What wine goes with this dish? What dish goes with this wine? We're asked those questions all the time. We recently had an experience that might help answer them.

Our story starts a few years ago, when we were in Napa for a quick trip, staying at a small hotel in Rutherford. After we had dropped our luggage in our room, our noses led us to a pretty, little restaurant attached to the hotel. It was early afternoon and the restaurant was closed, but there was a buzz at the bar. There, with about a dozen bottles of wine and several plates of food before them, were the restaurant's staffers, including the chef and the sommelier. We asked what they were doing and they said they were trying to pair wines with foods that would become the next week's wine-pairing menu.

We asked for a reservation for that night, and they looked at us as if we were crazy. We didn't know then that the restaurant, La Toque, was pretty famous and reservations were hard to come by. We vowed to return, and we finally did during our recent trip to Napa and Sonoma. Arriving anonymously with Media and Zoe, we found a prix fixe menu for $85. For an extra $45, which turned out to be a bargain, they'll pour the wine they've selected for each dish. The menu changes every Wednesday.

Elevated Tastes

We believe that great pairing of wine and food is what elevates fine restaurant dining from delicious to truly memorable. As more top American restaurants present tasting menus, we always find it fun to tell the sommelier to match each course with a different wine - 'and be bold.' We set a price limit and then sit back and enjoy being surprised. Sometimes the staff sees this as a fun mission - such as at New York's Gramercy Tavern, Chicago's Charlie Trotter's and Yountville's French Laundry, where we've had meals we'll always remember because of the pairings. But other times, even at expensive and famous restaurants such as Daniel in New York, the staff approaches this with a lack of passion, and we quickly forget the food and the wine.

At La Toque, things were different because so much thought had been put into the pairings before we sat down. The matches were inspired and some were downright risky, such as Gary Farrell Pinot Noir and monkfish with red-wine sauce, fava beans and white asparagus. Pinot with monkfish? Monkfish and red-wine sauce? White asparagus with red wine? Hard to believe, but it worked. After floating back to our hotel, it occurred to us the people who created such magic could probably give us some tips about pairing our own meals to wine. So we called chef and owner Ken Frank and his sommelier, Scott Tracy.

'A little growth happens every Wednesday,' Mr. Frank told us. 'Sometimes we're matching the wine to the meat or matching to the sauce. Sometimes we'll make a match that works with parts of a dish. Sometimes one works with the whole thing and it just sings. Sometimes the wine brings out the best in the dish. Sometimes a wine and a food bring out the best in each other. Sometimes there are parallel tones and they're in perfect harmony.'

One recent pairing that pleased Mr. Tracy was sashimi of dayboat scallop with Japanese vegetable salad, paired with a dry Alsatian Riesling. Why? 'I wanted some fruit here to balance the pickled vegetables and a bit of weight for the spice, and I knew it needed to finish dry to cut the sauce cleanly,' he says.

Both men are quick to say that this is poetry, not science, and that it's all about finding what works through trial and error. Still, in a series of interviews with Mr. Frank and Mr. Tracy, here are some lessons we gleaned from what they told us:

1. Start with what you know and grow from there. Trust your palate. Just like cooking - and wine - common sense and experience are what count.

2. Show no fear; experiment. When in doubt, pop the cork and try a new wine. Never stop exploring. A couple of weeks ago, La Toque offered seared rare yellowfin tuna on a marmalade of red onion and portobello mushroom. Before going on to the next paragraph, close your eyes and think about what wine you'd serve that with.

No, wait, take another minute. OK, now.

La Toque served it with a Sangiovese - the earthy Italian varietal with a core of upfront fruit - from Washington. 'It was just fabulous,' Mr. Frank says. The Sangiovese, Mr. Tracy says, 'has a beautiful, cherry note with leathery tones and it worked well with the mushroom and the sweetness of the onions. Sangiovese works well with beans as well. It has a great affinity for certain dishes like beans and herbs.' If you remember that Sangiovese is what makes Chianti in Italy, you can begin to appreciate this context, and almost taste the combination.

3. Open the wine while you're cooking and taste it. It might inspire you.

4. Generally speaking, the more oak in a wine, the less versatile it is with food. The sommelier asks: Sweet butterscotch and vanilla are great flavors, but are you having popcorn and ice cream for dinner tonight? That said, for those members of the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) Club who think no big California Chardonnay ever pairs well with food, Mr. Frank gives an example of a pairing that sang: 'A rich, buttery, toasted oak, typical big California Chardonnay with Alaskan halibut with a toasted leek beurre blanc sauce, sauteed corn and chanterelle mushrooms.'

5. Sauces are a lost art in most kitchens. They're a bridge between wine and food, and they are as important to the wine as they are to the main ingredient.

6. Have Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc handy. They're so versatile. Of course, there's California Pinot Noir and Oregon Pinot Noir and Burgundy made from Pinot Noir, not to mention Cabernet Franc from all over the world. And they're all different. But that's what's fun about this - you never can be sure. You need to experiment to get this right for you. La Toque pairs American Pinot Noir with fresh corn polenta with seared foie gras and chanterelles, for instance, because 'the sweet corn with the rich, savory seared foie gras and sautéed chanterelles may be the perfect complement to soft, forward Pinot Noir,' Mr. Frank says. 'But paired with a more traditional-style red Burgundy, the sweetness of the corn overpowers the wine and can almost make it taste sour.

