How to Pair Food and Wine
Whether you're hosting a dinner party or just cooking for yourself, you'll want to pair your food and wine for the best taste. If you're serving beef or lamb, pair the dish with a full-bodied red like a Shiraz or a Cabernet and Shiraz blend. Chicken is usually paired with white wine, like a Chardonnay. If it's cooked in a rich sauce, pair your chicken with a Shiraz or a medium-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon. Pair fish and seafood with a white wine like a Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. If your meal is spicy, try a sweeter wine like a Riesling or sweet Gewürztraminer. For dessert, go for a sweet wine to complement the food.
Start with an open mind. Whatever you read, this article included, is guidance not a rule. If you prefer different combinations, nothing is stopping you from enjoying this. The principal purpose of guides on pairing food and wine is to enlighten your understanding on commonly agreed matches, and the reasons behind these. It's about taking some of the guesswork out of matching food and wine until you're comfortable enough to rely on your own experience. Ultimately you'll learn to tune into your own palate as the best guide to what wine works with what food. A basic guideline is to 'Match' and 'Complement' the characteristics of food to the wine, or 'Contrast' or counterbalance overpowering characteristics. For example: Spicy foods with sweeter wine. Be aware that some wines can be spoiled by the introduction of certain food flavors, just as they can be enhanced. If you find that a wine you've always loved suddenly tastes less desirable, track down the food you paired it with, and try drinking it without food, before dismissing the wine outright. Know how to taste wine before embarking on the journey of pairing wine and food. Read How to taste wine to learn more. Understand what matters when assessing the affinity of a wine with a food. It is important to seek a balance in the wine's components (fruit, acid, alcohol, sweetness, and tannin), and the food components (ingredients, manner of cooking, and the resulting tastes). It is about more than just the flavor. Also to be taken into account are the texture, weight, structure, and bouquet of both wine and food. For instance, delicate food requires a delicate wine, while richer and more robust food will match best with heavier, fuller flavored wines. The manner in which a food is cooked will impact the appropriateness of a wine. The nature of a food changes according to whether it is roasted, baked, poached , steamed, marinated, seasoned, cooked in sauce, or left in as near to its original state as possible. This is why generalizations of suitability are too simplistic – the flavor, texture, weight, and composition of the food needs to be considered individually, regardless of the principal component of a dish. While similarities attract, opposites can do so too. What is most important is that the food and wine complement one another in such a way that your attention can be drawn from the wine to the food and back again without losing the essence of either. Keep the food flavors simple. If the flavors of the food are too complex, it will be hard to match it with any wine because the food becomes so dominant. If you have a particularly complex or rich food dish, it's recommended that you don't try matching your prized wines but rely on cheaper, more readily available wines in case the match is unpleasant or even terrible. Know how to taste food and wine together. To enable you to branch out beyond the generalities, being aware of how to taste the food and wine together is vital. It is suggested that you do the following: Take a mouthful of wine and roll it around your mouth. Swallow. Ask yourself what you taste and smell. Look for familiar fruit, berry, and wood flavors. Decide whether you find the wine light or heavy. Consider the sweetness or acidity of the wine. Take your summation of the wine and try to match it to similar characteristics in food. Find at least one aspect that corresponds with the food, such as the sweetness, the flavor, the texture, etc. Try the food. Eat a small piece, chew, and swallow it. As with the wine, consider how it tastes, as well as the aftertaste. If it's a pleasant experience, you've hit on a winner; if not, the pairing isn't made in heaven and it's time to try a different wine. Know your taste experience. There four to five tastes - saltiness, bitterness , acidity, sweetness, and the Japanese umami. These are the tastes that you'll be combining together in the same way an artist combines paint on the palette: Saltiness : This taste is the easiest to recognize and it lingers. Saltiness brings out sweetness, hides tannins and increases bitterness. Sweet dessert wines go well with salty foods, or very fruity reds. Acidity : Highly acidic foods are not ideal with wine because they tend to cancel out the wine's flavor. As such, leave the vinegars, vinaigrettes , and dressings to a minimum when pairing food and wine. Acidity