Pairing Wine and Food – A Weighty Topic

Pairing wine with food can be intimidating.  It is one thing if you are choosing for yourself alone, quite another when faced with the task of choosing for guests.  We fear appearing unsophisticated or at the least having a less than satisfactory experience.

If you already know what a wine tastes like, you are past half the battle.  When ordering wine by the glass in a restaurant, do not hesitate to ask for a sample.  They already have a bottle open and it should be no problem.  Your server should also be able to describe a wine to you.  Many wine bars and stores have tasting nights.  If you attend those make a note of the wines you like, what they taste like, and what sort of meal you would want them to accompany.

But maybe just knowing what wines you like isn’t enough.  Maybe you still don’t know how to pair that wine with a meal.  This is understandable because the “rules” are not completely straightforward.  Ask five different experts and you will get some variance.  Even asking five people in general is likely to produce a mixed response.

Another complicating factor is that neither meals nor wines are one dimensional.  I sat in on wine and food pairing class that some colleagues of mine were conducting.  On my plate where little bites to represent the major flavor components of food.  I had a spicy chip, a packet of salt, chocolate cake, lemon, red apple, cheese, and ham.  It occurred to me that diners don’t experience these flavors in isolation.  The  ham alone could represent salt, fat, and sweetness. There wasn’t total agreement among the class about how these representative flavors paired with the wines.  We tried pairings with sweet Riesling, Pinot Grigio, oaked Chardonnay, Chianti, and a new world Bordeaux style blend.  Among other taste opinions, some people thought the red apple and the oaked  Chardonnay were a good match while others liked the apple with Chianti.  And guess what?  You can’t really say either were wrong since the most important thing to determine is DO YOU LIKE IT.

Weight in the food comes from the types of ingredients used and the cooking techniques.  Consider a filet of white fish.  This fish steamed and dressed with lemon is much lighter than the same fish battered and fried.  The first rendition might go best with a lighter wine like Pinot Grigio while the latter moves up the scale to a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc or maybe a rose.  But what if you tried a dry rose with the steamed fish?  Not the end of the world.  You have to really miss the mark to have a negative impact.  Both dishes would be eclipsed by a very full bodied wine like a Mourvedre, Zinfandel or Malbec.  These wines would be better with dishes in which both ingredients AND cooking techniques contribute to weight (ie roasted red meats).Don’t get stuck on color and remember to consider the sauce.  Roasted game in a heavy cream sauce may pair better with a full bodied, oaked Chardonnay than with a thinner, low tannin red wine like Beaujolais.

 

 

 

 

Many other factors come into play – wine’s interaction with salt, fat, spice, sweet – plus the flavors themselves.  We will cover them all, maybe one a month, until we all become experts. Remember, regardless of your pairing hurrahs and faux pas, you get to have food AND wine, so how bad can it be?This article was included in Tasty Traditions along with other interesting articles about food and drinks.