Cool Tip: Why Bother Pairing Wine with Food?
- Jun 24, 2015
You may hear some people say, “I don’t bother trying to pair my wine to my food, and I just drink what I like.” And that’s certainly an approach that you can take. But if you don’t, in our opinion, you’re missing at least half the pleasure of the meal. A good wine pairing will enhance both the food and the wine, bringing out the best of both.
While researching this issue, we found a terrific site, that is both informative and entertaining. (I always look for at least one of those if I’m going to read something, if I get both, I consider myself twice blessed. J) We’ll summarize the key points here, but we highly recommend visiting Food and Wine Deconstructed by The Bubbly Professor for the full article.
The three key factors to consider in successful wine pairing are:
- Taste (what you detect with your tongue alone): sweet, salt, acid, bitter, oil and tannin
- Flavors (what you get when you add in your nose): fruity, spicy, meaty, nutty, etc.
- Textures: weight and body, richness, creaminess, etc.
The three key concepts of food and wine pairing are (and here we’ll quote the Bubbly Professor, because she says it so well, and we agree with her):
- Pair to taste, not to flavor. “...the most important component in any food and wine match-up is the taste components…sweet, acid, salt, bitter, oil, and tannin. The presence of any of these in your food will change the way you perceive your wine…for better, or worse!”
- Pair to preparation, not to protein. “It all depends on preparation…is it broiled, fried, steamed, and even more importantly…how is it seasoned, served, or sauced?”
- Pair to the “The Key Elements” in a dish. Don't drive yourself crazy with all the components of the diash, “...learn to cut through the clutter and figure out the one or two elements of a wine or a dish that will most impact the pairing.”
The Bubbly Professor lists ten “Rules” of wine and food pairing, that are worth reading.
The bottomline is that it takes some practice to keep trying good foods and wine together and figure out the flavor combinations you like. But, gosh, isn’t that a task we’d all enjoy!