Matching Wine With Food
Forget what you know about pairing food and wine. The days of automatically pairing red wine with beef and white wine with chicken are long gone. Thanks to all the different flavors found in wine today, color no longer applies. So how do you pair wine with food then? Follow these steps to find out. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Focus on the flavors and body of the wine. The technical way to determine the wine's body is by swirling it around in the glass and watching how the wine then flows down the sides of the glass. Full-bodied wines will come down slowly in sheets, medium-bodied wines will break into colorless lines and light-bodied wines will not cling to the glass at all.
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Have a clean palate, and you should be able to detect the wine's flavors. Some are sweet, others are tart and some are dry (not sweet at all). Sip the wine slowly and move it around in your mouth before swallowing. What's the first flavor that comes to your mind? Even if you don't think you taste it, most people unconsciously identify tastes before their taste buds recognize them.
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Sample all of your wines one at a time. Nibble on crackers and sip unflavored water between each one. Your goal is to accurately identify each wine's body and flavors, and the crackers and water will help cleanse your palate between tastings.
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Compare each wine's body and flavors to the menu you have planned. The trick now is to find the wine that best complements your menu.
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If you are serving a "heavy" meal–steak, roast beef, etc.–you will want to select a full- to medium-bodied wine. Light-bodied wines will work better with lighter dishes such as chicken, seafood and pasta.
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Remember, however, that the wine is going to bring out your food's flavor. This means that if you're serving a very sweet meal, the wine will taste more bitter. Likewise, if you're serving a very dry meal, a sweet wine will taste sweeter than it actually is.
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Consider the flavor of your food. If you're serving fish, a citrusy wine will work well. If, on the other hand, your dish is mushroom-based, you'll want to opt for an earthier flavor. A good rule of thumb is to focus on the sauce or seasoning of the dish and then go from there.
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Make sure you serve a wine that you like to drink. Whether you drink it alone or with a meal, wine is meant to be enjoyed, and chances are good that if you like a wine by itself, you will also like it with your meal.
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Tips & Warnings
If you're serving a spicy dish, you may want to try a sweet dessert wine. This is one of the few occasions when contrasting wine and food flavors works well.
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- Photo Credit Sophia Lemon
