In our experience as a winemaking family, an aged Cabernet Sauvignon like our 2003 PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley offers vastly more (interesting) options, when it comes to food and wine pairing, than a young Cabernet Sauvignon. Why? A supremely well-aged Cabernet offers more layers of complex flavor than a tightly wound young Cabernet, which primarily showcases fruit.

Secondary and even tertiary flavors will have developed in addition to the fruit core, so you might taste graphite and bay leaf, then darker, more savory flavor notes: think peppercorn, black tea with milk, black licorice, dried beef, soy sauce, star anise, cigar box, salty black olive, tobacco, and dried wild mushroom.

“I like to make a solid, stand-alone wine. But when you pair wine with food, it amplifies things. It takes things to the next level.”

— Kristof Nils anderson

By way of analogy, think of classic perfumes that come out with a “noir” version. Chanel Coco Noir, Luna Rossa Black, Tom Ford Noir de Noir, Noir Extreme, Black Opium, Black Cashmere. These variants emphasize warm spice, woody spice, woody notes, sandalwood, vanilla ember, amber, black rose, black truffle, patchouli. In much the same way, our library Cabernets have developed darker and deeper tones, a treat for those who enjoy the nuanced flavors of foods that improve with age, whether wine or coffee beans, cheese, balsamic vinegar, and cuts of dry-aged beef.

Shy? Fragile and delicate like a snowflake? Nope. Just the opposite. Maybe a bit much for some. Many people, in fact, have little experience with aged Cabernet Sauvignons and might even be put off by the noir flavors if they’re expecting lots of sweet jammy fruit and big tannins. But those of us who get it, get it. There’s no better portal to understanding the absolute coolness of these aged wines than experiencing a spot-on food and wine pairing.

A beautifully aged Cabernet is powerful; it still has a youthful fruit core swirling about—a lot of fruit—as well as structure from tannins, yet the texture is silken crème brûlée as opposed to the wood plank texture one sometimes gets from muscular tannins that shrink-wrap the tongue in a younger wine. When it comes to pairing, well-aged Cabernet can be more generous than young Cabernet, its medium acidity perfectly in balance with the whole, its agreeable tannins no longer poised to clash with acidic or spicy food. Without the prominent tannins, which I sometimes imagine as the “ego” of a wine, aged Cabernet is just plain easier to get along with.

A very broad and idealized analogy—you know I can’t resist—may be made between the aging of wine and human development. (Of course, things don’t always turn out ideally. Some people are born nasty and get worse with age. Other beautiful souls are crushed rather than improved by time and life’s setbacks. And when it comes to wine, too many—perhaps most—aged Cabernets fall apart into dust upon opening or are flabby and lacking acid. So, you have to know when a killer Cabernet has been built to last, and when it has, it’s usually because the winemaker has an obsession with pH or hydrogen potential, but now I’m giving away secrets.)

Nonetheless, let’s imagine the difference between a self-absorbed and high-octane teenager (who by all rights needs to be self-absorbed in order to carve a path in the world) and that same person as a middle-aged adult who has gained flexibility and empathy over the course of many years and who has developed ego strength such that they can bend their will at times to meet the needs of others. Someone who has learned how to get along with a wide range of people while still retaining their core. An extraordinary, aged Cabernet, in just such a way, can pair with a surprising range of foods beyond red meat and potatoes. But for reasons that elude me, no one is talking about this incredibly cool and radical bit of information.

As with any relationship, ideal food and wine pairings work, not because they are opposite, nor because they are exactly the same, but rather because they are complementary. There should be some element in common, a shared language, and also something one gives that another lacks, and vice versa. The goal in pairing wine and food is always to find a combination that augments both; in other words, when this magic works, the flavors of the food are more delicious in tandem with the wine than alone, and the flavors in the wine are more delicious having been paired with the food.

Perfect pairings don’t always happen, and many pairings are merely acceptable. But when they hit, you know. A velvety Malbec that was a tad boring on its own positively sings when paired with super-acidic tomato confit. A tarragon-spiked cream sauce jolts to life when paired with a Sauvignon Blanc that cuts the rich cream and refreshes the palate yet harmonizes with the green herbs. And you know when they don’t work: the lobster in lemon butter sauce just made your Cabernet taste thin and metallic, and now the lobster tastes like nothing at all.

