Posts Tagged ‘Wine & Food Pairing’

Red With White & White With Red

Not that I’m a Myth Buster, but there is one predominant myth about wine and food pairing that seems to confuse many who enjoy a nice wine with their meal; only drink red wine with red meat or sauces and white wine with fish, chicken and white sauces.  Pork stands somewhere in between.

Actually, they should all stand somewhere in between.  Think of wine as a seasoning or enhancement to your meal or dish.  No one says you can only use salt with certain types of food or pepper with others.  It all depends on your tastes, how much you use and how it affects the dish.  Too much of anything can overwhelm the dish you are creating.

So, is it “chic” to drink white wine with red meat or red wine with white meat?  Well, if you’re not a snob and enjoy white more than red or vice versa, sure it is.  Really, the two major factors in pairing wine with food, in my mind, are the boldness and acidity levels of the wine in relation to the same in the food.

If you want to drink a red wine with your fish, pick one that will complement the fish.  Salmon is a heavier meat and a bolder red can stand up to flavor.  Tilapia will be a little whiter and flakier and a less bold red would be more appropriate.  A heavier Pinot Noir or lighter Merlot might be more appropriate with Salmon.  Tilapia can stand up to a lighter Pinot Noir nicely.

If you prefer white wine and are having meat, say a good New York steak or Fillet, a bolder Chardonnay (yeah, the more buttery type) would complement your meal.  Pork and Chicken can be enjoyed with your favorite Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris, or a less bold Chardonnay.

The guideline here to enhance you meal is bold with bold and soft with soft.  Bold food with overpower the flavors of a soft wine and bold wine will do the same to softer food flavors.

Not All Riesling’s are Created Equal (or Sweet)

I was out to dinner the other night and searched the wine list for a good accompaniment to what I anticipated to be an awesome sushi dinner.  My target?  A good, DRY Riesling.  I asked the server about a particular selection.  Particularly, if it was on the sweet side.  She responded, without much pause, and said “Riesling’s are generally sweet”.  NOT!!  Now, I’ll subscribe to the notion that Cabernet’s are generally dry, but, as a wine/food server, she needed only a little wine training to know Riesling’s come in varying styles of dryness and sweetness.  And, that’s important when pairing food and wine.  Certainly, a sweet Riesling wouldn’t have been an enjoyable accompaniment to sushi for me.  Kinda like eating fish with ketchup.  I wanted something a little dry and acidic, and not too viscous to cut through the oils of the fish.  Don’t get me wrong, I do like sweet Riesling’s and there are many good one’s out there, but would probably have it with dessert if drinking it with food.

Riesling’s (or any other wine for that matter) obtain their sweetness from the residual sugar in the wine.  Residual sugar is just that, the amount of sugar remaining in the wine after fermentation.  In the U.S., we generally measure it in %.  Some countries measure it in grams.  A dry wine generally has between .5% to 2% residual sugar.  A sweet wine will generally be between 2% up to 6%.  A dessert wine would be above 6%.  Now, the acidity level in the wine can mask the sweetness.  A wine with 2% residual sugar can appear dry on the palate if there are higher acids in the wine.

When wine ferments, the yeast in the wine eats the sugar and the by product is alcohol.  So, when the fermentation process is arrested early, more residual sugar remains in the wine (sweeter wine) and results in a lower alcohol content wine.  Conversely, when the fermentation process is allowed to continue, the result will be a wine with less residual sugar (dryer wine) and a higher alcohol content.  We don’t want to confuse this process with what is used to make Port.  Port is a very sweet wine,  high in alcohol content.  But, Port is fortified with a grape spirit known as Aguardente (and commonly called Brandy) to raise its alcohol content.

General flavor characteristics of Riesling:  Honey-Grapefruit-Melon-Peach.  Also, mineral (slate or limestone) tastes from the soils the vines grow in.

What to look for on the nose:  Floral-Minerals.

An Argentinean Delight