Mastering the Art of Wine and Food Pairings

Wine and Food Pairing
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When it comes to food and wine pairings, there are those who carelessly match any dish with any libation and those who painstakingly try to balance the flavors of the food with the perfect wine. No matter where you land on the spectrum, there are some dishes that remain challenging (potluck, anyone?), so having knowledge of ways to properly pair wine with your food can truly intensify the enjoyment of eating. It doesn鈥檛 get much better than sea bass with Sauvignon Blanc, duck breast with Burgundy and a juicy steak with a classic Cabernet Sauvignon, so here are some pairing tips that promise to make your next dish sing:

How Food and Wine Pairings Work

Wine flavors are derived from specific components: sugar, acid, fruit, tannin and alcohol. Foods also have flavor components, such as fat, acid, salt, sugar and bitter. The most successful food and wine pairings feature complementary components, richness and textures.

You can try for either a similar pairing or a contrasting one. For pasta in a rich cream sauce, for example, you could cut through the creamy fat with a crisp, dry, unoaked white wine. Or you could wrap the flavor of the wine around the richness of the sauce by choosing a big, ripe, soft Chardonnay or Roussanne/Marsanne blend.

Of course you鈥檒l need to brush up on white wine and red wine basics聽 to understand the flavors of each grape. Armed with the knowledge of grape varieties, you can follow these food elements for a perfect match:

Six Elements of Food and Wine Pairing

There are a few elements that make both red wine and white wine pairings work, and they鈥檙e derived from characteristics of the food and how they mingle with those of the wine.聽 These are: fat, acid, salt, sweetness, bitterness and texture.

WhiteButton1聽Fat Element

A lot of our favorite foods, both meat and dairy products, have high levels of fat. Wine doesn’t contain fat, so when matching a wine with fatty foods, remember that it has to balance that fat with acid, cut it with tannin, or match its richness with alcohol.

This is why a prime cut of steak tastes so good with a Cabernet-based wine; the beef鈥檚 protein and fat softens up the wine鈥檚 mouth-drying tannins. This sets up the tongue for the wine鈥檚 fruit and berries and forest flavors to complement the smoky, meaty flavors of the steak.

WhiteButton2聽Acid Element

Acid is another key element in both food and wine. In wine, it adds nerve, freshness and lift. It can do the same with food, as when lemon is squeezed on a fresh piece of fish. When looking for a wine to go with an acidic dish, you should make sure that the perceived acidity of the wine is at least equal to that of the food, or the wine will taste bland and washed out.

Salads are often a challenge for wine matching, but you can make it work if you moderate the acid in the dressing by cutting back on the lemon juice or vinegar. Try using some tangy, bitter greens and offset them with herbal flavors from Sauvignon Blanc or S茅millon.

WhiteButton3聽Salt Element

Salty foods seem to limit your wine choices. Salt can make an oaky聽Chardonnay taste weird, strip the fruit right out of a red wine and turn high alcohol wines bitter. But with a bit of imagination, you can conjure up some remarkable combinations of salty foods and sweet wines. Bleu cheese and Sauternes is another one of the world鈥檚 classic food and wine combos.

A Twist on Classic Wine & Cheese Pairings

Sparkling wines are a homerun with salty, fried foods. The carbonation and yeasty acids emulate beer and clean the salt from your palate, while adding more interesting textures and flavor nuances. Salt is also a principal flavor in briny seafood such as oysters. Acidic wines clean out the salt and balance the rich ocean flavors of the oyster.

WhiteButton4聽Sweetness Element

Sweet desserts and other sugary foods seem easy鈥攋ust pull out a sweet wine鈥攂ut beware. Here鈥檚 where a rule really needs to be observed.

There are degrees of sweetness. Some recipes will have just a hint of sugar, such as a fruit sauce served over a pork loin. This light, fruity sweetness can be matched very well with rich white wines such as Chardonnay. Higher alcohol tends to give an impression of sweetness, and balances the sugar in the sauce.

