Apr 15 2009
Food and Wine Pairing Guide - How to Pick the Right Wine For Your Meal
Many of us have been there at some point. We’re in a restaurant, trying to decode the wine list to find a good pairing for our meal. However, you may not be familiar with the wine offerings at the particular restaurant or worse; you may really know nothing or next to nothing about wine!
It could be worse - you could be on a date when this happens to you (you were?! Sorry.) Well, keep reading; this article could save you a good deal of awkwardness next time you’re in charge of ordering the wine.
A lot of us are familiar with the old saw “red wine with red meats or red sauces, white with white meats, seafood and white sauces”. While there is some truth to this, there is a lot more to know about pairing wine with food.
Some reds are excellent with seafood, such as Cote Du Rhone, whose Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre grapes provide a smoky, pleasantly mineral taste which compliments many fish dishes as well as any Sauvignon Blanc. Wines produced from the Gamay grape are also a good pairing with seafood and even turkey and duck dishes.
Conversely, there are whites which are excellent with tomato-laden dishes. One example is again Sauvignon Blanc (OK, you may not want to drink it with your spaghetti marinara, but it is excellent IN marinara sauce! Something to remember when cooking at home). Speaking of this wine, it is an easy pairing for many foods - think lemon and cream here. Anything which would go well with lemon (poultry, salads, seafood) works well with this wine. It also provides a good contrast to heavier, creamy sauces.
One of the rules of pairing wines with foods is to consider the flavors in the food itself. Suppose that you’ll be having barbecue (wine with barbecue? Really?). You want a red here, one which has both enough acidity and/or enough body to not be drowned out by the strong flavors of the sauce. A cabernet is just a little too soft for this, although it is certainly done. A better choice, however would be something more assertive such as an Italian Barbera (with its relatively high acidity) or a Valpolicella (which has the body to stand up to any BBQ). Another good and popular choice for this meal would be a red Zinfandel, which has pepper and black cherry flavors which are excellent paired with grilled meats.
So how about whites? Again, we’ll go with the grill, given that grilled foods are a perennial restaurant option (and spring is right around the corner). Some good white wine pairings are a crisp, dry white such as a Semillon or a Pinot Grigio with grilled vegetables, salads and even fruit (melon is an especially good pairing with these two whites). These are also good with a variety of cheeses ranging from mild Gouda and Havarti to strong blues.
There’s a lot more to know about pairing wines with food, but this article should help you get started exploring on your own - remember, if you like a particular pairing, then it’s a good one. And with a research project this delicious, you won’t mind testing out different things (that’s what wine clubs are for, right?). Bon appétit!
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kerri_Stalton
http://EzineArticles.com/?Food-and-Wine-Pairing-Guide—How-to-Pick-the-Right-Wine-For-Your-Meal&id=1982699
