Select appropriate red to accompany sweet ham entree

Finding a wine to serve for a family dinner with ham as the centerpiece can be a challenge.

I find it easier to marry a sugar-cured ham with wine than a ham with a salty edge.

Salt does things to a wine's character, most of them bad.

But if you have a sugar-cured ham and match it with an easy-to-drink red, there might be a chance for success.

Our wine-tasting group sampled a ham from a specialty shop, but although billed as sugar-cured, it was still rather salty. There's nothing wrong with salty ham -- country ham is a staple in the South -- but if you want to serve ham with wine, you should taste it for saltiness.

I asked the tasters to bring a red wine for the tasting. We tasted the wine before the ham and then again with it. Here is what we found:

-- 2000 Joseph Phelps Red Pastiche at $13.99. This wine smelled of pepper, spice and red berry fruit. This blend had plenty of alcohol and tannins (the latter are chemicals that give wine character and can, in the wine's youth, dry out your mouth). My experts predicted this would be a good food wine because of the acids. This wine stood up to the ham -- and its saltiness -- better than the other four. It ranked first in our tasting.

-- 1999 le Clos du Caillou Cotes du Rhone at $17.99. This wine had dry cocoa and a hint of licorice in the aroma and in the mouth. It had dry tannins, a medium body and a light finish. Pairing the ham with this wine made the ham taste smokier. The wine's chocolate just didn't work well.

-- 2000 Bouchaine B Pinot Noir at $14.99. This wine had an aroma of ripe and dried red cherries with hints of leather. In the mouth, it had a lush texture. It was our favorite wine to drink by itself. With the food, the wine was not a good match. The taste of the ham and the wine both were diminished.

-- 2000 Louis Tete "Le Pot" Beaujolais Villages at $10.99. This wine had a cooler, deep fruit, typical of a gamay Beaujolais -- strawberries and raspberries. It had plenty of acidity but a light finish. This was a pleasant wine to drink by itself, but the wine clashed too much with the ham.

-- NV "Jest Red" at $9.99. This wine was a blend of seven different varietals (kinds of grapes) from California. It tasted tart, from the influence of cranberry flavor. It was a sturdy, firm wine, and the fruit stayed through to the finish. The fruit remained when tasted with the ham. This was my group's second favorite with the food.

Surfing the wine shelves

-- 1998 Poliziano Vino Nobile de Montepulciano at $22.99 and 1998 Poliziano Vino Nobile de Montepulciano Asinone at $42.99. Both of these wines are blends made primarily from a clone of the sangiovese grape. The Asinone is basically a reserve wine that is not produced every year. My tasters said buy two bottles of the $22.99 wine, and you will have a better value.

-- 1998 Trinchero Family Selection Cabernet Sauvignon at $12.99. This wine was made from grapes of several California valleys. The result was black cherries and other black fruit, with undertones of oak. This was a complex wine for this price.

-- 2000 Erath Vineyards Pinot Gris at $11.99. The floral aroma contained strains of peaches and citrus fruits. The citrus carried over until the finish.

-- 2001 Brancott Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc at $11. This wine followed the tradition of grapefruit in New Zealand's wine. Herbal notes and acids made this an ideal food wine with chicken and fish.

-- 1993 Gloria Ferrer Royal Cuvee at $19.99. Aromas of lemon cream, strawberry and ripe apple showed in this sparkling wine made from 100 percent Carneros grapes. In the mouth, this brut had lots of small bubbles with highlights of a creamy, smooth, slightly lemony mousse. It had a medium body.

Questions can be sent to Frank Sutherland, editor, The Tennessean, 1100 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. 37203 or e-mailed to editor