Essential Wine and Food Pairing

Emma Brown

The basic golden rule is balance, neither your wine nor your food should be stronger than the other. Choose them to be complimentary to each other. A lightly flavoured dish should have a nice light wine, while food with depth and body can handle some of the heavier, more robust wine varieties. Simply think of your wine as a flavour enhancer, just as you would a spice, and strive not to overpower the tastes of either one. This is the one theme that underlies all the other nuances of food and wine pairings, of which there are many. If you achieve good balance, you have covered all the rest perfectly.

Here is a short list I have prepared. Please visit our main website for more wine and food pairing ideas and other free wine making related articles.

Starters etc

Green Vegetables - Chablis or Chardonnay  Caviar - Dry Champagne  Quiche - Pinot Gris, Dry White Burgundy, Pouilly Fume Soups - Clear broth soups do not pair well with wine. Creamy or rich soups pair well with a Dry White Burgundy. Thick earthy soups pair well with a Pinot Noir or Beaujolais  Fruits other than Citrus Pair with a Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Port, or Sauternes

Cheeses

Camembert, Brie, and other soft cheese that is not over ripe pair well with just about any red wine such as Red Burgundy, Zinfandel, and Cabernet

Dutch Cheeses such as Gouda pair well with the above mentioned wines as well.

Milder Cheeses fair better with a fruiter red wine such as Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, or Beaujolais

Most Blue Cheeses have such intense flavours that a sweet wine is needed just to balance the flavours. A Late Harvest or Ice Gewurztraminer, Sauternes, or Johannesburg Riesling should do the trick. Milder blue cheese such as Gorgonzola pair well with a fruity red wine.

Goat Cheeses in general pair well with a dry white wine. Stronger goat cheese is paired better with a sweeter white wine, similar to the wines paired with blue cheese.

As a rule, red wines go well with mild to sharp cheese. Pungent and intensely flavoured cheese do well with a sweeter wine. A little history note: In European Countries it is customary to serve the best wine of the meal with cheese or a cheese course.

Beef

Any fine red wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Zinfandel, or Pinot Noir

Poultry

Paring can go many directions depending of the preparation. Lighter more subtle preparations pair better with a White Burgundy, Chardonnay, or Chablis. If the dish is heavy and spicy, it will pair better with a lighter fruiter red wine such as Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, or Beaujolais.

Article submitted by Emma Brown. Author and Webmaster of www.wineandbeermakingsecrets.com