‘Tis the Season to Kiss Your Wine Director at Chez Papa Resto

Holiday cheer as well as holiday blues call for fermented grapes, no? If you are enamored with French high flyers, this is your lucky break, [punk]. One of the most elegant, romantic, and delightful restaurants in the city of 4000 plus great eateries, Chez Papa Resto on Mint Plaza is now helping its customers “weather the actual economic climate with an aggressive Monday and Tuesday Wine with the Wine Director” program.

George Aknin, Wine Director extraordinaire took it upon himself to keep his clientele with discriminative taste satisfied with the price while never resorting to lesser brands. He hand-picks some very special, rare, and hard-to-find bottles now marked down by half, and puts on his list select library wines by the glass. M. Aknin’s philosophy is all about different wines complementing different kinds of food, and he offers his unparalleled expertise in pairing great Provencal varietals with the inspired dishes prepared by Executive Chef David Bazirgan. You can learn from M. Aknin that while artichokes and asparagus call for sparkling wines to break down the mushy stuff, it’s okay to pair a full-bodied red with French onion soup, since the latter “can handle” the former with all that caramelized onion jam softening the tannins.

Aknin likes to repeat that in French culinary tradition wine remains a condiment to food, like salt and pepper, and should not overwhelm its taste. He masterfully pairs Sancerre, Domaine Auchere, Loire 2007 - a 100% sauvignon blanc with Barzigan’s hamachi collar with horseradish cream, cheek peas, rosemary and garlic, and Cotes du Luberon, Domaine du Fonteville 2005 with the chef’s classic onion soup. Aknin’s likes to put together wines and food from the same region. “Same wind, same soil, same yeast in the air,” he says. “It makes my choices absolutely obvious. I pair red with sea bass, yes!” Opening a bottle of Vin de Pays des Alpes de Haute, Provence, Pinot Noir, Domaine de Regusse, 2007, he explains, “Not your typical pinot noir region. It’s deep South, not pinot producing South-East.” However, the unique characteristics of this regional wine suit perfectly that locally caught bass.

From his frequent tips to France, Aknin brings back rocks from the famed vineyards. “This terroir is the reason for complexity, balance, velvety texture of wine,” he says. “Minerals in soil, layers of minerals, compressed over the millennia. California soil is young, volcanic, in Provence it’s an old ocean bed – that’s Mediterranean. The roots go through stone, but you have to stress your vine to get the most out of it. The hanging time has to be perfect, too, to ripen the tannins just right. That makes the difference between ‘confiture liquide’ and wine…”
Aknin says that food and wine pairing is art, but its rules can be broken, for example, salmon or halibut can be paired with pinot noir, and pork chop with chenin blanc. “You can go along with the wine, or you can go against, it’s okay,” he says. The point is to create a harmony of tastes and textures. “It’s a lot like marriage. Pair pinot noir with duck confit, and it’ll be a perfect marriage with a lot of children, but pair it with omelette, and it’ll be divorce in five minutes.” To learn more about harmonious pairings and try some holiday wines at everyday prices, visit Chez Papa Resto, 414 Jessie Street, San Francisco, 415-546-4134; chezpapasf.com. Photography by Yuri Krasov.