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Wine With. . . Salmon Burgers
by Paul Lukacs and Marguerite Thomas
We recently chopped up some salmon, added some spinach, feta cheese, and a handful of pine nuts, seasoned it simply with salt and pepper, and formed the mixture into patties. A short time later we retrieved the patties from the refrigerator, threw them on a hot grill, and within minutes, voila: delicious, light, summer fare. Next time we may put the salmon burgers on buns, but on this occasion we served them simply with a big green salad garnished with avocado and the very first summer tomatoes from the farmers' market. (Our home-grown tomatoes, thriving in containers up on the roof-deck, are still the size and texture of golf balls).
There were no real surprises as far as wine was concerned. The burgers were more complex and somewhat more forcefully flavored than plain salmon would have been, but at the same time the subtle earthiness of the spinach, the nuttiness of the pignoli, and the salty tang of the feta provided more taste components to connect with and enhance the best suited wines. Predictably, robust Chardonnay had just the right weight and fruit balance to stand up to our hearty seafood burgers. Even a fairly emphatic dose of oak-which may have been less appetizing in the wine alone, without food-contributed an appealing spicy component to the pairing. Lighter white wines-an Albarino, an otherwise succulent Macon, and an amiable Pinot Blanc from Alsace-proved a tad too flimsy, losing their delicate flavors when they met up with the forceful grilled seafood. One of the Rosés we sampled was just too sweet to be good with any kind of food, while the other was close to perfect. Likewise, one Pinot Noir in our lineup was way, way too sweet-think syrup on fish-while the other was a well balanced complement to the burgers.
One of the most satisfying matches of the evening was a cru Beaujolais. One of us rejected it initially because it brought out a slight fishiness in the dish. But then, the addition of tartar sauce proved a revelatory solution, as both the fat and briny acid in the sauce absorbed every trace of fish flavor, and furthermore helped create a gustatory bridge between seafood and wine. While these salmon burgers were adaptable to a reasonably wide range of wines, our overall conclusion was that the best partners were hefty rather than delicate whites, dry yet substantial rosés, and light bodied, fruit inflected reds without aggressive tannins.
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Chaddsford, (Pennsylvania) Chardonnay Miller Estate Vineyard 2005
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$28 |
The Chaddsford winery in Chester County, Pennsylvania consistently makes some of the east coast's best Chardonnays. This one, from owner Eric Miller's estate, displays ripe citrus fruit and plenty of zesty acidity, all of which harmonized well with the salmon. The oak influence did seem a bit heavy when the wine was sipped on its own. The char on the grilled burgers, though, forced the wood to calm down, making for a very successful match
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Potel-Aviron, Moulin à Vent (Beaujolais, France) 'Vielles Vignes' 2005
(Imported by Frederick Wildman)
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$20 |
The earthiness underlying the fruit in this expressive cru Beaujolais from the very successful 2005 vintage enabled the wine to shine when sipped with this particular dish. The slightly metallic taste from the spinach in the salmon burgers, along with the accompanying tartar sauce, especially enhanced the wine.
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Steele, Lake County (California) Cabernet Franc Rosé 2006
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$16 |
This vivacious rosé helped the dish taste lively. The wine fairly overfills with berry fruit flavor, but has enough backbone not to be overwhelmed by a fairly hearty dish like this one.
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Tablas Creek Vineyard, Paso Robles (California) 'Côtes de Tablas Blanc' 2005 |
$22 |
A near perfect partner, this blend of Viognier, Rousanne, Marsanne, and a dash of Grenache Blanc has lemony flavors with nutty undertones - flavors that paired superbly with a dish that itself includes nuts and benefits from a squeeze of citrus. But what made the match especially successful was the wine's texture - rich, almost waxy, but still vibrant due to the fresh acidity. It not only tasted but also felt seamless.
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Whitehaven, Marlborough (New Zealand) Pinot Noir 2005
(Imported by Whitehaven Wine Co.)
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$30 |
The dried cherry flavors in this Pinot Noir made the salmon burgers taste almost meaty, bringing out an earthy element in the dish that went into hiding with the other wines. If we had cooked them in the oven, this wine might not have worked as well. But the char from the grill gave them a depth that was only enhanced by the pairing.
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