Fresh Cheese

White · Medium · Dry

The most-planted white grape and the most chameleon-like. Crisp and steely from Chablis; rich, oaky, and tropical from California. Read the label, then match the style to the dish.

Works with Fresh Cheese · Fresh Mozzerella Cheese · House-roasted Portobello Mushrooms, Fresh Mozzarella And Podda Cheese, Red Wine Vinaigrette And Ove

Red · Light · Dry

Burgundy's most temperamental grape, but the rewards are real — translucent ruby with a perfumed lift of red cherry, forest floor, and clove. Silken tannins and bright acid make it the most versatile red on the table; serve cool, around 58°F.

Works with Fresh Mozzerella Cheese · Smoked Salmon With Roma Tomato And Cream Cheese With Capers And Fresh Lemon Juice · House-roasted Portobello Mushrooms, Fresh Mozzarella And Podda Cheese, Red Wine Vinaigrette And Ove

Red · Full · Dry

The benchmark for full-bodied red — structured, age-worthy, unapologetic. Black currant, graphite, and tobacco lead into firm tannins that demand protein on the plate. Decant young bottles; cellar the serious ones.

Works with Fresh Mozzerella Cheese · House-roasted Portobello Mushrooms, Fresh Mozzarella And Podda Cheese, Red Wine Vinaigrette And Ove

White · Light · Dry

Galicia's gift to summer — citrus, peach, salt air, and acid like a knife. Made for shellfish, paella, and any dish that involves the sea.

France's most northeastern wine region — single-varietal whites from Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, and more. Aromatic, structured, sometimes off-dry, always food-friendly.

Red · Medium · Dry

Pinot Noir (red) or Chardonnay (white) from the world's most expensive dirt. Translucent, perfumed, ethereal at the top of the hierarchy; honest and pleasant lower down. Drink slowly, with reverence.

Red · Medium · Dry

Shorthand for Cabernet Sauvignon — full-bodied, structured red wine with notes of black currant, graphite, and cedar. The classic steakhouse choice.

White · Medium · Dry

California's name for Sauvignon Blanc, popularized by Robert Mondavi — usually with a touch of oak, fuller-bodied than New Zealand or Loire styles.

Provence's coastal white — Marsanne and Clairette blends from a tiny appellation outside Marseille. Bright, mineral, salt-air-tinged; the bouillabaisse wine.

White · Medium · Dry

Chardonnay grown on Burgundy's chalkiest soils, almost never oaked. Lean, steely, oyster-shell minerality; a wine that tastes like a place. The wine for shellfish, full stop.

Piedmont's classic white — Cortese grape, all green apple, citrus, and crisp acid. The everyday white of Italian Riviera cooking.

Burgundy's everyday white — clean, lemony, unoaked Chardonnay built for weeknight drinking. Mâcon-Villages bottlings step up the seriousness.