Wine Pairing
Which Wine with Which Food

The old adage, “white wine with white and red wine with red,” still applies to pairing many food and wines, but with a more modern twist. Today, some wines can be successfully paired against the old saying. A good pairing of food and wine will make both the food and wine taste better than if you were to have the drink and dish separately. To be successful in pairing wines with food, it is important to understand some basics of taste as well as understand the components of wine with food.

TASTE

Taste is a combination of the nose, or smell, and tongue, or taste buds. The nose, in fact, can be much more important to taste than the tongue. The nose can pick up hundreds of different odor nuances that the earth can impart to the grape.

The tongue can discern are sourness, or acidity; sweetness, or residual sugar level; bitterness, such as alkaloids; or saltiness. Some experts add an additional category, savory, or unami, a taste related to aged or fermented foods.

Understanding taste is important in pairing wines with foods because you may want to complement or contrast the taste of the wine with the taste of the food in your pairings.

AGING

The taste imparted from aging can range from light, medium, or intense. A lightly aged wine that has had a short time in the barrel can produce a wine that is more suitable to light fish dishes with no heavy sauces, or perhaps a light game, such as dove or quail. Depending on the sauce, a Riesling, Chenin Blanc, or may be even a White Zinfandel might be suited. Remember that light bodied whites may not see any oak time.

BODY

It is also important to balance body, or intensity, when pairing food and wine. Body can be related to the alcohol content of a wine. Full-bodied wines can consist of 13%-15% alcohol. For example, you would not want to pair a light wine with a robust dish. A wine with a high alcohol content may be attractive to the novice, but can overshadow the nuances of the food and the grape that the winemaker has nurtured.

WINE EXCEPTIONS

What wines go against “tradition?”

Beaujolais may be the wild card of the red wines. This wine is meant to be used soon after production, while many of the other reds need to be aged. Beaujolais is lower in tannin than are other red wines. Tannin is produced in both red and white wines as a result of several factors, including the addition of stems and skins to the grape juice. Many consider Beaujolais to be the “only” red wine can be paired with pork and can also be paired with many poultry dishes.

White wines go with all seafood, right? Not necessarily. Shellfish like oysters, lobster, and crab may be too “meaty” for a White Riesling. And, grilled fish will overpower a Sauvignon Blanc or a Gewurztraminer. The answer to all of these dishes may be a good Chardonnay.

SAUCES

Sauces can be the key to a good wine and food pairing. For example, if you are creating a sauce that uses butter or cream as a base, an oak aged chardonnay will have a buttery taste that will enhance the flavors of both the chardonnay and the food.

Tomatoes can lend a hearty taste to a sauce. A red, such as Beaujolais, might work with a light sauce. Or, a Pinot Noir, a richer wine, and Cabernet, which may have chocolate or tobacco overtones, can be a nice compliment to hearty red sauce.

NO NO NO

Every wine has an evil pairing that will cost both the wine and the dish. For example, Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays do not work with spicy foods because they do not have the spicy bite that the Sarah grape varieties offer. You want to have a spicy wine that “explodes” in your mouth just as spicy foods do.

When eating desserts, you will not want to have a dry wine such as a Chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc because these wines will unbalance the sweetness that the dessert offers. You will want to have a wine like a late harvest Riesling such as a Beer-en-aus-lese Riesling that has a higher residual sugar level than many other wines.

BOTTOM LINE

Everyone has individual and particular different tastes. Experiment. You can end up with a terrific combination that will enhance and startle your senses.

~Laura Evans Staff Editor

Laura Evans is a freelance writer living in Southern California.