Salmon with Spiced Onions & Cranberries – Wine Pairing

Gewürztraminer:  Phillips Hill 2019 (Anderson Valley, CA) – Pairing Rating: 10.0 out of 10.0

Gewürztraminer: Elena Walch 2020 (Alto Adige, IT) – Pairing Rating: 9.5

Gewurztraminer: Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Roche Roulée 2017 (Alsace, FR) – Pairing Rating: 9.2

This is an update of a post we published years ago. The pairing is perfect for fall/winter and too good to sit buried in the back of the blog.

We’re always fishing for another recipe for Salmon. Something a bit different than the usual grill-and-sauce routine. We also wanted to find a great recipe that is better suited for the oven – when rain or snow makes grilling less than appealing.

We found it in the Evan Goldstein cookbook Perfect Pairings. If you are unfamiliar with this work you should check it out. Evan’s effort is amazing: great recipes and a broad array of wine varietals, with excellent notes, commentary and pairing pointers. We’re sure to create posts from other recipes in this cookbook.

Recipe: Salmon with Spiced Onions

The recipe hooked us when we saw the spices involved in the onion sauté: cinnamon, nutmeg and dried cranberries (or currants) soaked in cognac. The salmon is laid on top of the spiced, sautéed onions and roasted in a 450-degree oven. Uncomplicated, attractive when plated (add a little chopped parsley or dill) and absolutely delicious, with the spiced onions adding the needed punch to the subtle flavors of the salmon.

Evan recommended this dish be paired with a dry Gewurztraminer from Alsace, France, the so-called “spiritual home” of Gewurztraminer.

Gewurztraminer (guh-vurts-TRA-MEE-NER) produces intensely perfumed wine with low acidity and rich tropical fruit flavors. A perfect complement to the spiced onions and cranberries. But Gewurz is grown in places other than Alsace, where soils, climate, and winemaking styles may differ. So we set out to put a few of these to the pairing test, focusing only on dry styles of Gewurztraminer.

In Alsace, France, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht is the leading light for biodynamic, non-interventionist winemaking. We chose the Roche Roulée Gewurztraminer 2017 ($45) – one of the driest the Domaine produces. Intense yellow in color, with aromas of orange peel and lychee, this Gewurz is beautifully crafted. Resting on its lees (spent yeast) for 12+ months in large oak casks (foudres), the wine needs some exposure to oxygen upon uncorking. We recommend decanting for about 30 min to allow the wine to open up.

We loved the complexity and texture of the Roche Roulée but felt that the Salmon and Spiced Onions cried out for more freshness and bright, fruit sweetness. Perhaps the Roche Roulée was a touch too dry with this dish and might be better paired with Cantonese Duck, Quiche or Smoked Fish.

We found the perfect Gewurz for the Salmon in the north coast of California near Mendocino – Phillips Hill.

The Phillips Hill Gewurztraminer 2019 ($23) brought the balance of fruit, acidity and brightness we sought with this pairing: slightly sweeter, but masked by the higher acidity. Perhaps the biggest difference in the flavor profile is the absence of oak in the Phillips Hill. Fermentation and aging in stainless steel allowed the fruit to shine brilliantly, providing a better complement to the Salmon and fruit-spiced Onions.

The Phillips Hill is sold only through the winery’s website. More widely available is the Gewürztraminer from Elena Walch ($24) from Northern Italy (Alto Adige). Fermented and aged in stainless steel, including about 6 months on the lees, the Elena Walch Gewürz delivered silky fruit amid aromas of rose petals.

So there you have it: a sensational Salmon recipe matched with three notable expressions of Gewurztraminer. All from cooler climates, yet showing stylistic differences based on winemakers’ decisions.

Definitely check out the Goldberg book; and keep dry Gewürztraminer in mind for rich fish and fowl dishes, where the spice is bold but not fiery.