Learn How You Can Perfectly Pair Food and Wine: Our Guide

Wine and food pairing can be complex. However, it won’t be when you’re armed with knowledge on which go with which. Fortunately for you, we’ve created a guide on everything you need to know about food and wine pairing so that you can master it yourself. 

Let’s get started!

What Is the First Thing You Should Learn?

In food and wine pairing, you need to have a keen palette because you are required to identify the basic tastes. That’s the first thing you should learn and focus on. Just so you know, there are over 20 different tastes found in food, which include sweet, sour, fat, spicy, umami and electric. Sounds intimidating? There’s no need to worry because you only have to focus on six tastes in food and wine pairing: salt, acid, sweet, bitter, fat and spice (piquant). 

What Are the Basic Taste Components in Wine?

Now, let’s talk about the basic tastes components of wine as these are significant in the pairing stage. Most wines lack three tastes of fatness, spiciness and saltiness. However, most of them contain acidity, sweetness and bitterness in varying degrees. 

To make it easier to remember, here’s how wines are basically categorised:

• Red wines have more bitterness.
• White, rosé and sparkling wines have more acidity.
• Sweet wines have more sweetness. 

What Are the Basic Taste Components in Food?

Since food has many tastes, it will be hard to group them just like what we did in wines. But, one good tip you should remember to identify the tastes of the dish is to simplify it to its dominant tastes. For example, when you taste a green salad, you can quickly identify that there is acidity and bitterness in it. If you bite into a baked macaroni, the dominant taste will be fat and salt. 

What Are the Basic Things You Should Remember When Pairing Food and Wine?

Now that you know about the basic taste components, here’s what you should remember so that you can perfectly pair food and wine: 

• The wine should be more acidic than the food. 
• The wine should be sweeter than the food.
• The wine should have the same flavour intensity as the food. 
• It is better to match the wine with the sauce than with the meat.
• It is best to pair red wines with boldly flavoured meats, such as red meat.
• It is best to pair white wines with light-intensity meats, such as fish or chicken.
• Bitter wines like red wines are best balanced with fat.
• Usually, white, sparkling and rosé wines create contrasting pairings.
• Usually, red wines create congruent pairings. 

The Perfect Pairing

There are many things you should know about food and wine pairings, and it can be confusing at times. But hopefully, this guide can help you find that perfect wine to pair with your dish. Ultimately, finding the perfect food and wine pairings all boils down to you having a keen palette. But, as you get familiar with different wines and food tastes, you’ll become more confident in food and wine pairings and can even experiment on your own. 

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