However, there are two sorts of people. One who meticulously strives to balance the flavors of food and wine to get a perfect combination and other one who without bothering about flavors amalgamation matches any dish with any libation.
Nevertheless, no matter how good a person is in pairing food and wine, some dishes are ought to give him a hard time. Hence, learning ways to pair food with wine to make perfect liaison is truly exciting. When pairing is just precise, joy of serving and eating intensifies.
Nuts and bolts of wine and food pairing
Specific components that derivate the flavors of wine are tannin, sugar, acid, fruit, and alcohol. Flavors of food are also wide and components resulting in the taste are fat, salt, bitter, acid and sugar. Traits that are noticed most about any food-wine pairing are richness, harmony between components and texture.
A person can try several unions of similar flavors or contrasting ones. For example, serving white wine with pasta cooked in rich cream sauce. The crispness, dryness of un-oaked white wine will slice though the creamy fat flavor of pasta sauce. Pairing the same pasta with chardonnay or roussanne/marsanne blend is another way. Ripe and soft flavors of this wine will enfold the richness of creamy sauce.
To know more about white and red wine one would have to dig a little deeper in the knowledge book of varietal flavors. An understanding of varietal and its flavors helps is creating a perfect match.
Four Essentials of Food and Wine Pairing
1. Fat Element: Dairy and meat both have high level of fat whereas wine does not. The trick lies in striking a balance between the fat present in the food and the acid in the. Either cut the richness and smoothness of fat flavor of food with tannin or match it with alcohol.
2. Acid Element: The acid element is present in food as well as wine. Acid brings courage, freshness, and zest in wine. The effect is similar when a lemon is squeezed over fresh fish. It is important to make sure that the perceived acidity of the wine paired is at least same as that of food acidity. If the balance is not maintained then wine will taste bland. Salads are one such challenging dish to be paired with wines, where the acid can be toned down in the dressing. Instead of vinegar and lemon juice, bitter beans can be used in salads. Sauvignon Blanc or Semillon having herbal flavors is suitable to pair.
3. Salt element: Salty flavor restricts the options of wine for pairing. Salt can destroy flavors of oaky chardonnay, red wine, and high alcohol wine. However, Bleu cheese and Sauternes make great combinations with wine. Sparkling wines, high in acid flavors, clean the salt of seafood while balancing rich flavors of ocean. It also adds interesting texture and flavor.
4. Sweetness element: Sweet wine is paired with food having sugar element. However, the pairing is not easy as the degree of sweetness differs in each dish. For example, food that has just a hint of sugar in it is paired rich white wine. Chardonnay is one such wine with light, fruity sweetness where the high alcohol level balances the sugar in the food. To pair a wine with a dessert, make sure that the drink is sweeter than the dessert. If the balance is not maintained then the dessert will strip the flavor of wine.
Before buying wine, it is important to find the one that suits best with food in dinner. Some online stores have a wide variety of wine for sale and buying wine online has emerged as a very convenient alternative. Match the right wine with you food to make dinner memorable.
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