Pairing the right wine with a dish can be quite a revelation. It nurtures the thrill of discovering a complete dining experience.

Last month my wife, Cheryle, and I attended the four-day "Made in America" food and wine event at the Four Seasons Hualalai.

The theme was classic comfort foods with a contemporary twist, and all were delivered by an all-star list of American chefs.

What an unbelievable opportunity to learn!

Here are some highlights and insights that I hope will be helpful as you explore the world of wine with food.

» Hamakua Wild Mushroom Soup with mushroom hash (Chef Josiah Citrin, Melisse Restaurant): Yes, wine can be served with savory soups, especially light and refreshing, well-chilled wines. Because this dish had intense mushroom earthiness, we paired it with the Chateau D’Esclans Dry Rose "Whispering Angel" (about $20 a bottle).

This light pink wine worked well with the soup’s pungent, earthy nuances and kept the palate fresh between bites. Lighter, fresher styles of roses also work well with a variety of savory local soups such as oxtail or beef luau.

» Aromatic Crispy Skin Onaga served with fresh Dungeness crab, wild boar gyoza and lemongrass-crab raviote sauce (Chef James Babian, Four Seasons Hualalai): This dish illustrates how different foods pair with different wines.

While a common choice here would be a chardonnay or sauvignon blanc, we selected the Champalou Vouvray (about $20), a chenin blanc from France’s Loire Valley.

We loved how the sweet-sour edge, heightened by the wine’s innate minerality, accented the fish in a similar way to a lemon or lime. Furthermore, this wine was seamless with the lemongrass-crab sauce.

We also love well-made Vouvrays like this one with milder Thai foods that incorporate such ingredients as lemongrass and kaffir lime. It also pairs well with richer seafood, especially crab and lobster.

» Duck Fat Fried Chicken served with piquillo tomato "ketchup" (Chef Ludo Lefebvre, LudoBites Pop Up): Here we selected a slightly chilled 2008 Evening Land Beaujolais Villages "Celebration" (about $16). The best way to describe this pairing is to imagine a Thanksgiving dinner with roast turkey, stuffing, yams, gravy — and the cranberry, which livens up the dish and refreshes the palate. That’s what this delicious, fruit-driven, refreshing, lower-alcohol red wine does to the richly enhanced chicken and spicy, piquant "ketchup." Well-made French beaujolais can be wonderfully food-friendly with a wide array of foods and styles of preparations.

» Grilled, Chimichurri Marinated, 45 Day "Dry Aged" Mehalani Ranch T Bone (Chef Nick Mastrascusa, Four Seasons Hualalai): The Hawaii island-grown beef, marinated with Chef Nick’s fabulous Chimichurri, was grilled on a kiawe wood spit set up right on the beach.

The combination of herbs and spices, coupled with the kiawe smoke, was amazing. As Cheryle noted, the best pairing of the entire weekend was this steak with a 2009 Sang des Cailloux Vacqueyras (about $35).

This brooding, masculine, rustic grenache-syrah-mourvedre blend was magical with the rustic steak preparation. The wine, too, smelled of wild herbs, smoke, game and black pepper. It hails from France’s southern Rhone Valley near Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

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Chuck Furuya is a master sommelier and a partner in the DK Restaurants group.