Matching Wine to Food

Matching a wine selection to your food choice is not quite as easy as the old rule of selecting a white wine for fish and poultry and a red wine for meats.

The best match of good food and the proper wine is not always a simple selection. However, when optimal choices are made, each enhances and improves the flavor of the other. The taste of wine can heavily influence the taste of your food selections and vice versa.

Most casual wine drinkers select food first and wine second. Wine enthusiasts tend to select the wine first and then select a meal to complement the wine. Optimal choices can be difficult because it is rarely a matter of choosing one variety of wine that will always go well with a particular food.

High Acid Foods

One method for selecting the best wine calls for the selection of a wine that matches the preparation of the food and not necessarily the food itself. A high acid (dry) wine generally goes well with a food that has an acid (sour) flavor. If you are ordering fish with lemon juice (high acid, sour), you would order a high acid wine, such as a Sauvignon Blanc. Other high acid foods are onions, green peppers and tomatoes. Notice that we are matching the wine to the condiments, and not to the food. The condiments produce the flavors that enhance the food, and a complementary wine will enhance the flavor of the condiments.

Some popular choices for high acidity wines include Reisling, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. Medium to high acidity wines include Chardonnay, Chablis and Champagne.

Sweet Foods

When you are eating sweet foods, a wine choice will taste less sweet, and perhaps even dry. The choice is therefore different. The sweeter the food, the drier a wine will taste. Some popular choices to go with sweet foods include Port, Muscat and Sauternes.

Salty Foods

Salty foods include many oriental dishes, smoked salmon, oysters and ham. When selecting a salty food, choose a high acid wine, because acid cuts the salty flavor and mellows the taste. Sparkling wines go particularly well with salty foods, as do Riesling, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc.

Bitter Foods

When you order a food that has a slightly bitter taste, a matching bitter wine will cancel out the bitterness and improve the flavor. A slightly bitter flavor in wine is tied to the tannins in the wine that have not fully mellowed. Red wines usually have a higher level of tannins and therefore are slightly bitter. Popular low tannin red wines include Merlot, Beaujolais, and Pinot Noir. Medium tannin red wines include Sangiovese and Zinfandel. High tannin red wines include Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah/Shiraz.

Generally speaking, the higher the alcohol content in the wine, the drier, more acidic the wine will taste (fortified wines being the exception). The lower the alcohol level, the sweeter the wine will taste. Alcohol content also influences a wine’s body and weight. The more alcohol a wine contains, more full-bodied, or thicker the wine will feel in your mouth. The general threshold between a full-bodied wine and a lighter wine is 12% alcohol content. A content of greater than 12% will have more body and will be more acidic. A content of less than 12% will be lighter and sweeter.

The real trick to matching the best wine selections to the foods that you choose is to experiment to see what you personally enjoy the most. These guidelines for matching food to your wine selection will help you to make better selections.