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Wine Pairing Tips

Take the mystery out of pairing food and wine with easy wine pairing tips.

How do you pair food and wine? It can be complicated, and there is a multitude of information that can be confusing. So I've come up with some pairing wine tips I find easy to remember. I wanted to share them and hope that you will find pairing food and wine a bit more simplified.

Should you choose the Pinot Noir or Pinot Grigio? We listed some basic tips to help you decide how to make the right wine selection to pair with your meal.

Wine Pairing Tips

When pairing food and wine, the wine shouldn't overpower the food, nor should the food overpower the wine.

Wine can enhance the flavor of food. A good food and wine match will enhance the flavors and unique characteristics of both the food and the wine.

Think of wine as if it were a condiment — it should compliment the food.

For great recipes, Easy Down Home Recipes has easy preparation ideas and great cooking tips. You'll find the perfect recipe to pair with your favorite wine.

Flavors Found in Wine

The basic flavors in our foods are also found in wine. Some of those flavors can be sweet, tart (sour, acidic), bitter (puckery, astringent sensation) and salty (which isn’t found in wine, but affects its flavor). In addition wine has alcohol which adds aromas and body, making the wine feel richer.

Alcohol gives wine a sense of body and weight, the higher the alcohol, the more full-bodied the wine.

Wine drunk by itself tastes different than when you drink wine with food. The same way that spices interact with food to change the flavors, wine interacts the same way with food. The acids, tannins and sugars in the wine interact with the food to provide different taste sensations.

Acidity

When your are having foods that have some acidity, such as salads with citrus fruits, or vinegar, choose a wine that is high in acidity. White wines that are acidic are Sauvignon Blanc and most sparkling wines.

Salty, Sour or Bitter

Foods with a prominent salty, sour or bitter taste will make a wine seem sweeter and less tannic. Tannins from the skins and sometimes stems of grapes and the oak barrels used for aging cause the bitter or astringent aftertaste in some red wines.

Did you ever notice when you are at a cocktail party that many of the salty appetizers pair perfectly with the sparkling wine and Champagne. The acidity in the sparkling wines cuts the saltiness. They make a better pairing to the salty foods than less tart red wines.

Match Food and Wine Flavors

Match the flavors of both the food and the wine. An earthy Pinot Noir goes well with mushroom soup. The grapefruit/citrus flavors of Sauvignon Blanc pair well with fish in a lemon sauce.

Pair Wine and Food by Geographic Location

Regional foods pair extremely well with the wines produced in the same region.

Italy's delicious tomato sauces pair well with the young fruity reds such as young Chianti Classico, Barbera and Dolcetto.

Pasta with pesto and Pinot Grigio or Gavi are a perfect match.

Food Preparation

Consider how the food is prepared. Delicately flavored foods — poached or steamed — pair best with delicate wines.

Braised, grilled, roasted or sautéed, which can be richer and fattier dishes pair with fuller-bodied wines.

Pair Wine and Cheese

In some European countries the best wine is reserved for the cheese course. Red wines go well with mild to sharp cheese.

Pungent and intensely flavored cheese is better with a sweeter wine. Goat Cheeses pair well with dry white wine, while milder cheeses pair best with fruitier red wine.

Soft cheese like Camembert and Brie, if not over ripe, pair well with just about any red wine including Cabernet, Zinfandel and Red Burgundy.

Now Serve the Wine You've Chosen

When you're serving more than one wine at a meal, it's customary to serve lighter wines before full-bodied ones.

Dry wines should be served before sweet wines unless a sweet flavored dish is served early in the meal. In that case match the sweet dish with a similarly sweet wine.

Wine Pairing Tips and Lessons Learned

Don't stress over the perfect food and wine pairing. The best pairing is good food, good wine and good company. Friends and loved ones are the most important ingredients.

The best wine pairing hot tip is, if you like it that's all that matters. Remember "it's a matter of taste!"

Date Night Pairing Wine Tip

When out on a date, what wine should I drink?

White wine. "Why" you ask?

You want to make a good impression, don't you? Purple-stained teeth from red wine is just not attractive.

Are you nervous, maybe a bit clumsy? If a you spill the red wine, the last thing you want is red wine to ruin your clothes or worse, your date's clothes.

Sauvignon Blanc is very food friendly and can be the perfect white wine for a lasting relationship!

Matching Food and Wine Help
Vegetarian Wine Pairing Tips
Dessert Pairing Tips
Sparkling Wine
Glossary of Grapes

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