Sipping a glass of wine on its own and allowing it to wash over your palate can be wonderful, but pairing wine with food is an art in and of itself. Some wine is, in fact, better with food. One way to understand this is to consider that wine’s qualities are not just taste. Yes, the wine will have tasting notes, but there are other qualities to consider.
TABLE Magazine’s Ultimate Guide to Wine Pairing
If you’re a wine pro, this might be a recap for you, but if you’re a newbie, or have just nodded your head nervously while people smack their lips and say “Ah, such smooth tannins…” and been afraid to ask what the heck they’re talking about, do not fear. This article is here to help. The most prominent qualities of wine to consider when pairing with food are:
Tannin
Tannins are natural compounds that give wine its “structure.” This means that tannins balance out and frame the fruity and more savory notes. It’s part of what people are experiencing when they describe wine as being “dry.” Tannins come from either the skins or stems of a grape or the barrel in which the winemaker aged the wine. Wines with high tannin are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Nebbiolo, Petite Verdot, Syrah, and Petite Syrah. A high tannin wine pairs well with something with a full, juicy flavor like steak, lamb, or Italian cheese. They pair much less well with salty food.
Acid and Sweetness
Acid is what gives wine its refreshing quality. Sweetness is its sugar content. All wine has sugar, but some are fortified with more or retain more of it during the winemaking process. Many factors give wine its acidity, including the soil the grapes grow in. You’ll feel acid on the sides of your mouth and you might drool a little more with a highly acidic wine (like how your mouth reacts to lemonade). For the purposes of pairing, acidic wines go well with acidic foods, because they will make the food itself taste less acidic. Acidity also goes well with rich, creamy foods because it cuts through their flavor. Some high acid wines are Chardonnay, Riesling, Albariño, Chenin blanc, and Colombard. Sweet wines like Moscato, White Zinfandel, Riesling, Port, and Sauternes typically pair best with other sweet things.
Body and Alcohol
Body refers to the way the wine feels in your mouth. Is it heavy like black coffee? Light like sparkling water? Body typically corresponds to how much alcohol is in the wine. Under 12.5% is usually light bodied, 12.5% to 13.5% is usually medium bodied, and 13.5% or above is usually full bodied. The body will often determine how well it stands up to food. You might not get the best qualities of a light-bodied wine eating it with a heavy stew. Conversely, a heavy-bodied wine will likely overwhelm something light and delicate like a well made hollandaise.
General Wine Pairing Philosophies
What Grows Together, Goes Together
“What grows together, goes together” is a common refrain among sommeliers. Think of a Bordeaux with a medium rare filet mignon at a French restaurant. Similarly, a Grillo with fish and shellfish capitalizes on shared Sicilian roots in a warm coastal environment. Consider the terroir where the grape grew, and how the conditions affected the flavors contained within the wine made from it.
Same, Same But Different
What can get a little confusing at times is that wine pairings are a balance between similarities and differences. Acidic wines can go with acidic foods, but also can cut through rich, heavy ones. One of the easiest pairings to remember is sweet wines and sweet foods, like Port and chocolate. Red wine and red sauce is a classic pairing, and it’s also more effective to pair wine with sauce than it is with the food.
Consider Every Component
At the end of the day, there is no “right” wine pairing, there’s only what makes sense and what doesn’t. Some people prefer complementary pairings. Some people prefer congruent pairings. But you want take salt, acid, sweet, bitter, fat, and spice into consideration to create the most balanced flavor profile for your meal.
Thinking about these components is a bit like doing a math equation. You end up thinking about what each taste will add or subtract to a wine, and how the wine will in turn affect the food. Salt is going to elevate the dry sweetness of a wine that’s paired with it. You don’t want a high-tannin wine that will confuse your palate by combining two different mouthfeels, often leaving a nasty, metallic taste in your mouth. A sweet wine is also not the way to go with this: there’s a reason Sauternes and salty vinegar chips are not a classic pairing. (If you don’t believe me, try this yourself).
But sweet will need a sweet wine to match it, otherwise the flavors will muddle each other. The same principle applies for acid. A more acidic wine is going to go well with a more acidic food. Fat needs something that can stand up to its richness, a fuller-bodied grape like Cabernet Sauvignon, and will also soften the high tannins in whatever’s with it. Spice will require a wine with spicy notes like Syrah or Grenache. And, to bring it back to the “grows together” philosophy, wines from the southern hemisphere with fruitier, lower tannin elements go well with spicy foods. Think Pinotage from South Africa or Malbec from Argentina.
Now, a food is rarely just salty, just acidic, or just fatty. But these building blocks make up a good meal. Consider the earlier example of red wine and red sauce. Tomato sauce is savory, acidic, and thick. If you pair a lower-acid, lighter-bodied wine like a California Merlot might be akin to drinking watery pomegranate juice with your spaghetti alla Bolognese, which, nothing wrong with that, but not why you’re drinking wine. To really enjoy both the wine and the food and to reap the benefits of both, a high-tannin, full-bodied, high-acid bottle of Chianti would be a good pairing. The higher tannin can stand up well to the tomato, the acidity matches, and it’s from a similar region of the world.
Rules Were Made to be Broken
Once you learn the basics, you can get weird with it. A classic example of there being an exception to every rule is that while you typically don’t pair red wine with fish, Pinot Noir does go with it because it’s a lighter bodied, higher acidity, but lower tannin red wine.
Ready to explore?
In reality, you’re not always going to be eating steak, fish, and fine Italian cheeses. What about fried chicken? Popcorn? Pierogies? Find out the best wine for all of these things and see these principles in action with both the most common and the wackiest pairings from wine experts.
Story by Emma Riva
Photo by Matthieu Joannon
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