Your wine pairing guide

Make the most of your favorite dishes with the perfect wine companions

Perfect pairings for the year's best wines

What to serve with the best wines of 2009? Sunset wine editor Sara Schneider has the matches

Multicolored-pepper steaks with balsamic onions

Article by Sara Schneider

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Continuum Cabernet Blend 2006

Deep Pocket Red of the Year (Napa Valley; $134)

Perfect pairing: Multicolored-pepper Steaks with Balsamic Onions

Why it works: A new wine made by Robert Mondavi’s son Tim, Continuum is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. It’s as layered and complex as the best wines in the world and needs a simple food partner that won’t cover it up.

Well-marbled New York strip or rib-eye steaks have the texture to match the wine’s ultra-plush tannins. We’ve coated these with multicolored peppercorns to pull out the haunting Eastern spices and licorice in the wine, which also has gorgeous blackberry fruit that likes the sweet onions dressed in balsamic.