Tips for holiday wine pairing

Edouard Létoublon was titled the “2011 Best Sommelier in Luxembourg,” on Saturday at an annual contest held during the weekend’s Fête des Vins et Crémants in Luxembourg Ville.

This is the second win for Létoublon, his first win taking place at the age of 21 in 2005. Today, Létoublon is a private sommelier based fifteen kilometers east of Luxembourg Ville in Schuttrange, where he also owns his own wine business, Vinodynamite, specializing in organic wines and private wine tasting events.

Describing how it feels to win for a second time, he says, “I’m really happy because the first time when I won we were just five people competing, and now we are twelve. I am more proud because it was more of a challenge. It is more challenging to do this the second time because you can only lose, you must do everything again.”

To celebrate his win, Mr. Létoublon offers these five wine-related tips to wort.lu/en readers, just in time for holiday merry-making:

Know the geography of a good Luxembourg riesling

“Riesling is really a quality grape, and ‘fels’ – which means ‘rock’ – terroir is the best you can find in Luxembourg. There are three or four fels in all of the Moselle, in Grevenmacher, Stadtbredimus and Schengen – for me, the best is Stadtbredimus. These rocky areas give more minerality and have beautiful potential.”

Avoid these three foods when pairing wine

“Normally, you don’t do wine matching with pickles, tomatoes or anything with vinegar. It is very difficult to match wine to these foods.” Soup is also a food that can be quite difficult to match with wine, he adds.

“After that, the one rule is that there is no rule!”

Trust the sommelier

“You need to ask someone because you cannot try everything. Even me, and I have tried many wines. If I have never tried the wine I ask questions of the sommelier, that’s why they are there. For me it is quite easy because I can open the wine list, choose two or three on the list and then I ask the sommelier and tell him the amount of money I want to spend that evening.”

With cheese, stick to white wine

“With cheese, people have to know that 90 percent of the time they should drink white wine with cheese. Red wine with cheese is really something that is not a good idea. When you have a creamy cheese – tannins in red wine make your mouth not feel anything else, you start to feel really heavy and not have any more taste. White wine without tannins matches well with cheese.”

He adds that goat cheese pairs well with a wine that is fresh, like a riesling or sauvignon blanc. Blue cheese goes well with sweet white dessert wines.

Pairing wine with dessert

“With dessert, one rule is very easy: you need to take a wine that is sweet and it has to be the same color as the dessert. If dessert is fruity and bright, white. Chocolate and red fruits take a red dessert wine.”

So, when your wine and food pairings impress your guests this holiday season, you can tell them you learned from the best!