Marrying Food & Wine

How Do You Match the Food and the Wine?

One of the things that people often tell me that they find a little intimidating is how to match a wine to a particular food dish that they are planning. They say that they really have no idea to try to find a wine that will match the food(s) and fret that they will perhaps ruin the food and /or the wine by pairing them together. While they may have some legitimate concerns in this area, they can largely solve this small problem by following a few simple guidelines:

The Wine & The Food Should Never "Compete"

Probably the single-most most important thing to remember when you're trying to marry a food and a wine is to ensure that the style of the wine is similar to the style of the food. Wine is a food - it is meant to complement the other foods that are being eaten at the time. The wine in your glass should never "compete" with the foods on your plate.

Match The "Style" of The Food To The "Style" of The Wine:

If you're serving a pasta dish with a spicy pasta sauce, consider serving a "spicy" wine, like a Zinfandel from California or a Chateau Neuf du Pape from France. These wines have what some wine drinkers describe as having a "big, full-bodied" taste. Similarly, the taste of the thick, rich pasta sauce will likely be full bodied and perhaps, a little spicy. These are perfect matches.

Conversely, if you are serving a delicately flavored dish with subtle tastes, a full bodied wine will simply overpower them. A simple shrimp cocktail appetizer would be dominated completely by a big, oak-aged Chardonnay. A lighter, dry Riesling from Canada's Niagara Region or Pinot Gris from Italy would be a much better pairing.

You Have To Serve Red Wine With Red Meats & White Wine With White Meats NOT!)

If there ever was an oversimplification, this is likely it. Again, bearing in mind what we just talked about, this old rule is just too general to be of much help. (In fact, a few years ago, there was a best-selling book dedicated to this very topic. It was aptly named "Red Wine With Fish".) Don't limit your selections using this outdated rule-of-thumb.

If All Else Fails, Serve a Sparkling Wine:

Not that drinking champagne (or sparkling wine) should ever be considered a hardship, if you're in "a bit of a pinch", it's almost impossible to go wrong by serving a glass of bubbly. If nothing else, the festive nature of champagne adds an incomparable charm to virtually any table and any dish!

Bon appetit

Greg Sprout

Co-Founder, http://www.epicureanfoods.com

Since 1993, we have operated our own gourmet & specialty food company. We offer our own and other artisanal producers' products to our wholesale and retail customers across North America via our website, http://www.epicureanfoods.com While we are very proud of the collection of fine foods that we have assembled, we believe that gourmet food should not be intimidating, but rather, fun and definitely very enjoyable! Our product selections (which include upscale items such as oils, vinegars, sauces, cookies, teas, soup mixes, chocolates, truffles, pastas and olives) also includes many "fun & funky" items such as cocktail mixes, hot chocolates, summertime beverages and snack mixes. In short, we love fine foods and sharing our passion for them!