9 ways to successful food and wine pairing

Basic rules for being a sommelier at home

The old rule of white wine with fish and red wine with meat doesn’t apply across the board. Now it’s fine – probably always has been – to have a light red wine like a Pinot Noir or a Gamay with salmon, and many white wine drinkers still only drink Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay, regardless of what they are eating, even if it’s a steak. There are those that only drink champagne…

It’s almost impossible to ruin a meal if you simply choose a wine you like. But think on this. Carefully selecting wines to pair perfectly with the food you serve really does enhance flavours within both. Artful wine pairing changes a good meal into an extraordinary dining experience.

WHAT A SOMMELIER CONSIDERS
Balance flavour intensity: This is the most basic tenet. You pair light-bodied wines with lighter flavoured food and fuller-bodied wines with heartier, richer and oilier dishes. Some Pinot Noirs, as an example, can be great with fish because you are matching light to light. A full-bodied, heavier wine will overpower a light, delicate dish – which is why a spectacular Chateauneuf du Pape wouldn’t fare so well with Dover Sole, while a lighter, delicate wine hardly registers if you sip it with a hearty roast.

Flavour notes: a dry and earthy Pinot Noir goes well with the earthy flavours in mushroom soup, while the grapefruit or citrus taste of most Sauvignon Blancs is as complementary for fish as lemon is.

Preparation methods: delicately flavored foods that are poached or steamed pair best with delicate wines, such as Pino Grigio or Trebbiano. It’s much easier to pair wines with more flavourful cooking methods like braising, grilling, roasting or sautéing. In either case, pair wines with the sauce, the major seasoning, or dominant flavor of the dish. For example, chicken with a lemon butter sauce will call for a different, more delicate wine to play off the sauce than would chicken cacciatore with all the richness of tomatoes and Italian spices.

Balance sweetness: Be careful not to serve food that is much sweeter than the wine, or a tart lemon sherbert with a really sweet dessert wine.

Opposites can work: Opposing flavors can sometimes play off each other, creating new flavor sensations and cleansing the palate. Hot or spicy foods often work well with sweeter desert wines for example.

Serving more than one wine: When you have several courses, and are serving more than one wine, it’s best to serve lighter wines before full-bodied ones, dry wines before sweet wines. If a prominent, sweet flavored dish is served early in the meal, match it with an appropriately sweet wine – sometimes a Chardonnay with slightly higher sugar content works well.

Geography: regional foods and wines have developed together over time, often have a natural affinity for each other – San Giovese and pizza, for example; sushi and Sake.

Wine gifts: If you are taking wine to a dinner party, don’t worry about matching the wine to the food unless you know exactly what is being served. Just take a good wine appropriate for the occasion.

Wine and cheese: Red wines go well with mild to sharp cheese. Pungent and intensely flavored cheese is better with a sweeter wine. Goat cheeses pair well with dry white wine, while milder cheeses pair best with fruiter red wine. Let’s not forget a nice rose for cheeses which fall somewhere in the middle of the flavour scale. Soft cheese like Camembert and Brie at the peak of readiness pair well with just about any red wine including Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot and red Burgundy.

WHAT AN EXECUTIVE CHEF CONSIDERS
When a chef is working with a sommelier to perfect flavour pairings, subleties can be adjusted to ensure the food goes perfectly with the wine. Sweetness in a dish will increase awareness of sharpness or bitterness and astringency in wine, making it appear drier, stronger and less fruity. Acidity in food reduces awareness of acidity in wine, making it taste richer and mellower. Sweet wine tastes sweeter.

Bitter flavors in food increase awareness of tannic elements in wine. Sharpness and saltiness in food hold back the bitter taste in wines.

Sweeter foods like tomato sauces, teriyaki, and honey-mustard glazes make your wine seem drier than it really is. Try an off-dry wine (slightly sweet, like some Rieslings) to balance the flavor

More acidic foods like salads with balsamic dressings, tomatoes, soy sauce, or fish served with a squeeze of lemon go well with wines higher in acid.

Bitter or astringent foods like a mixed green salad of bitter greens, olives and charbroiled meats accentuate a wine’s bitterness. You can complement these with a full-flavored forward fruity wine. Big tannic red wines will go best with your classic grilled steak or lamb chops, as the fat in the meat will tone down the tannin bitterness in the wine.

Wine pairing in action – selections from a restaurant menu

Tempura vegetables with goat cheese and basil, plus hoisin, balsamic sauce
Sauvignon Blanc: the acidity in the goat cheese matches well with the acidity in this white wine. The vegetables and the basis have similar aromatics as the wine.

Lobster spring rolls with purple potato mash and gooseberry dipping sauce
Unoaked Chardonnay: this matches the body and weight of the lobster, but the acidity of an unoaked Chardonnay cuts the richness of the lobster.

3-day marinated rack of lamb with strawberry risotto
Merlot: lamb asks for a dry, fuller-bodied red wine like
a Merlot. The aromas of spices and berries complement both the lamb and the accompanying strawberry risotto. The supple tannins in the wine will contrast well with the meatiness of the lamb, cutting through its richness.

Bruschetta and prosciutto, olives, cherry tomatoes and parmigiano reggiano
Dry sparkling wine: Both these dishes offer a lot of different flavours. You need a versatile wine with good acidity, and a sparkling white fits the bill to cut through the fats, balances the acidity of the tomatoes, yet does not overpower anything. Dry sparkling wines are a good palate cleanser, and bubbles make everyone happy.

Sake sautéed jumbo shrimps
Sake: the dryness of the Japanese rice wine, Sake, is a bridge for the way in which the shrimps were prepared, and in particular I recommend the premium class Junmai Daiginjo. You could also choose a full body Pinot Grigio from Piave so that it matches the weight of the shrimps without overpowering them.

AAA Angus steak au jus, with steamed vegetables

Shiraz: (from McLaren Vale, Australia) this spectacular main course needs a wine with full body and moderate tannins. This region produces an elegant style of shiraz that is powerful enough to stand up to the complexity of the dish.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...