Wine with umami and/or salty food - Talk to Me

For a while, I assumed that the word “umami” referred to some type of sushi or fish sauce. My state of ignorance has moved incrementally beyond that, but still presents a barrier to me understanding the chameleon-like flavor profile of a recent Pinot Noir. I had glasses of 2017 Walter Scott Pinot Noir “La Combe Verte” over a few days with three different meals. It showed a sophisticated and delicious, spicy, fruit-centered profile with Confit de Canard, then a more subdued red tarted fruit with spaghetti and meatballs a day or two later. Today as I started my lunch of some leftover pizza that had been topped with black olive tapenade and Cambazola blue cheese, I had a potential “road to Damascus” insight: Perhaps it was the saltiness of the confit that brought out the spicy fruit in the wine. Because the tapenade and blue cheese pizza also registered as salty to me, I poured the last glass of the Pinot to have with my lunch and test the idea. Bingo! There was that delightful fruit and spicy taste again. A little online research caused me to wonder whether what I was calling ‘salty’ might actually include some or more of the (nebulous to me) ‘umami’.
Thoughts?

the “salty” connection is the right one. the easiest way to really taste it at a base level is to compare the taste of table salt or kosher salt to MSG. they are similar but also very different - that difference is umami.

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Very helpful. Thanks for the comment. I’ll do that taste test.
Is there anything in general salty foods do to wine that I could keep in mind for wine pairing. As I said with this Pinot Noir it seemed to amplify the fruit in an enjoyable way for me.

In simplistic terms, umami in foods will increase one’s perception of bitterness, astringency, acid and alcohol; and decrease one’s perception of sweetness and fruit. Salt will have the opposite effect.

It’s worth noting that umami rich foods are often accompanied by high salt, think of the the confit de canard and blue cheese examples you listed, so there’s often opposing forces effecting your perception of a particular wine, the salt, the umami, and usually acid as well which has similar effects on your perception of wine to salt.

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Yamahai sake is the way to go for umami heavy foods.

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Chablis works well