When eating food and drinking wine, you must know that wine comes in different tastes. Red wines, for example, are more bitter and have more acidity. On the other hand, sparkling white and rosé wines are sweeter and have more acidity.
Due to this, you need to be strategic in how you pair your food with wine. To help you out, here is a guide on how to go about it:
1. Pairing Wine and Cheese
Generally, the funkier the wine, the funkier the cheese should also be. Strong red wines go well with strong, firm, and salty cheeses. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon goes well with aged, peppery cheddar cheese.
Light red wines, on the other hand, go well with cheeses that taste like nuts or have a washed rind. Blue cheese is not the best to eat with white wines, though. This is because blue cheese has a strong flavor, making the wine taste sour.
2. Pairing Wine and Chicken
Of course, the way a dish is cooked affects how it tastes. For example, a roasting chicken will not only make the meat soft, but it will also keep the flavor strong.
This cooking method works well with stronger white wines, light red wines, and rosé wines.
BBQ chicken has a smoky, savory taste that goes well with richer red wines like Cabernet Franc or Malbec.
Poaching the chicken takes away much of the meat’s flavor but keeps the meat’s texture and moisture. For a great experience, you should drink a light white wine like Colombard with poached chicken.
Lambrusco, rose champagne, and sparkling wines go well with fried chicken. While white wines like Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay without oak are best with chilled foods.
3. Lean Meat and Wine Pairing
Meat and beer is the most popular way to pair alcohol with food. But lean meat and wine can also make a great combination.
High-tannin red wines go well with rich cuts of meat like prime rib. But light to medium red wines are best with leaner cuts like sirloin tip-side steak.
Lastly, high-tannin, bold red wines go well with fatty meats like filet mignon and t-bone. This is because Tannins are suitable for cleaning your mouth and getting rid of the fatty taste of these kinds of lean meat.
For the best outcome, use a wine aerator to let oxygen into your wine to make your meal taste better. Adding oxygen makes the wine smell and taste better when you eat meat with it.
4. Fish and White Wine
Fish is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about what to eat with alcohol. But did you know green vegetables and fish go surprisingly well with wines?
Mild white wines go well with thin, flaky fish like tilapia and sea bass. Some of the best wines to try are sweet Rieslings, Sauvignon Blancs, and Pinot Grigios.
Richer wines go well with fish like trout, cod, and halibut, that is firm, thick, and have a medium texture. So, pair them with white wines that have been aged in oak and have either a lot of aromas or are too strong.
Fish like mackerel, tuna, salmon, and bluefish are firm, meaty, and steak-like. These go well with strong white wines and red and rosé wines. Oaked Chardonnay Viognier, White Burgundy, and Dry Rosé are just a few examples of wines you can go for.
You may have noticed that white wines go well with fish. This is because there are a lot of tannins in red wines.
When these tannins mix with fish oils, a metallic taste is left behind. At the same time, the delicate flavor of fish is balanced out by the tangy taste of white wines.
When eating strong-flavored fish like anchovies, the story changes. You should drink red wine in situations like this but watch out for the tannin level. Ensure that there are only a few tannins.
Wine Best Practices
You can have the best food, but if the wine you pair it with isn’t good, you won’t have the best experience. You should observe a set of wine best practices to ensure this doesn’t happen. These tips include:
Use the Proper Stemware
You shouldn’t drink your wine using just any piece of stemware—you need to use the right one. When you are in Planetary Design or any other store, look for glasses with medium-sized bowls that can be used for all types of wine. Ensure that your glasses have thin rims that make the wine taste better.
Remember to keep the glasses clean by washing them by hand. If the glasses can get in the dishwasher, only use the top rack.
Store the Wine Properly
The top of the refrigerator is the worst place to keep wine because heat and vibrations can ruin it. If you have enough room, put a rack somewhere that doesn’t get direct sunlight.
If your new place is too small, put wine in the closet, which is most likely the coolest and darkest place in your apartment.
Always Have Wine in the House
The last thing you do is to want to pair your favorite food with your favorite wine, and you find that you don’t have any wine in the house. Always have some wine in the house to ensure this doesn’t happen.
When it comes to white wines, ensure that you have several such as Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay with a light amount of oak. For the red wines, go for Merlot and Rioja, as they are versatile and go well with different types of food.
You might think house wines must be expensive, but this isn’t the case. Regularly visit your local wine store and make friends with the store clerks, and you will be in the know whenever an excellent affordable wine is out.
Keep Experimenting
The best way to learn more about wine is to try it out and pair it with different foods. Besides pairing your wine with known foods, you should be curious and try it with other foods.
Through these experimentations, you will learn about some combinations that even wine experts don’t know. So keep experimenting!.
