Food and wine matching has become an art and culture nowadays. Professionals like sommeliers and wine writers benefit from this phenomenon and become celebrities in the world of wine. However, pairing of food and wine is not restricted to only the experts! By following a few basic rules anyone can find pleasure in playing around with various combinations of food and wine.
When food is put into the mouth, the sensitivity of your taste buds is influenced by the food's texture. Which then affects the tastes of the next item you eat, and of course the type of wine you drink! How do we take advantage of these flavour interactions so both food and wine taste more delicious than when consumed separately? Click on the headings below to find out more on how to pair food with wine.
Flavours and Textures
The simplest way to find the perfect matches is identifying the flavours and textures of the foods and find wines which pair well with the characteristics of dishes:
- Saltiness is extremely wine-friendly as it increases the body of the wine, while decreasing perception of bitterness and sourness.
- Savoury/Umami increases the perception of alcohol, bitterness and sourness of wine, while decreases sweetness, fruitiness and body. These characteristics make savoury dishes harder to pair with wine – in this case adding salt (or salty food) helps lightening the effects of umami.
- Like Umami, sweetness in food strips away the body and fruitiness of the wine, while making it taste more bitter and sour. The general rule in matching sweet food and desserts is to pair them with even sweeter and luscious wines!
- Bitterness in food makes the wines taste bitter too! It is best pairing these dishes with a white or low-tannin wine.
- Acidity is very similar to saltiness - not in taste of course. They are both extremely food friendly, and acidity in food can make a wine taste sweeter, rounder with more flavours. It's a good idea to pair acidic food with a high acid wine, the wine will taste less sour and more fruity. A low acidity wine doesn't go well with acidic food though, it may very likely taste flat and flabby.
- Hotness in food can make a wine taste bitter and sour while losing fruitiness and sweetness. It is therefore common to pair hot and spicy food with intensely perfumed wines and/or sweet wines so to counteract with the impact of hotness.
- As we all have different food/wine preferences and varied levels of flavour sensitivity, definitions for perfect food and wine matches do not exist! If a combination of a certain dish and wine works perfectly for you, enjoy it and do not be too concerned about what others are commenting!
Pairing Meat with Wine
Pairing wine with meat by matching colours has been a popular rule number one. The idea behind “ red wine with red meat” comes from tannins in red wine'sability to bind with proteins and fats in meat. Red wine is softened by the protein-tannin interaction and tastes more round and pleasant. It is also the salt in the dishes that softens the tannins and not necessary the type of meat. The cooking methods, flavouring and sauces can greatly influence the types of matching wines. Pairing wines with meat dishes by colour is more like a safe option that can’t go wrong but in the same time misses out potentially great combinations.
As meats are high in protein and can be rather fatty, they become ideal companions to tannic wines such as a young Cabernet Sauvignon. These wines can taste very astringent so we need the protein and fat to soften the wine structure. Furthermore the tannins can cleanse the palate by binding with the excess food grease and oil in the mouth. Grilling the meats brings char and bitterness component to the foods and makes them even more suitable to tannic wines.
- Grilled meats and steaks are classics with almost all reds with a fair amount of tannins. One can never go wrong when pairing a good Bordeaux with a juicy chunk of steak!
- Lamb is extremely wine-friendly and can pair with almost all sorts of reds – from savoury Pinot Noirs,Rhone blends to Australian Cabernet Merlot.
- Pairing pork with wine can be rather challenging as it can be cooked and served in many different ways. You might even find the spices used unfriendly with wine. The low-risk options are fruity, juicy reds and whites with little tannins.
Pairing Chicken with Wine
Chicken itself is rather neutral, so wine pairing with chicken is much more dependent on the cooking method than with other meats. The merit of chicken is that it is so versatile that it can almost pair with any wine. It is rather risk-free and easy to grab a bottle of something you want, and simply prepare the chicken in a style that will match your wine. However, as a rather mildly flavoured kind of meat, it is best to avoid jammy and massive reds as they can be too overwhelming and strip away the food flavours.
