Not so long ago, serving white wine with red meat or serving red wine with a plate of fish or poultry was considered almost as inappropriate as eating a soup using your hands. Although the food and wine pairing rules are less strict than they used to be, many people still tend to be puzzled when selecting a bottle of wine to match their fancy dinner. If you are one of them, here you can find some useful tips and guidelines to help you match wine to the food.
The first and the most important tip is that the ancient wine and food pairing rules are not valid anymore. In fact, there are no rules when it comes to your personal taste. Your kitchen is your private chem. laboratory, so allow yourself to feel free to experiment new recipes, and creating unique wine and food pairing as much as you want.
A successful wine and food pairing is like a good relationship: the two different personalities has to live side by side peacefully without having one of them standing out on the expense of the other one. For example, pairing a beef stew with a chardonnay would be like matching a fat man with a skinny girl. The heaviness of the stew would take over the light, delicate nature of the wine and erase its presence. Therefore, it is recommended to pair a fuller bodied wine to a heavy meal and the opposite: serve a light dish such as chicken and vegetables with a light bodied wine such as chardonnay or pinot noir.
In addition to the lightness or heaviness of the meal, the flavors of both the wine and the food should be taken in consideration. You can either select a wine to contrast the main flavor of the food or to compliment it. Since there are no rules, both ways it can work out fine.
However, bear in mind that both food and wine react differently when tasted together than apart. For example, if you drink wine following a sweet flavored food such as a honey mustard glazed breast chicken, any wine would taste drier than it would if it tasted apart. Therefore, an off dry, slightly sweet wine like a Riesling or a white zinfandel would be the perfect choice to a food that its dominant flavor is sweet.
More examples:
1) If you are serving sour foods such as fish with lemon, high acid wines such as sauvignon blanc or pinot noir would be a great match.
2) Pair fruity wines such as merlot or chardonnay to foods that contain a bit of bitterness like a green salad.
3) Salty foods like anchovies would go well with sauvignon blanc or a light red Chianti.
4) A Riesling or a dry rose would balance a spicy food such as an Indian curry.
Bottom line, nothing can go wrong when pairing a good bottle of wine to a good dinner, especially if you add pleasant company to the equation. Bon appetite!
