balanced Wines
“The key to pairing our wines with wild game is balance. All the different elements of the wine—aroma, structure, and flavors—have to be cohesive. I always seek balance, making sure one attribute doesn’t overpower another. As a result, none of these components in our wine should outshine the wild game’s flavors.
Wild game is nuanced and has a purity of flavor. When paired just right, the wild food and wine will elevate each other. It’s like a symphony—if one instrument is out of tune or off rhythm, that will be the only thing you hear. The rest of the music becomes background noise.
Every choice I make is made with the end goal of complimenting wild game. Decisions like vineyard site, fermentation management, specific types of barrels, and how long the wine is aged are all important decision points in making a balanced wine. Each stage affects aromatics, tannin levels (mouthfeel), and oak flavor.”
Why might certain wines pair with wild foods better than others?
Some wines will not pair as well with wild game if they’re too sweet, over-oaked, or tannic. These are common attributes in wine that generally won’t pair well with lean and flavorful wild game meats:
Sweet Wines–
“Sweetness or residual sugar in the wine can be cloying and coat the tongue. This masks the flavors of food. These wines are most often paired with foods that are sweeter than the wine itself (dessert), or spicy foods which can stand up to the sweetness.”
Heavily Oaked Wines–
“Toasty, smoky flavors in heavily oaked wines can overwhelm most dishes, especially lean wild game meats. A heavily oaked wine, or wines using inexpensive barrel alternatives, are often paired with meat that has been heavily smoked. A bold flavor in the food is needed to partner with the bold oak flavor.”
Tannic Wines–
“Tannins can be more prevalent in big red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and sometimes be excessive depending on how the wines are made. Tannins bind with fat, so a good pairing for a big tannin wine is a fatty steak. The juicy fat will grab onto the astringent tannins and make the wine seem softer. Leaner and healthier wild game foods can suffer from pairing with heavy tannins. The wine shows as more bitter, and the meat would seem dry.”
Summary
“The restraint I practice in our winemaking is to avoid the excesses commonly found in one or all of the above wine characteristics. Balance leads to finesse and Passalacqua wines present a cleaner more vibrant profile that matches perfectly with game meats and the other wild foods we appreciate so much.”
