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.
If you’re the experimental type, we recommend joining a wine of the month club so you can experimenting with wine pairings from the comfort of your own home.
Many know the old thing of having the red wine with meats such as beef or sauces that are red, or have white wine with fish, white meats and sauces. There is a bit of truth in this statement, but that is not all to know when it comes to choosing the wine to go with foods.
There are certain red wines that are great to serve with seafood, one of them is Cote Du Rhone, that is made from Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache grapes and gives you a pleasantly smoky, mineral flavor that compliments more than one type of fish dish just as good as the Sauvignon Blanc does. Also the wines made from Gamay grapes go well with seafood, duck and even turkey 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.
Let’s now discuss the white wines shall we? We will still be pairing for grilled foods since they are so popular now and the fact that spring is about to be here. You may consider the dry whites Pinot Grigio or Semillon with grilled dishes such as fruits (best is the melons), vegetables, and salads. Cheeses go well with whites too such as the strong blue varieties and the milder Havarti or Gouda cheeses.
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. An easy way to start testing out new wines – two words – wine clubs! Bon appétit!