Think of wine as a sauce or dressing for your chicken dish. If your wine is going to work well as a condiment then you can be assured it's going to match wonderfully as a food wine. Again we will find the basic rules of food and wine pairing our good friend – pair acidity with acidity; texture with texture and flavour with flavour. Roast chicken, particularly the ones grilled over an open flame, is great with almost all whites and medium reds. This cooking preparation adds a charred component to the chicken and makes it flavoursome and nicely matched with soft, delicate reds such as a juicy Pinot Noir or Beaujolais village. Of course, a classic match of roast chicken with Chardonnay/white Burgundy can never go wrong! If you're having your chicken cooked smoky and spicy, go for a rich and aromatic white like a Gewurtztraminer. If it is seasoned lightly with lemon and herbs, select something crisp and juicy – an unoaked Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc will do nicely, or the ever- food-friendly Riesling, even a Pinot Gris. On the other hand, if the chicken dish is heavily flavoured or seasoned, try a spicy and mouth-watering red with moderate tannins like a Southern Rhone.
Pairing Vegetarian Dishes with Wine
The absence of protein can commonly be expected in many vegetarian dishes. The tannins in wines interact with the proteins in our mouth instead, and can taste unpleasantly astringent and drying. Therefore we commonly find vegetarian dishes paired with white wines and some fruity reds with soft tannins. White wines are generally higher in acidity and much more food friendly too. Still, food and wine pairing is very dependent on the cooking methods – grilling vegetables can make them suitable to pair with more tannic wines.
Vegetables can be rather high in acid; in this case we match wines by flavour similarities.
- A salad or tomato-based dish goes wonderfully with crisp, juicy wine with good acidity. Some great examples include Sauvignon Blanc with tomatoes and asparagus, and salads with Riesling and Pinot Grigio.
- Meatier vegetables such as mushrooms and nuts are more flavoursome and savoury, so we can pair these dishes with fuller flavoured reds. Pinot Noirs are great partners with for their earthy and mushroomy characteristics!
-
A hearty soup full of your favourite vegetables can pair with many different wines! From juicy reds such as a Dolcetto to a Chardonnay, depending on food flavour and texture, so temper your soup to create perfect matches.
Pastas are very versatile when pairing with wines; again we rely on the sauces to make our wine matching decisions. A good place to start from is choosing something Italian like Soave or Chianti, pairing cuisine and wine from the same region is a safe bet!
Pairing Summer Dishes with Wine
Pairing your favourite summer dish isn't any different from other food and wine pairings. Go for something you like, but if you ever need guidance, follow the food and wine pairing principles to get a good idea of which wines pair nicely with flavours of the dishes. One thing that is different with summer dishes pairing is the serving temperature of your wines. Although this is no fixed rule, having a well-chilled wine with your summer dish is absolutely delightful! For example, when you are enjoying a chicken salad you are likely to go for a delicious and juicy Pinot Gris, but by all means leave the bottle in the fridge for twenty minutes or more to have your Gris nicely cold and ready to go!
Tart whites
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Riesling
- Pinot Gris
- Unoaked Chardonnay
Light, chillable and fruity reds
- New Zealand Pinot Noir
- Beaujolais
- Dolcetto
- Dry and off-dry rosés from both Old World and New World
Sparklings from all over the world
- Champagne
- Methode Traditionelle
- Prosecco
- Cava
If your dish is Asian-inspired and rather hot and spicy, go for the classic aromatic wines for pairing – again have them chilled beforehand to bring absolute satisfaction in the boiling summer. The chillable wines such as tart whites, light and fruity reds, Rosé and Sparklings are therefore the winners of summer! Great examples include Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris and unoaked Chardonnay for the whites; dry and off-dry rosés from both Old World and New World; chillable, fruity reds such as New Zealand Pinot Noir, Beaujolais and Dolcetto; and charming sparklings from all over the world such as Champagne, Methode Traditionelle, Prosecco and Cava!
