Pairing Food with Wine (or Wine with Food)

Matching a good wine to your good food is undeniably a good thing. You don’t necessarily have to decide on the food menu first. If you feel like a particular type of wine one day, you can then make corresponding food pairing choices.

There seem to be many ‘rules’ as to the pairings of wine and food. It can all seem confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. Following a few simple guidelines can help your decision process immensely, especially if you are a beginner.

General Pairing Guidelines

Try to pair a similar body wine with a similar dish. For example, if you have a very light meal, pair with a very light wine. If you have a heavy dish, use a heavier bodied wine. You don’t want to overpower one or the other (neither the food nor the wine).

If you have a high acid meal (ie. tomato sauce based), pair it with a fairly high acidic wine. This way the acid of the meal will not be accentuated, but instead incorporated. Both wine and meal can be enjoyed on the same level without having one stand out as unpleasant.

The same goes for dessert time. Pair a sweet dessert with a sweet wine. If one is noticeably sweeter than the other, then either the wine or the dessert will seem lacking in sweetness.

Fatty foods can be enjoyed with a palate cleansing wine that is a bit acidic. The wine’s flavors will be accentuated by the richness of the food.

Following these guidelines is a good start to successful pairings. Personal taste will come into play. No rules are written in stone. Once you experiment with the above, you may want to try different combinations to see what works.

As you grow your repertoire and collection of wines, you will naturally gain a feel for what wine tastes go well with what foods. Your taste will be personal. As you buy more wines, you may need a place to put them. Wood wine racks are a wonderful way to store your wine in a beautiful display. When you reach the next level, you may want to invest in a wine refrigerator which can keep your bottles at the perfect temperature for serving.