Not sure what kinds of food go well with certain wines? Here are six simple tips to help you achieve the perfect wine and food pairing!
Pair Italian wine with Italian food
The most simple and basic way to accomplish a great food and wine pairing is to go regional. What this means is that you should pair an Italian wine with Italian food. While regional pairings are not necessarily always perfect, they do give us a pretty good idea on how to pair wine and food according to their structure.
Choose a wine and then go from there
Instead of experimenting too much to get the perfect pairing, just get a wine that you would definitely drink by itself, and then pick a food to match it. Even if the pairing isn’t great, at least you will still enjoy drinking the wine you picked.
Always try to achieve balance by weight
Balancing by weight is key when it comes to creating great food and wine pairings. Make sure that the wine and food are equal partners and that neither is overwhelming the other. Food weight can be determined through the fat, sauce and cooking method while wine weight can be determined through its color, alcohol level and grape variety.
Find flavor links
The aromatics of wine can sometimes remind us of different fruits, spices, herbs and food. By including ingredients that are similar to the aromas and flavors in a wine, you can make a great food and wine paring.
Consider the age of the wine
Aged wines have a different set of flavors and textures. It would be better to avoid pairing them with rich and big-flavored food and instead go for something more simple.
Pair food and wine according to their basic flavor profiles
More acidic wines pair well with fatty foods, sweet foods and more acidic foods. High alcohol wines should be matched with fatty foods. Bitter wines should be balanced with sweet foods or fatty foods while sweet wines should be paired with salty foods.
Making the right food and wine pairings are not an easy task, but it is also not impossible. You just need to be more patient, learn more about the different types of wines and experiment a bit. Grab a bottle of wine and see how your pairing ends up today!