With desserts you must be certain that the wine tastes sweeter than the dessert; otherwise the dessert will strip the wine of its sweetness and render it bitter or tart. Though red wine and chocolate is a combination often promoted by the wine industry, you have to be very careful about it. Use a bitter, dark chocolate and a red wine with some sweetness, such as a late harvest Zinfandel, and it can be quite wonderful. But a sweet chocolate dessert and a dry red? Terrible!

WhiteButton5聽Bitterness Element

What about bitter flavors? In some cultures, bitter flavors are prized, but most of the time they are to be avoided. Anything more than just a hint is likely to be perceived as unpleasant. In wine, bitterness usually results from unripe grapes, or a failure to get the stems and pips (seeds) out of the fermenting tank, or mismanaged barrels. When bitterness in wine meets bitterness in food, it acts the opposite of sugar. One does not cancel out the other; they merely combine.

WhiteButton6聽Texture Element

As for matching textures, think light and heavy. Light foods are best with light wines; heavy foods with heavy wines. That鈥檚 the safest way to go about it. A more adventurous path is to experiment with contrast: matching light foods to heavy wines and vice versa. This will require more testing, to keep the tension dynamic and avoid having the lighter flavors over-shadowed by the heavy ones.

For every rule of wine pairing there is, you will often find just as many dissenters. However, the most important rule of all is to trust your own palate and enjoy!

Great Wine and Food Pairings聽

Red Wine Pairings

Pork Chops with Pinot Noir Demi-Glace with Oregon Pinot Noir

Wild Rice Salad with Mushrooms with Cabernet Franc

Duck Breast with Caramelized Apples and Red Burgundy

Lamb Shanks with Olives and Beaujolais

Portobello and Red Pepper Burgers and Carneros Pinot Noir

Grilled Salmon with Olive Butter and Orzo and Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

Lamb with Apricots and Saint-Joseph

Spicy Grilled Shrimp Stew and Menc铆a

Moussaka and Agiorgitiko

Roasted Asparagus with Aceto Balsamico and Chianti Classico

Steak Frites and Sonoma Zinfandel

Penne with Bacon, Swiss Chard, Jack Cheese and Pecans and Washington Syrah

Roast Duckling with Merlot-Chocolate Sauce and Roasted Beets and Long Island Merlot

Baked Rigatoni with Eggplant and Sausage and Primitivo

Slow-Cooked Rack of Lamb and Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Ros茅 Wine Pairings

Tomato Salad and Bandol Ros茅

Tuna and Egg on a Baguette and Tavel Ros

Vegetable Soup and C么tes de Provence

Bouillabaisse with a Spanish Ros

6 Ros茅 Pairing Guide

White Wine Pairings

Avocado, Tomato and Spinach Crepes with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

Mussels Provencal and Chilean Sauvignon Blanc

Chicken Sate Burgers and Australian Chardonnay

Spaghetti with Cockles and Greco di Tufo

Wild Mushroom Soup and California Sauvignon Blanc

Cucumber Soup and New York Riesling

Vietnamese Steak Salad and Gew眉rztraminer

Chicken Tostadas and Vouvray

Chicken and Mushroom Paellas and Albari帽o

Linguine with Shrimp, Scallops and Clams and Tocai Friulano

Pork Loin with Cider-Madeira Sauce and Pinot Blanc

Crispy Artichokes and Soave

Pesto Pasta and Vermentino

Chilled Corn Soup with Crab and Australian Chardonnay

Tomato Gazpacho with Avocado and Lobster and White Bordeaux

Squash Soup with Basil and White Burgundy

Grilled Whole Red Snapper and Ratatouille with a White Rhne Blend

Champagne and Sparkling Wine Pairings

Smoked Salmon and Caviar and Brut Blanc de Blancs

Chicken Liver Pate and Nonvintage Brut Rose Champagne

Summer Melon Salad and Prosciutto and Prosecco

Duck Breast with Spaetzle, Chanterelles and Spinach Puree and Vintage Brut Champagne

Published on November 12, 2014
Topics: Wine 101Wine and Food Pairings