Selecting an ideal wine for summer salads is very much depending on the dressings and ingredients. A salad full of meats, nuts and cheeses is very wine friendly and can be paired with a good variety of wines. Salads with lots of crispy raw vegetables are a little bit more challenging, as raw leaves can make wines taste bitter. In this case pair wines that are round and with a bit more texture. Again chillable reds, whites with great acidity and fruitiness are great options for salads, but if you are ever unsure, a delicious sparkling is a flawless partner that will always go well on a summer's day!
Pairing Seafood with Wine
Seafood are seldom paired with red wines due to the common acknowledgement that one should only 'pair red meats with red wine, and pair white meats with white wine'. However, in the world of wine there is never a definite rule to everything, what you actually prefer ranks above anything else. Here we discuss the reasons why seafood and fish are most commonly matched with white wines, but at the same time discover which reds can actually be great accompaniments too.
When pairing fish with wines, white wines are the safest and most risk-free option. Although sauces, flavouring and cooking methods need to be taken into consideration when pairing wine with food, many characteristics of fish makes red wine a difficult pairing partner. Not only because fish can be high in umami/savoury taste and can make reds bitter and astringent, the oil in fish can also brings a metallic taste into red wines. Furthermore, seafoods and shellfish tend to be quite delicate in flavour and texture, and big red wines can be too overwhelming in texture and flavour for them.
Seafoods such as shellfish and mussels are great companions to juicy and refreshing Chardonnays and New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. Other crisp dry whites such as Chenin Blancs and Semillons are also great options. If you added a bit more butter and/or cream to your seafoods then a buttery creamy Chardonnay becomes the winner! The same thing applies to fish dishes – creams and sauces greatly affect our wine choices, most times even more influential than the foods themselves. Again, white fish are most commonly paired with white wines, but seasonings and flavourings affect our choices greatly. For meatier fish such as salmon, a rosé is a brilliant match not only in flavours but also in colour. Low-tannin juicy reds such as Southern Rhone Blends and Beaujolais can also serve as great partners to both stronger flavoured seafood dishes and red meat fish.
Pairing Dessert with Wine
Dry wines are seldom matched with desserts, as the dessert sweetness tend to make the wines unpleasantly acidic. Even sweet wines with less sugar and body do not work well! Therefore we commonly pair even sweeter wines with sweet dishes. Bear in mind sweetness is not the only factor we need to consider, the structure/texture of the wine should also match well with the food! For example, a creamy and full-bodied wine pairs perfectly with a creamy dish.
Just like pairing with anything else, when finding the perfect match between ice creams and wines, we should take the flavours and textures into consideration. Although an oaked Chardonnay is not sweet at all, a nutty flavoured ice cream brings out the wine's woodiness and can be a surprisingly delicous match. Chocolate ice creams are heavenly rich in both flavour and texture, and although it is a perfect match with syrupy dessert wines, most wines that go well with chocolates do the trick.
When matching chocolates with wine we want to match the similarities in both: Rich, dark and buttery texture goes great with intense and velvety red wines such as Shiraz and Grenache! The classic pairing partner Port possesses not only the matching texture, and also the supple sweetness and tannin which gives the combination another bonus mark or two.
Fruit based desserts like fruit salads are great matches for slightly sweet to luscious dessert wines with juicy bright acidity. The choice of wines would basically depend on which fruits and what dressings/sauces on top. A sweeter, exotic fruit salad goes with Muscat de Beaume de Venise or Ice Wine in total perfection while a lighter salad is absolutely delightful with juicy, refreshing off-dry whites, rosés and sparklings!
Muscats and other sweet fortified wines can be drizzled over ice cream as a delicious alternative to chocolate sauce!
Many dessert wines drink perfectly on their own as desserts themselves! While enjoying the fun and deliciousness of desserts pairing with sweet wines, it is also definitely a must-try to sip a glass of these golden syrups alone after a delicious meal.
