By
Shannon Porter
Independent Wine Consultant
It seems that one of the most intimidating aspects of wine is learning
to pair it with food. Am I going to order the wrong wine at a restaurant
or serve a wine at a dinner party that will not taste right with the
food? Don’t worry! Rule #1 in food and wine pairing is that there
are no rules!
You can
always follow the old advice of serving white wine with poultry and
fish; red wine with beef, but the traditional rules have evolved way
beyond that. The top 10 rules for today’s wine pairing are:
1. There
are no rules. Chances are if you serve something against the “rules”
– your guests probably won’t even know! If you are serving
chicken but don’t like white wine, by all means have a red!
2. Create a balance. Pair a complex wine with robust foods. Delicate
wines with delicate foods. You are trying to create a balance between
the food and the wine. If you serve a steak with a light white wine,
you will only taste the steak, not the wine.
3. Compliment and contrast. Your tongue is able to distinguish four
components of taste: sweetness, sourness, bitterness and saltiness.
When pairing a wine with your food, decide if you want to compliment
or contrast the flavors. Sometimes contrasting wines are very effective
at bringing out the flavors in foods. Or, compliment flavors, such as
serving a sweet wine with dessert. If you serve a non-sweet wine with
a sweet food, it will make the food taste bitter.
4. Heavy or light. Pair heavy foods with a heavier, denser wine and
lighter, delicate foods with a lighter wine. Again, you are trying to
create a balance.
5. Pick a region. An easy rule of thumb is to serve a wine from the
country where your food is from. If you are serving spaghetti, try an
Italian Chianti. Having steak? Try something different like a Malbec
from beef-loving Argentina.
6. Throw some acid at it. Most food-friendly wines are acidic. Think
of squeezing lemon juice on a piece of fish. The acidity of the lemon
juice pops up the flavor of the fish. Wine can do the same. The acidity
of wine can also hurt the taste of a food that is already acidic, such
as a salad with a vinegary dressing.
7. Fight the flavor fighters. Stay away from high-alcohol wines like
Port at the dinner table. And it’s best to look for lightly oaked
or unoaked wine to serve with food. Heavily oaked wines can overpower
the flavor in your food.
8. Adjust the food if necessary. If the wine seems bitter with your
food, throw in some salt. Increase the food’s acidity if the wine
seems sour. Does your red taste too tannic? Serve it with some protein
(meat, cheese) and it will mellow. Wine too sweet? Add a splash of lemon.
9. Choose a versatile wine that goes with various foods. Several varietals
go with many different types of food. A dry white Riesling or a Pinot
Noir for example.
10. Play with your food. Experiment, experiment, experiment! Again,
refer back to rule #1 and try different wines with different foods to
see what YOU like.
Next month
we will talk about the order of serving different types of wines and
some specific food/wine pairings.
Shannon
Porter is an independent wine consultant for The Traveling Vineyard.
She has been interested in wines since the 1980s and began conducting
in-home wine tastings in 2003. She has been featured in 5280 magazine
and to date has conducted over 200 wine tastings. For more information
call 303.888.9283 or visit
www.myttv.com/shannon5290