These pairings are both alchemy and chemistry because they invoke intensely personal responses. Many of us have read about scientific research on non-tasters (fewer than average taste buds), regular tasters (average amount of taste buds) and super-tasters (above average amount of taste buds). I’ve never seen anyone write about how those categories evolve over time, but they do. I was a super-taster as a child; carbonated drinks felt like needles in my mouth; mustard or mayonnaise on a sandwich was torture. But in my mid-twenties I learned to appreciate mustard, pickles, grapefruit, Campari, raw garden tomatoes, and a variety of dark, bitter vegetables that I’d hated a few years prior. Now it’s sugary things that make me recoil. My point is that the pairing of food and wine is personal. And that’s why people who love to cook are at an advantage when it comes to the revelatory pleasures of food and wine pairing.

People who say pairings are rubbish are probably only referring to the idea of rules set in stone. This always (or never) goes with that. Historically, some of this was sorted out in the long and hard-won process of developing regional specialties. What would you pair with the specialties of Emilia-Romagna in Tuscany, Italy, which include balsamic vinegar from Modena, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Prosciutto di Parma, and mortadella? You don’t have to think hard, because somewhere along the way, someone started making Lambrusco, fizzy, uplifting and fresh – the perfect complement to those rich foods. But here in the New World? Lots of leeway.

Little to nothing has been written on the subject of pairing 20-year-old Napa Cabernets with cuisine (that I can find, anyway), and I’m going to field a guess as to why that might be. For starters, not many Cabernets are made to age, or when they are, people drink them young, anyway; or they’re so fabulously expensive that there’s not exactly a crowd clamoring for information on this subject; no crowdsourcing here. Plus, who’s going to experiment and risk a loss with a $300 bottle of wine? Grab those nice safe steaks or lamb chops.

As winemakers, we may not be rich, but we’re Cab rich, and we love to experiment in the kitchen. That being the case, we’ll use this Blog to write about 2003-09 PELLA Cabernet pairings that we think work well. We’ll update it from time to time, an ongoing (until the last case runs out) project. Our purpose is to help you to enjoy our wines to the utmost. We know we do.

For those of you who love experiments, try this: get yourself two black wine glasses. Pour 2007 PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon in one glass and any other 2022 or 23 Cabernet in the other. Make yourself a quesadilla with Mexican shredded cheese. Compare the taste of your quesadilla with each wine. I think you’ll see what I mean. I understand that at $100/bottle, the 2007 isn’t cheap (though it works out to $20/glass, which is probably less than a latte and a scone these days). My point is that we aged our Cabernet so that you can break it out and enjoy it with tonight’s barbeque and have your mind blown.

Pairing Aged Cabernet Sauvignon with Starters

Mushroom Empanadas

Pairing 2005 PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon with Summer Starters

I once learned an important tip while working for a famous wine writer, which was this: when you have a special, aged bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon you want to share, don’t serve it at the end of a dinner party, as the crowning glory, after serving younger Cabernets. Serve it first. It’s the opposite of what you’d think. Recently, we had some friends who are Cab lovers over for a glass of wine. I served our 2005 PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon with mushroom empanadas and beef carpaccio. It was an unexpected way to share an aged Cabernet, and while I love charcuterie boards as much as the next person, something a little different is nice.

Quesadillas with Fig Salsa

The 2007 PELLA Cabernet is tasting magnificent on its own, but here’s a fresh pairing: Quesadillas with Monterey Jack cheese (use truffle Monterey Jack for a little extra umami) and fresh fig salsa. The salsa combines fresh figs, diced red bell pepper, scallions, lime juice, sea salt, and lots of fresh ground black pepper. I didn’t imagine the pairing would work this well, but WOW! The bright red fruits in the wine love the sweet black fig and zingy lime juice. The wine has the slightest hint of white mushroom, which pairs with the cheese. The punchy salsa provides a foil that harmoniously unleashes waves of elegant, creamy mocha and black pepper that unfurl with the wine’s wonderful length. This wine is made for pairing, and thinking beyond Kobe beef pays.

Trader Joe’s “Step Up to the Snack Bar Mix”

The other night, Kristof and I cracked open a can of snack mix from Trader Joe’s while waiting for a chicken to roast. You know the kind: honey mustard pretzels, honey roasted peanuts, corn chips with flax seeds, cheddar cheese crackers, honey roasted sesame sticks and chili lemon corn sticks. It didn’t taste like much. We had some 2007 PELLA Cabernet leftover from the night before and poured ourselves a glass. Wow! The combination was terrific. The flavors in the wine activated the flavors in the snack mix. The salty snack mix emphasized the soaring waves of flavor in the wine. If I had a wine bar and was pouring tastes of aged Cabernet, I’d stick a bowl of this on the counter. My point? Many people have zero experience with aged Cabernet. They are accustomed to Cabernet that tastes like “dessert in a glass,” you know? All blackberry jam and chocolate chips. Giving someone new to aged wines a glass is like presenting someone who is used to JELL-O salads a grilled radicchio salad. Understanding that wine is meant to be enjoyed with food, not evaluated on its own, based on how “yummy” it is, as if wine is a frozen coffee drink, opens new realms of pleasure. Our aged Cabernets were built different - built for fresh pairings.

