February Wine Pairings

Eating seasonally in winter months is exciting. With such cold weather produce as juicy red beets, crisp crunchy carrots, sweet nutty sunchokes and of course, squash for days, the versatility of winter’s vibrant bounty makes for some beautiful and hearty dishes.

Here in Northern California, the beginning of the year also means the celebration of two exceptionally resourceful menu items: Dungeness crab and mushrooms.

The rich and buttery flavors of Dungeness crab, whose season gets its start in November and runs all the way through June, make it an ideal match for our attractive toasty oak chardonnay. While with the right ingredients and cooked just so, mushrooms make for a savory robust accent to any dish, enhancing rice and pasta particularly well. The truffle, a fungi family member, is celebrated in festival form across the California coast in cool weather months (such as the 5th Annual Napa Truffle Festival in January). Due to their versatility, mushrooms pair well with both red and white wine, depending on whether or not they are cooked in a bright tangent marina sauce—in which case our reserve cabernet sauvignon balances them out nicely—or a buttery smooth white cream sauce—in which case our sauvignon blanc beautifully equalizes the flavor.

Keeping these two savory foods in mind, we rounded-up two ideal dishes for your winter recipe catalog, along with our best Whitehall Lane wine pairing options:

Crab

Dish: Roast Garlic Crab

Whitehall Lane Wine Pairing: 2012 Carneros Chardonnay

Courtesy of SF Gate

Mushrooms and Truffles

Dish: Risotto with Leeks, Shiitake Mushrooms and Truffles

Whitehall Lane Wine Pairing: 2013 Sauvignon Blanc

Courtesy of Epicurious