Pairing Wine With Food: Basic Guidelines & Tips — By Raul Diaz

If you work with wine in any kind of capacity or if you are just crazy about it, you will have to face the exciting challenge to choose wines that match with food. Today, most of the people abandoned the strict rules from the past to focus on a more direct approach to flavours and ingredients.

A simple notion to start would be geographical proximity, between a particular style of wine and a popular food from the same area. A great example would be Rioja red wine and lamb. This is the first frame that you can use to identify the interaction between wines and foods. But let’s be careful because these matches are not always the perfect recipe. It we stick to this rule all the time, we will absolutely kill any kind of experimentation that is so welcomed these days.

We will discard a profound analysis of the science behind food and wine matching for now. Instead, we will focus on simple key factors. A group of basic notions that will provide a stable platform to start with the real practical exercise.

Acidity

This factor is great when you think about fatty foods. If you have wines with high acidity, is like when you have a piece of lemon that cuts through any type of greasy piece of pork. Every wine and food have a level of acidity. Citrus fruits and green apples are obvious examples of it. But there are other types of acidic food that you wouldn’t recognise at first sight, like tomatoes. Pay attention when you match wines with less acidity than the food because the wine will taste dull.

There are several grape varieties that naturally create wines with high acidity like Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Muscadet. In general, cool climate regions will produce wines with more acidity than those from hotter places. Chardonnay from Burgundy has higher acidity than a wine made from the same grape but from a warm place like Central Valley in Chile.

Wine: Pouilly-Fume, Loire Valley, France / Food: Crab salad with Caviar

Body

It’s easy to understand this aspect if you think about the weight of the food and the wine. It’s very common to hear people talking about light, medium or full-bodied wines. Light wines are delicate with subtle fruits and aromas. Medium-bodied wines are balanced showing great characteristics. Full-bodied wines are rich with intense fruits and vibrant aromas. Foods can be divided using the same logic. If you take wines and foods that have similar “body”, the match will be less complicated.

Light dishes like fish, salads, soft cheeses and vegetarian food are best partners with delicate wines like Pinot Grigio, Albarino, Pinot Noir and Gamay. Medium foods like pasta, pizza, chicken and pork are usually match with wines like Pinot Gris, Viognier, Barbera and Merlot. Full-bodied dishes like steak, venison, lamb and slow-cooked stews will go well with wines like Rioja, Bordeaux, Australia Shiraz and Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon.

Wine: Pinot Noir, Otago, New Zealand / Food: Roast Duck with Pekmez

Flavours

Once we identify the acidity and the body is time to focus on the flavours of food and wine. We are talking about the distinctive trademark of the dishes and specific grapes. Most of the time is about the main ingredient but is not unusual to get some extra flavours that will affect the final match. Sometimes you will match fish with wine, but on a different occasion you will match the sauce of the fish dish with a particular wine style made from a grape variety.

If the flavours are similar you have a great mixture. If not, you will need to work a little bit harder.

Typical examples are: Sauvignon Blanc with asparagus and citrus fruits. Vermentino, Soave and Gavi with seafood and shellfish. Rioja match well with creamy sauces due to the fact that the wine was aged in new oak barrels. Syrah would be perfect with spicy and earthy meat-based dishes.

Wine: Garganega, Soave, Veneto, Italy / Food: Seafood-Radicchio pasta

Tannins

They are natural preservatives that help wines to live longer. Also they are a sensation that we can perceive in our gums when they are really dry. Tannins are found mainly in black grape skins and the stalks. This is a crucial factor when we compare and match different types of grapes with food. Wines with lots of tannins will create robust, intense, alcoholic and dry examples. Best food to match with these wines are dishes with a great body, flavours and acidity. In three words: full-bodied dishes. Try to avoid tannic wines if you are not looking for an intense and powerful gastronomic experience.

Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese, Touriga Nacional, Carmenere and Zinfandel have high tannins and match perfect with lamb, grilled meat, venison and aged cheeses like Brie, Cheddar and Blue.

Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo valley, Chile / Food: Grilled beef

Salt and Sweet

The last element is a dual-factor. Salt and sweet are balancing each other constantly. Foods are intensified or diminished by them. Salty dishes can benefit from a touch of sweetness like Feta cheese with watermelon. With wine is the same, a very sweet Tokaji match extremely well with Roquefort cheese. Salt dislike tannins but it goes great with acidic wines like Sauvignon Blanc which actually has no tannins! Sweet will make wines to taste drier and too acidic. Use wines that have more natural residual sugar — dry or sweet examples — than the food. But always remember to keep a good amount of acidity. Sweet can also be good to balance spicy ingredients.

Aromatics grape varieties like Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc, Albarino, Torrontes, Godello and Viognier match with Indian cuisine, Japanese dishes, Paella, Parma Ham & Melon.

Black grapes with low tannins like Pinot Noir, Gamay, Lambrusco, Barbera, Primitivo, Dolcetto and Monastrell go well with sushi, seafood, quiches, salads, pizza and soups.

Wine: Riesling, Mosel, Germany / Food: Prawn Thai-Coconut curry

The Wines

2014 Clef d’Argent Sauvignon Blanc, Cotes de Gascogne, France
Supplier: Jascots Wine Merchants Grape: Sauvignon Blanc ABV: 12%

Key: This wine comes from the less-known region of Cotes de Gascogne in southwest France. Typical Sauvignon Blanc from a cool climate area. Great value for money.

Tasting notes: Light straw coloured with a gooseberry green fruit nose with lemon zest and grass that carries on through to the palate — expansive, flamboyant, luscious and refreshing with good length and impressive texture.