Q&A: Wine Expert Gloria Maroti Frazee

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YOU CAN JUST sip yourself silly with samples from the 280+ wineries on hand for the Washington D.C. International Wine and Food Festival this weekend (dcwinefestival.com), or you can attempt to spit enough of the vino out that you'll be clearheaded enough to learn something. Both Saturday and Sunday, Gloria Maroti Frazee, the director of education for Wine Spectator, will explain how to match up your favorite grub with whites and reds. She gave Express' Vicky Hallett a preview of her presentation.

» EXPRESS: How do you know when you've made a perfect pairing?
» FRAZEE: There's no such thing as a perfect pairing -- it's personal preference. I like ketchup on my hamburger, you like mustard. Ideally the weight of the wine should match with the weight of the food if you really want to be able to taste both. If you put balsamic vinaigrette on a salad, you'll taste the microgreens better than if you doused it in Russian dressing. But I've talked to wine makers who really like red wine, so they'll drink it even if they're eating fish.

» EXPRESS: What's the hardest cuisine to pair with wine?
» FRAZEE: Anything with a lot of spice or heat. If you have a wine with a high alcohol content, it can make a burning sensation in your mouth. Gewürztraminer works well with spicy food. Sometimes I'll just give up though and have a beer.

» EXPRESS: What wine should people be drinking more with food?
» FRAZEE: Riesling, riesling, riesling. I frequently drink wine with dinner and out of every case I buy, three bottles are riesling. A lot of food has sweetness in it -- mango sauce or barbecue -- and you want something sweet in your mouth so it can shine and stand up to the sweetness. A dry wine will taste thin, nasty and sour. People think sweetness is bad because their connotation is that it's cheap. I'm not above going for a white zinfandel with barbecue.

» EXPRESS: Any common pairings make you cringe?
» FRAZEE: Chocolate wedding cake and champagne. Unless the champagne is sweet, it ends up tasting tart and acidic. With chocolate, you want something fresh and fruity, usually the flavors found in reds.

» EXPRESS: What's the best way to learn how to pair?
» FRAZEE: The thing I suggest is ordering glasses of two different wines with your meal at a restaurant. That way you can do a taste test to see which one you prefer. And it's fun to experiment.