Matching wine with food

Matching wine with food

How to combine wines with food? Herebelow are some basics. If you have a specific varietal wine and you wonder which food would match, you will find suggestions in my primer on types of wines.

Avoid

The following food damages wine tasting: spice, garlic, vinegar (to be replaced by white wine), raw fruits.

You should also:

• Avoid red meat with white wines or sweet wines.
• Avoid fish, raw vegetables, and goat cheese, with red wines that dry the palate - but think of trying a cool Gamay or afruity Pinot.
• Avoid desserts, Foie Gras, and very strong cheeses (Munster, blue cheese), with Loire Cabernet, pink wine, or crisp white (such as dry Loire, Champagne, or Vinho Verde).

Food-wine pairing explained

Wine rouses pleasure with various food. Almost any dish can be matched with many types of wines. People have different palates and inclinations: everyone will make their own combinations.

For example you can try cheese with a young white (any cheese with Chardonnay, light cheeses with Sauvignon Blanc).

Some rules can guide your matching experiments though:

• A simple course leaves room for the wine to shine.
• Old wines are delicate to serve and match. The dish should be discreet.
• In theory, a slightly sweetened or bitter course accentuates the dryness (acidity, tannins) of a wine. You should thus avoid hard wines with sweet food.
• On the contrary, the more a dish is salty or acidic, the sweeter the wine will taste. This is an opportunity for you totry wines from fresher climates.