A recent entry on Michael Bauer's (SF Chronicle food critic) blog suggests that California Cabernet Sauvignon is not food friendly. Wags who have followed Bauer's reviews over the years might reply that yes, it is true that Cabernet Sauvignon does not work particularly well with a beet salad with goat cheese, but in many places in the United States, and yes even in California, people eat steaks.
In Bauer's defense, however, there is the evidence of my wine collection. Armed with statistics from CellarTracker!, I can report that while CA Cabs and French Bordeaux make up 26 percent of my collection, of the wines I drank last year, only seven percent were Bordeaux and six percent were Cabs. 87 percent weren't Cabernet Sauvignon based. And at my favorite restaurant in San Francisco, Daniel Patterson's Coi, it is possible to go through an entire twelve course tasting menu without encountering a single dish that would pair well with a big, alcoholic, oaky California Cab.
I drank more Pinot Noir last year than Bordeaux plus CA Cabs. To me, it is more interesting, and it certainly pairs better with food. Although the trend in modern CA Pinot's is also towards higher alcohols and more extraction, thankfully there are still many producers offering more traditional wines. And our final defense against food-hostile wine is the grape itself: no matter what you do to a Pinot Noir, you cannot make it taste like Screaming Eagle.
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