In article >, steinau2004
@hotmail.com says...
>
>Hi all,
>
>I'm trying to understand better how food and wine is paired together,
>so I've got a few questions which I hope someone might answer:

[SNIP OP, as it appears throughout this thread]

Besides, this is more of a followup to the soup/salad pairings. We do a fresh
greens, pear, walnut and crumbled blue cheese salad, with a pungent, slightly
sweetish blue cheese dressing (I don't have the wife handy, or her recipe for
it - sorry), and this pairs wonderfully with a favorite, though more rare each
day Napa Chardonnay, Sullivan, especially one from the late 90's with some
years in the cellar. Various older Montrachets pair nicely with the pear and
the walnuts.

For soups, we tend toward mushrooms in broth (wife being mildly lactose
intollerant) and these go with an OR PN nicely. However, it often means doing
a red, before a white, but is not death to a dinner. Hearty pumpkin/squash
soups also go with PN's (IMHO) or a smooth Syrah. Now, however, you get a
heartier red, before the whites - a bit more touchy. In Summer we do some
chilled melon soups and bubblies do the best, especially as they are often the
base for these soups.

Just some passing pairings we'd had luck with.
Hunt