Chicken Piccata wine pairing ...

I am looking for a wine pairing for Chicken Piccata. Something in the $20 - $30 range. I am not looking for the perfect wine to match it with, just a good style of wine, if that makes sense. Searching around it looks like
Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay. I have a couple of good bottles of
Chardonnay around, so I am leaning that way. (I am assuming that they are oaked, but I have not checked them in a while.)

We will probably use this recipe: http://www.foodtv.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_22319,00.html.

Salut/Hi Vilco (out),

No, as others have said. A wine without much acidity will appear flabby when served with a sharp lemony dish.

Try it and see for yourself then come back and report.

Contrasts only work when there is sufficient character for the contrast not to submerge one of the contrasted items.

By the time I saw the question, Mike had answered far better than I could have!
Late-harvest Pinot Gris isn't one I would have thought of, intriguing idea.

Dale Williams
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My personal inclination would be to steer away from an oaked Chardonnay, unless you were sure it had good acidity (like say Ch. Montelena). My first instinct (since I'm not very creative) would be an Italian white- maybe a crisp Friulian white (a Sauvignon or Tocai Friulano), or a good Roero Arneis. Whatever you choose, I'd go for a white with acidity- I find a soft white with a lemony dish is usually a disaster.

Dale Williams
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Matching high acid dishes with low acid wines would not create contrast, the wine would just get overpowered. It's the wrong type of contrast, one item does cannot match the other...

As Ian pointed out, you match food with wine, in general, by either creating contrast or harmony. For example, a very spicy dish can be matched to a very spicy wine (to enhance the effect; this is harmony)
or to a wine that contrasts the dish by softening the spicyness.

In the case of a lemony dish, your wine needs to have enough acidity to stand up to the dish. Given that basic premise, you can now choose harmony, by finding a crisp Tocai Friulano like Dale suggested, one that might even match the dish in the aromas and not just in the overall balance. Or you can create contrast by finding a wine that adds a bit of mellowness, but don't forget to keep that acidity high:
one match that comes to mind would be a VT Pinot Gris from Alsace.

I also agree on the low-oak (unless you choose a botrytis wine...), you don't want to take away from the zing of the dish, and I would also prefer a very floral wine, unencumbered by heavy oak scents (I wish people would start learning the difference between oak flavouring and aging...).

Thanks for your comments.