1) this is a tough one because you don’t want to compound the dish with more of what’s already in it, acid and wine flavor profile. What’s the heaviest flavor in the dish that sticks out the most? Probably the sauce even more than the clams. What flavor are you getting from the clams that sticks around for a while? If you could add a food ingredient to the dish to compliment it what would it be? We’ll say a parmesan for example. Now what wine has something in common with parmesan/cheese? What’s a creamy wine with enough structure to not only hold up to but compliment a white wine sauce? What’s going to compliment the funkiness of clams? I’m going with a new world, New american oak chard like ramey or rombeaur. You want a simple wine because the dish is complex enough as it is. Anything too complex is just going to be too much going on imo.
2) brunelo has the acid to cut through the richness and the structure to hold up to the meat sauce and cheese. Is mellow enough to not steal the show though to where these big flavors in the dish can still shine.
3) plain grilled steak with no spices- any napa cab sauv rated 94+ by parker and you’re good. The fruit just compliments the char of the steak so well and the flavour can hold up to the flavour of a juicy steak and they both have big enough bodies to where they can compliment each other.
4) beef wellington- 1855 classified 1-5 growth left bank bordeaux of vintage 2009, 10 (older than that gets really expensive) or 12 still green and not as good as 09,10 or 15 or 16 but still good, not nearly as expensive and starting to be approachable from a drinking standpoint. Definitely want to decant though. When it comes to beaf w, you have to keep in mind that the most profound flavors are coming from the mushroom sauce inside and the buttery flakey crust on the outside so you don’t want to over shadow those components with a big meaty strait cab or you’ll loose out on some of the dish. You don’t want the filet to overwhelm the wine either. So this is why I recommend a cab sauv driven Bordeaux. The acid will compliment the sauce, the fruit will compliment the crust and the weight will hold up to the filet and add further complexity. This is one of my all time favorite pairings if done right. Very easy to screw up though.