Food and Wine – The Basics of Wine Pairing
At the end of a long day, nothing is better than a glass of wine. Your tendencies can lead you towards a glass of sweet white, or maybe you better enjoy a glass of full-bodied red. Even though you have probably learned what suits your taste buds the best on its own, have you ever appreciated the importance of a good wine pairing?
What is Wine Pairing?
You 
might know the basics – red goes with red meat and white goes with fish, right? True, but wine-pairings are much more in depth than just that. The art of pairing wine with food goes back centuries to old culinary traditions. Initially, wine became a popular beverage because it was cleaner than a lot of water sources. Since then, it has been a part of religious ceremonies, dietary necessities, and regional accustoms.
Nowadays, pairing wine has transformed fine dining, enhancing the overall experience. In modern day, we have access to wine from all around the world and so we take advantage by bringing all the flavors to the table. The word ‘pairing’ refers to pairing each wine with a specific dinner course. Just like entrees are carefully crafted to taste well together, wine also contributes to your taste buds tingling. What food you decide to eat and the wine that you drink with it seriously matters. Why? Because, they will have an impact on what each tastes like.
3 Rules of Wine Pairing
When tasting wine, there are some essential rules that you should follow. There are some major aspects to the wine flavoring going with the food that you are eating that make it necessary that these rules are followed.
1. The wine should be sweeter than the food you are tasting
If it’s the other way around, then the wine will end up tasting bitter.
2. The wine should be more acidic than the food you are tasting
The more acidic the wine, the fattier the food should be. It acts like a pallet cleanser by cutting through the richness of the fatty foods. Wines paired with less fatty foods are a sweeter wine that balance the sugar to acid content you taste with the food.
3. Wines should have the same intensity as the food you are tasting.
This is where the details come in. What is wine intensity?
What is Wine intensity?
Wine intensity is how wine is measured and its weight. This refers to its appearance and its aroma. Wine tastes more than just the grapes that they are made from. Some have notes heavy like vanilla or oak, while others are sweet like apples and peaches. The lightness, freshness, sugar content, and other aspects of the wine are important to consider when pairing them. Too sugary of food can overpower a sweet wine and make it taste acidic. Similarly, too heavy of wine with fatty foods can send your taste buds off-balance.
It’s impossible to know what flavor profiles exist within fine wines without finding the perfect course that brings out the best in it. You never know what your mouth could be missing unless you try a tasting of your own.
Come visit one of our restaurants to experience a wine dinner of your own.
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