Fried Chicken Livers with Balsamic-Marinated Figs

We served Chef Vivian Howard’s recipe from Deep Run Roots as a salad/starter with the 2005 PELLA Cabernet. Why it worked: the chicken livers marinated in buttermilk and a mixture of “warm” spices like fennel seed, cumin seed, coriander seed, and cinnamon. When we first opened the 2004 PELLA (always one of my favorite vintages) and tasted it, the primary, impactful flavor was fresh fennel or anise. Aromatic spice flavors bridged the dish and the wine.

Surprising Pairings You Wouldn’t Expect to Work

Hoisin Sauce Lamb

The “tertiary” flavors in our 2008 PELLA Cabernet mirrored the deep soy and umami flavors in the hoisin sauce of this dish. The bright orange peel and boysenberry preserve flavors sang when paired with earthy, gamey ground lamb. Surprisingly, to me, the diced green peppers in the stir-fry harmonized with subtle green notes in the wine, such as bay leaf, and the dash of chili garlic sauce didn’t clash. The wine’s tremendous length, which unfurled in waves, continued harmoniously after each bite and sip, ending with flavors of plum and milky black tea.

This brings up the interesting topic of pairing Chinese cuisine with Cabernet Sauvignon. Not much has been written on the subject, and if you ask a somm, they’ll talk about Blaufränkisch or Riesling, perhaps because they’re trying to recommend one wine that pairs the gamut in a banquet from delicate steamed shrimp to beef in black pepper sauce. What would you pair with a soy sauce marinated quail egg? My mouth is watering just thinking of it. If I have a Cabernet with flavors of salted plum, salt and pepper, soy sauce, and black tea, it’s not hard to dream about foods that are lacquered with soy sauce, baked in clay pots, seasoned with hoisin, plum, or salted black beans. Might I recommend a glass of white and a glass of aged Napa Cab?

Pork Chops in Green-Curry-Braised Watermelon

Our dish was adapted from Chef Vivian Howard’s recipe for Pork Shoulder Steaks in Red-Curry-Braised Watermelon. Our monthly heritage pork box from Napaluma Farms arrived, and I substituted chops for steaks and used green curry paste, since I was out of red. This fascinating recipe has you slowly braising pork for two hours in a sauce of red wine vinegar, honey, fish sauce, and curry paste, along with 5 cups of cubed watermelon. The watermelon gave up its juices and resembled tomato chunks at the end. We served the dish with white rice enriched with a spoonful of herb butter to soak up the juices and a glass of 2004 PELLA Cabernet. Why the pairing worked: the chops, which had lovely thick fat, had been seared all over, giving the dish a caramelized, umami flavor that vibed with the wine. The combination of sweet, fruity and savory flavors, plus balanced fat and acidity in the dish, harmonized with the wine.

“Dirty” Farro ( Pairing Chicken Liver with Cabernet Sauvignon)

Sometimes people ask me which vintage of the 2002-2009 PELLA Cabernet Sauvignon vertical is my favorite. My answer? It depends what you’re having for dinner. Last night I made a dish with wheat berries (instead of farro)—cooked “dirty”—with aromatic vegetables, sausage, and chicken liver, kind of like “dirty rice.” (It’s another dish I adapted from Chef Vivian Howard.) Chicken liver and sausage transformed the wheat berries into a deeply meaty, umami, protein-rich dish. As a bonus, liver is cheap and nutrient dense. Some people don’t like the taste of liver, but in this recipe, all the flavors meld into one tasty whole, garnished with fresh herbs and celery leaves, the freshness a nice counterpoint to the rich flavors.

So, what is the best wine pairing for liver? (Burning question, I know. But listen to your mom: liver is good for you.) Answer: it depends. When I was in my twenties, Kristof and I celebrated a special meal at a San Francisco restaurant called La Folie, where I ordered foie gras to start. (I know, I know PETA. By the way, foie gras is now illegal to sell in California, according to Senate Bill 1520 (S.B. 1520), also known as the Force Fed Birds law, but not to possess and consume privately.) The somm recommended a glass of Chateau d’Yquem Sauterne to start, and I was blown away. Dessert wine to begin a meal!? Sweet and savory pairings!? It was the most perfect pairing I’d ever encoutered.

