PAIRING WINE & FOOD

The key to matching wine and food isn’t merely “red with red,” or “heavy with heavy.” It isn’t keeping both the wine and food from the same region. And it isn’t just echoing flavors (serving Chardonnay with lobster dipped in butter, for example).

The key to matching wine and food is about what’s already in the wine and in the food.

Wine and food pairings work (or not) because elements in the food or wine—things such as acidity, sugar, fat, alcohol, salt and tannin—pair well together or do not.

There’s a reason (beyond “because it tastes good”) why you squeeze lemon on an oyster (or grate Parmigiano-Reggiano atop a marinara sauce). These combinations do taste good, but they work because of the interaction of the lemon’s acidity and the oyster’s saltiness (or the fat in the cheese and the acidity in the sauce). And so it goes with wines and what’s in them and the foods with which they’re paired.

When we prepare food, we choose or set the dominant elements. For example, if chicken breasts are seasoned with capers and olives, the dominant factor is salt. If a grilled halibut filet is covered in a mango salsa, the primary element becomes sweetness.

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Acidity:
Foods high in acidity require a wine with the same degree of acidity. For instance, the perfect match for an acidic salad dressing is a wine high in acidity itself, something like a German or Austrian Riesling or a zesty Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. You’d be surprised how both the dressing and the wine tame each other down—each acidity, as it were, canceling the other.

Contrariwise, wines low in acidity (many an American or Australian Chardonnay, for example) get washed away when paired with foods high in acid—citrus salsas, say, or tomato preparations or sauces made with lemon juice, capers, or vinegar. These wines will taste much better by themselves or when paired with low-acid food preparations.

Salt:
Foods high in salt require either a wine with marked acidity or a wine that’s sweet or off-dry. That’s why oysters and Chablis work, or olives and Fino Sherry. Or, that’s why salty blue cheese paired with a sweet dessert wine is so ethereal.

A sparkling wine is a great match for salty food (it’s the same principle behind that all-time delicious pair, beer and chips). Tannic reds, oaky whites, and low-acid whites are disastrous with salt.

Sweet:
It’s really amazing how much sugar we eat, even while we think that we are not. Many prepared foods contain sweeteners (in the list of ingredients, look for words that end in -ose) and contemporary cooking is replete with sweet things (tropical fruit salsas; balsamic reductions; fruit jus; meats stewed with dried fruits).

Sweetness in food requires the same level of sweetness in wine. That’s always made sense with desserts—for instance, pairing an apple tart with a medium-sweet Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise—but it also holds for main courses.

Off-dry white wines (again, many an American or Australian Chardonnay; some Albariños from Spain; some German Rieslings, just to give three examples) pair very well with sweetness in food—say a halibut with a mango salsa or a roast chicken with caramelized onions, finished with a butter sauce.

If red, a wine should be low in tannin and alcohol and very fruity (or, looked at another way, “sweet” with fruit). Beaujolais is a perfect example. So are some young Pinot Noirs, some reds from Portugal’s Dão region, Chinon and Bourgueil from the Loire—or any young, fresh, fruity, low tannin red.

On a final note: Keep in mind that sweetness in wine can tame the fire of spicy foods.

Fat:
It’s fat that tannin’s after. They’re made for each other. An astringent Cabernet Sauvignon works extremely well with the fat that wraps a good steak. (In addition, cooking the steak either medium rare or rare is a good idea because blood proteins also tame tannin.)

Like sugar, fat is ubiquitous in modern eating, from cheeses to meats to deep-fried food. Hit it with tannin. (But also watch out for salt in fatty foods. Tannin aggravates the flavor of salt—and salt makes tannin more “tannic.” If serving a tannic wine, don’t oversalt the food.)

Alcohol:
Wines high in alcohol also aggravate salty flavors (they make salt “saltier”). Also, high-alcohol wines overwhelm delicate or finely etched flavors in food. Many a sauce, deftly made, is wiped off the palate by a wine high in alcohol.

That said, remember that, like sugar and fat, high alcohol content is very common at the American table. California Zinfandels, for example, routinely weigh in at 15-16 percent alcohol (average alcohol for wine is 12-13 percent). These kinds of wine generally taste best with foods low in salt.

In short, the kinds of wines that work best in most situations are low in alcohol, high in acidity, and often off-dry. And it appears that good sparkling wine works with nearly everything.