Wine and Food Pairings
Wine and food pairing is considered to be a real art along with wine making and wine tasting. While a perfect combination of particular wine and particular dish can be a marriage made in heaven with flavors complementing and highlighting the other, a poor pairing can be a disaster bringing out awkward unpleasant flavors. If you don’t want to destroy a dinner course or the enjoyment of a fine wine, you need to know the general basis of food and wine pairings. For any one dish there may be dozens of wines that would pair very nicely with it. With a little practice, experience and know-how you can pretty easily predict which wines will highlight a dish and which will detract from it.The first basic rule in wine and food pairings is not to let the flavors of the wine or the dish completely dominate to prevent from the other suffer in comparison. You can experiment beyond these bases to make some educated guesses about what will work and what will not in food and wine pairings. The second thing you should keep in mind when choosing wine to supplement your meal is "red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat." Nevertheless, the chicken, tuna and salmon is exception as this white meat and fish goes perfectly with fruity red wine.
In addition to basic rules of wine and food pairings there are also some tips to what to serve with particular types of food. You shall always remember that you should avoid serving wine during your salad as vinegar and wine do not mix well. But, if you are having an appetizer, you need to consider the ingredients in the appetizer to help you choose your wine. If you are having a cheese tray, the type of cheese will help you determine the wine. For example, cheddar is best with dry reds, Merlots, and Cabernet Sauvignon; Pinot Noir goes best with Swiss; camembert and brie are great with a Chardonnay, etc. If you are serving something a fried appetizer, consider serving a crisp, fruity white or red wine to help cut the oily flavor.
In such a manner, according to the wine and food pairing rules beef, steak, and lamb will perfectly match with dry red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon, a burgundy like Pinot Noir or an Italian red such as Barolo or Chianti. White chardonnays and Pinot Blancs are perfect food and wine pairing with such white meat as poultry, pork and veal. Whereas for turkey, since it has both white and dark meat, you can choose something fruity and tart such as Beaujolais for red or a Riesling for white.
Dry, crisp white wine as Sauvignon Blanc goes well with white fish while Sancerre and Muscadet go well with oysters. Be careful here with red wines as Cabernets with tannins combined with fish can leave a metallic taste in your mouth. If you are planning on service something spicy like Thai or Indian food, a sparkling wine works best. Avoid wines with tannins and look for something fruity.
It is also important to find the best food and wine pairings for dessert. Wines such as Sauternes, Beerenauslese, Bermet and Cammandaria will make a great end to any evening. Whereas pairing dessert wine with chocolate tends to cause much more controversy than many others food and wine pairings. There is a common believe that chocolate is too strong and dominates wine flavor, but if you have the right wine to complement the right chocolate it can be a match made in heaven. Whether you are pairing a delicate white chocolate or a lively dark chocolate with wine, there are a few pairing tips to keep in mind. When pairing wines with chocolate, remember that wine should be at least as sweet, if not a touch sweeter, than the chocolate you are serving it with. You shall also match lighter, more elegant flavored chocolates with lighter-bodied wines; likewise, the stronger the chocolate, the more full-bodied the wine gifts should be.
The most important rule of food and wine pairing to serve is to avoid being snobby about wine. There are no right answers, only basic rules to go by and even those, as you have seen, can be changed. Do not be afraid to experiment with different tastes and serve your delicious food and wine compilations in originally looking metal wine bottle holders from Metal Imagination.
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