For many connoisseurs, the dessert wines of Vouvray, Quarts de Chaume and Bonnezeaux represent the apex of Chenin, although I'm currently most interested in the dry wines, many of them from relatively new domains.

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One of my favorites in the "interesting but not intellectually taxing" category is Vouvray, the dry, minerally white from the Loire Valley that's delicious when young but amazing with a few years' age, particularly made by great producers like Domaine Huet and Jacky Blot.

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While the wines' voluptuous texture matched the steak's richness, their minerality proved a bit of a jarring contrast, particularly in the case of the 2011 Chidaine Vouvray Les Argiles. (A minerally white just isn't as versatile as a minerally red.) But they both came admirably close to universal usefulness, and I was quite pleased with my food-and-wine-matching experiment, not to mention the advice of my experts.

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