Bottles for Autumn

As the heat of summer gives way to the crisp nights of fall in the Northwest, people begin looking for comfort. If you are already grieving the shorter days and the dropping temperatures, the right wine might soften the blow. If you wish autumn would hurry up, we can help there, too.

We asked several local chefs and a wine specialist to share what they are drinking this season and what they’d plate with it. And because these are frugal times, we also asked chefs to pick bottles that could be bought retail and not require a second mortgage.

Jeremiah Timmons from Ambrosia in the Spokane Valley debunks the idea that certain wines never work with certain foods. “If you like a red with your salmon, great,” he says. “I drink what I like with what I eat.”

Right now that would be the ’06 Januik Red Blend. He describes it as “fruity, food-friendly, and easy to drink.” Try it with a big burger or a slow-cooked bean and meat cassoulet. Pair another Timmons favorite, the ’07 Leese-Fitch Cabernet Sauvignon from California, with a simple roasted chicken. Timmons also suggested a perfect bottle if you are struggling to let go of summer: the ’07 Kyra Pinot Gris from here in Washington. Set it alongside Ambrosia’s butternut squash ravioli or pour a glass to match a salad of your own making with roasted beets, goat cheese and light pomegranate dressing.

Across town, Pauline Riley, Niko’s general manager and wine specialist, is a fan of the ’07 O’Reilly Pinot Noir from Oregon’s Owen Roe Winery as well as the ’07 Fidelitas M100 Red Blend. The second bottle takes its name from the winemaker’s grandmother Mary who lived to be 100, and both wines would stand up to hearty fall flavors like roasted butternut squash drizzled in maple syrup or a plate of ribs. They also would be right at home on the table come Thanksgiving. A third wine Riley likes right now is the ’07 Mannina Cellars Sangiovese, paired at Niko’s with Borak: a Middle Eastern egg roll stuffed with seasoned ground beef and lamb, pine nuts and onions and served with a roasted red-pepper tahini dipping sauce.

Ask Jim Barrett from the Club at Black Rock, and he’ll suggest you pick up one of the remaining bottles of ’05 Sara Lee Syrah from Coeur d’Alene Cellars and serve it with duck breast, butternut squash and cherry port reduction. Or bring together a ’05 Robert Karl Inspiration Reserve Claret with a fall comfort food dish like braised beef short ribs with Yukon Gold whipped potatoes.

At Luna right now the fresh sheet features a three-course $25 Prix Fixe “Grape Picker’s Dinner” inspired by the dinners served around big tables in Europe during the grape harvest. Luna’s chef Anna Vogel remembers such meals from her childhood, and the dinners feature entrées inspired by these memories: dishes like the current pork braised with tomatoes and fennel and served over creamy parmesan polenta. The Vin du Jour served for $5 a glass with the dinner is the striking ’07 Le Pas Du Meunier Côtes Du Rhône. It manages to be both easy to drink and wonderfully complex with flavors that evoke fall in nearly every sip. Vogel is also tinkering with Banh Mi, a Vietnamese sandwich served on a crusty French baguette, that matches up nicely with the ’08 Gilbert Cellars Gewurztraminer — a white wine equally up to spicy food and other Asian flavors if you need a break from root vegetables and red meat.

Tyler Schwenk, Chef de Cuisine at Beverly’s in Coeur d’Alene, has the enviable position of creating food to match with wine from the largest restaurant cellar in the region with over 2,500 different wines, and he suggests the following pairings: With the roasted venison on the Beverly’s menu, he likes Woodward Canyon’s ’07 Merlot; with the creative wild game charcuterie coming out of the kitchen he is pouring a Panther Creek ’03 Pinot Noir; and his choice for short ribs would be the ’07 Barrister Cabernet Franc.

Of course we harbor no illusions that a bottle of wine and the right food to match will solve the health care crisis before Thanksgiving or magically resolve nuclear tensions with certain recalcitrant countries. But a sturdy pairing this fall might create enough goodwill around your table to spill over into our community, and it will certainly soften the loss of summer.