Tips for Pairing Wine with Food

Jale January 13, 2020
Veuve Gourmet Delights

Sommeliers make wine and food pairing look so easy. Most of these experts claim you need to think about how to pair the dish to the wine. What this means is to ensure that the components of the wine complement the elements of the meal. Well paired wine and food is a sublime mix because the wine and dish will both taste better.

By complementing and at times contrasting the elements in food and wine, every meal and wine can find a balance. Fortunately, you do not have to attend sommelier school or master complicated pairing systems to put those beautiful Leeuwin Estate Art Series Riesling wine gift hampers to good use. Did you know that the Riesling’s ideal balance of residual sugar and high acidity perfectly balance barbecue sauce?

Yes, BBQ sauce’s unique combination of vinegary tanginess, sweetness, and spice can be a pairing nightmare, but a Riesling can complement the spiciest and sweetest of barbecue sauces. Your barbie guests will probably think that you are bonkers not to use a red instead, but this particular sweet white with its delicate lemon, cut lime, lemongrass, and kaffir leaf fragrant notes will pair sublimely with the flavourful sauces.

Simple guidelines for wine and food pairings

Part of learning the perfect dish and wine pairings is through experimentation. There are, however, a few guidelines that will make your trial and error pairings more enjoyable and satisfying.

Buy a wine that you will enjoy

Wine gift hampers with a variety of sublime wines like the Wine Trio Gift Hamper can go a long in bringing out the pairing adventurer in you. Most beginner food and wine pair experimenters, nevertheless, have to go to the store to purchase a wine first. Rule of thumb when buying wine is that you should only pick a wine that you will enjoy drinking. If you do not like the food and wine match, you will at least enjoy the wine.

Balance is key

The richness of the body of your wine of choice and food should balance each other. They should be equal partners, and no component should overwhelm the other. Balancing the two by weight ensures that pairing stands a high chance of success. This is the rule that makes classic food and wine matches work in perfect harmony.

The ability to sense the weight or the body of food or wine is, at most, a work of instinct and experience. For instance, a hearty meal like grilled lamb chops needs a bold red like a Cabernet Sauvignon. Both items have a very active presence, meaning that the chops will run over a crisp white Sauvignon blanc. With food, fat content, cooking method and the sauce are the main determinants of weight. In wines, body is determined by the bottle’s grape variety, winemaking techniques, colour, and the climate of the region of origin.

Takeaway notes

When it comes to food and wine pairing, always approach it in simple terms. Begin with what you like in terms of both the food and wine and pair those together. Once you get the hang of pairing those dishes and wines you love, then you can start to experiment with other different foods and wines. Experimenting helps to improve your palette, and will also be key to discover what foods pair best with what wines.

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