'With Burgundy,' he says, 'the fruit is less lush and berrylike, and there's often a little funk that I find very sexy in the right amount at the right time.' Mr. Frank often serves that with his 'Forager's Salad,' which he says 'evolves through the year with either root vegetables in winter or beans in summer, wild mushrooms of the season, duck or pork confit and sometimes foie gras and fresh truffles.' Why? 'The natural slight sweetness of the vegetables, the earthy mushrooms and pork or duck flavors bring out all that is good about red Burgundy.'

7. Finally, the more willing you are to try new wines, the more opportunities you have to try a different pairing. Gruner Veltliner is a weighty white wine that's a specialty of Austria. It's not widely available everywhere yet, but be on the lookout for it because it's quite tasty and different. Mr. Frank created a skate dish with pea curry sauce that he describes as 'a very unusual dish, and hard to pair.' Sure sounds like it. 'If you try to match to the pea flavor, the curry throws you a curve,' he says. 'So after trying at least four or five wines, even Scott was scratching his head. And then the Gruner Veltliner light went on! It was like bingo on the first sip. It handled the minerally vegetable tones of the peas and the exotic aromatic quality that hooked up with the curry. We were saved.'

Mr. Tracy adds: 'We had the winner and it was instant. People would never think of ordering it. But it's pairings like that that turn the lights on.'

Dorothy J. Gaiter / John Brecher

• restaurant [´restərɔnt] n.饭店，菜馆 (初中词汇)
• bargain [´bɑ:gin] n.买卖合同 v.议(价) (初中词汇)
• delicious [di´liʃəs] a.美味的，可口的 (初中词汇)
• mission [´miʃən] n.代表团；使馆vt.派遣 (初中词汇)
• expensive [ik´spensiv] a.费钱的，昂贵的 (初中词汇)
• passion [´pæʃən] n.激情；激怒；恋爱 (初中词汇)
• parallel [´pærəlel] a.平行的 n.平行线 (初中词汇)
• vegetable [´vedʒtəbəl] a.&n.蔬菜(的)；植物 (初中词汇)
• poetry [´pəuitri] n.诗；诗意 (初中词汇)
• series [´siəri:z] n.连续；系列；丛书 (初中词汇)
• paragraph [´pærəgrɑ:f] n.段；节 vt.将...分段 (初中词汇)
• italian [i´tæliən] a.意大利 n.意大利人 (初中词汇)
• appreciate [ə´pri:ʃieit] v.评价；珍惜；感激 (初中词汇)
• inspire [in´spaiə] v.鼓舞；使感悟；吸入 (初中词汇)
• california [,kæli´fɔ:njə] n.加利福尼亚 (初中词汇)
• instance [´instəns] n.例子，实例，例证 (初中词汇)
• amount [ə´maunt] n.总数；数量 v.合计 (初中词汇)
• willing [´wiliŋ] a.情愿的，乐意的 (初中词汇)
• austria [´ɔstriə] n.奥地利 (初中词汇)
• available [ə´veiləbəl] a.可用的；有效的 (初中词汇)
• unusual [ʌn´ju:ʒuəl] a.不平常的；异常的 (初中词汇)
• flavor [´fleivə] n.滋味 vt.给....调味 (初中词汇)
• hooked [hukt] a.钩状的；上瘾的 (初中词汇)
• instant [´instənt] a.立即的 n.紧迫；瞬间 (初中词汇)
• luggage [´lʌgidʒ] n.行李；皮箱 (高中词汇)
• reservation [,rezə´veiʃən] n.保留；储备；预定 (高中词汇)
• memorable [´memərəbəl] a.难忘的；重大的 (高中词汇)
• tavern [´tævən] n.小酒馆；客栈 (高中词汇)
• finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中词汇)
• mushroom [´mʌʃru:m] n.蘑菇 vi.采蘑菇 (高中词汇)
• cherry [´tʃeri] n.樱桃(树) (高中词汇)
• sweetness [´swi:tnis] n.甜蜜；芳香；亲切 (高中词汇)
• typical [´tipikəl] a.典型的；象征的 (高中词汇)
• oregon [´ɔrigən] n.俄勒冈 (高中词汇)
• trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (四级词汇)
• laundry [´lɔ:ndri] n.洗衣店；待洗的衣服 (四级词汇)
• asparagus [ə´spærəgəs] n.文竹；天门冬；龙须菜 (四级词汇)
• bridge [bridʒ] n.桥(梁)；鼻梁；桥牌 (四级词汇)
• lookout [´lukaut] n.警戒；景色；前途 (四级词汇)
• winner [´winə] n.胜利者，得奖者 (四级词汇)
• downright [´daunrait] a.直率的 ad.彻底 (六级词汇)
• scallop [´skɔləp, ´skɑ-] n.扇贝壳 v.拾扇贝 (六级词汇)
• affinity [ə´finiti] n.密切关系；吸引(力) (六级词汇)
• speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (六级词汇)
• vanilla [və´nilə] n.香草属，香草精 (六级词汇)
• aromatic [,ærə´mætik] a.芳香的；芬芳的 (六级词汇)