There are different types of liver and liver preparations; I like cooking with organic chicken livers to add rich, umami depth to dishes like Bolognese sauce. Because I remembered the beauty of a sweet wine paired with (fattened) liver, I decided to pair my meal with the most opulent of our PELLA Cabernets, the 2005 vintage. Though it is not sweet (it’s 100% dry), the wine has heady notes of honeycomb and ripe, black fig, along with salted black olive. The 2005 vintage is a wine people either particularly love at first sip — or don’t. I always encourage them not to taste wine out of context. Wine writers, critics, and brokers, experienced as they may be, miss out on a lot when they pop corks and taste one wine after another. In real life, we drink wine with food. I also encourage people to open these bottles of older wine and let them breathe for a couple hours before dining. What ensues is magic!

By the way, wheat berries (for those interested) can be cooked and eaten as you would other grains like farro or barley, ground into flour, or planted to grow wheat. Because they are shelf-stable for 25 years, I once ordered a 50 lb. bag of organic wheat berries from Central Milling in Utah and vacuum-sealed small portions. Last night’s dinner was my first time preparing them, and after cooking them forever (about 75 minutes), they seemed done.

I like to test a lot of variables at one time, so it’s a good thing I’m not an engineer. Are wheat berries a good swap in this recipe? How is the 2005 tasting these days? Does liver pair well with an opulent Cabernet? Fortunately, a bridge wasn’t being built, but everything was a great success. The stunning 2005 PELLA was a phenomenal pairing with my chicken liver dish, as well as a salad of radicchio, basil, watercress, figs, roasted red onions, and toasted hazelnuts with a cinnamon and balsamic dressing — a recipe from Chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Plenty More.

Pairing Fish with Aged Cabernet Sauvignon

Monkfish with Cabernet Sauce

Pairing Vegetables with Aged Cabernet Sauvignon

Asparagus

We’re eating pencil thin asparagus that I pan-fried at high heat in cast iron with butter and olive oil, salt, and pepper. It’s fresh, al dente, yet slightly caramelized and singed. Asparagus is supposed to be a deal-killer, impossible to pair with wine because its organosulfer compounds and methyl mercaptans make wine taste metallic. If anything, unoaked whites are recommended. But we’re enjoying our asparagus with a bottle of 2005 PELLA Cabernet (that has been open and sitting on the kitchen counter 3 days!), and it’s beautiful.

“It reminds me of working in Montana,” Kristof says. As a teenager, he worked summers as a ranch hand. “One of my jobs was weed-eating, and there was wild asparagus growing everywhere — the scent filled the air — I wanted to eat it.” We try to figure out why our pairing works. “Wild asparagus — very fresh — has hints of cedar and forest floor,” he says. And our 3-day-open, 19-year-old wine tastes like cedar and incense. Surely, caramelizing the asparagus helps it vibe with the tertiary notes in the wine, but Kristof thinks freshness it what counts. Our asparagus is not mushy, canned asparagus; it smells, to him, like cedar wood. “To me, freshness is the most important thing,” he says. One thing I know, I wouldn’t try this with most tannic, young Napa Cabs.

Pairing Desserts with Aged Cabernet Sauvignon

Fruit

I’d been working on something fancy in the kitchen, a sort of BLT crostini with homemade tomato jam, and I thought it might pair with the 2004 PELLA Cab. Nope. All the flavors became murky and blunted. What was I thinking?

Kristof was in the other room eating fruit salad. “You know what this wine wants to be paired with?” he said. “Something creamy. And sweet.”

“No,” I said, “That’s all wrong.”

“Taste this,” he said. He popped a bite of creamy papaya, sweet, earthy fig, and bright golden kiwi into my mouth. I sipped the wine. When pairings work, it’s almost like the heavens part and angels sing. Why this pairing works is beyond me. The flavors in the wine are augmented. The flavors in the fruit sing. The harmony is notable. An aged Cab is not supposed to venture into acidic fresh fruit territory, is it? Especially a sophisticated Cab with upfront flavors of ripe plum and long flavor waves of cigar box, dark chocolate, and espresso. Maybe the juicy acidity in the wine loves the acidity in the fruit; yet when we paired the wine with fresh peach slices alone, the pairing didn’t work so well.

I would serve this for dessert at a dinner party, you bet I would. Especially since most guests are still swirling their Cab and have no intention of drinking anything else when you serve dessert. Kristof speared some sliced cucumber I’d tossed with salt, pepper, and white wine vinegar and munched on it. “This is good with the wine, too,” he said. Unbelievable.

These Wines Were Made for Pairing – Pairing Aged Cabernet Sauvignon with Food