is a taste that lingers, it can hide tannin and bitterness and make wine seem sweeter. An acidic wine should be paired with a dish that is of lower acidity to prevent flattening the wine. For example, add a little sugar to take the edge off a vinaigrette. Bitterness : Bitter foods include radicchio, olives , rocket, etc. It's a taste that outlasts all other tastes. Bitterness is able to cover up acidity in a wine, hides the tannins, and brings out the sweetness. Young red wines work well with bitter greens, wild herbs, and olives. Sweetness : Another easy taste for many, although the ability to taste sweetness declines with age. Sweetness doesn't last long as a taste. It minimizes bitterness and acidity in a wine. Aim to partner sweet wine with food that isn't overly sweet; to have both as sweet as the other will cancel out the wine. If you have chocolate , enjoy a liqueur Tokay or a Muscat rather than a sweet wine. Umami : This is the taste that emanates from broth style or earthy food, such as soups, miso, stock, consommé, roast meats, mushrooms , etc. Umami takes off the edge of tannins and brings out the sweetness, making it a good choice for wines high in tannin. Start pairing wine and food. It is possible to make generalities, and you'll often find suggestions for pairing food and wine at the wine store. However, as already noted, such generalities are very broad and don't necessarily account for the manner in which the food is cooked or what else is accompanying it, such as spices or a cream-based sauce. As such, while the following offers general guidance, it is still important to rely on your own palate and to continue exploring the matching process lifelong (see the following step after this section on developing nuanced approaches to these generalizations): Beef and lamb : Select red wine for beef and lamb dishes. Usually a full-bodied red such as a shiraz or cabernet/shiraz blend works well. Suitable wines include Barbera, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel. However, if it were asparagus alone, as shown on the picture, a grassy Sauvignon Blanc would had been a sensible choice. Chicken : White wine is the usual pick. For grilled or roast chicken, try a Chardonnay. For chicken cooked in a rich sauce, try a Shiraz or a medium-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon. Fish and seafood : Select a white wine for fish and seafood. These wines would include Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer. Grilled firm-flesh fish matches well with Chardonnay or an aged Semillon, while a hearty fish stew is excellent accompanied by Pinot Noir. For flaky fish, choose a dry Riesling or a Chardonnay. Spicy : Choose Riesling and sweet Gewürztraminer if your meal is spicy. The sweetness of these wines can be drank quickly to offset the spiciness of the food. Avoid adding a Chardonnay to spicy food as it will taste bitter. Game : Choose a spicy red like Sangiovese or Shiraz for game such as venison , bison, or kangaroo. Tomato (acidic) based meals : Serve Barbera, Sangiovese, or Zinfandel with tomato-based meals (for example, spaghetti and pizza). Duck, quail : Try a Pinot Noir or a Shiraz. Cheese : Full-bodied wines go well with hard cheese, such as a full-bodied Shiraz with cheddar cheese. Soft cheese partners well with dry Riesling, Marsanne, or Viognier. Sweet wine is a good match for blue cheese. Dessert : Sweet wines are a good choice, provided that the dessert is not as sweet as the wine. Deepen your pairing knowledge by discovering the nuances. Build on the basic understanding of what might match. It's easy enough to say that chicken goes with white wine , or beef goes with red wine but which wine exactly? And is this choice clear cut? The wine that goes with the food will depend heavily on the manner in which the food has been prepared. For example, it isn't as simple as saying that chicken goes with white wine. If, for example, the chicken has been poached, making it simple and delicate, a simple wine such as a young Semillon will be good. When roasted, the fat makes the chicken richer, thus requiring a heavier textured wine such as an aged Semillon. If barbecued, the chicken becomes smoky, and goes well with a wine aged in wood, such as a light Chardonnay. When chicken has been cooked in cream , it becomes really rich, a heavier Chardonnay will pair well. When it's made into a darker dish, such as by adding soy sauce, it can take a light red such as a Pinot Noir. Place chicken into a red wine marinade, and it makes sense to pair it with red wine. Learn the different flavors within each wine style and seek to match these to the food ingredients. For example, fruity elements and wood overtones impact the wine flavor and are important considerations when partnering the wine with food. If you can taste peaches, coconut, tropical flavors, smokiness, herbs, etc., then take those flavors and find their food equivalents. Weight of the wine has an impact on pairing with food. Wines are light, medium or full-bodied, referring to the depth of flavor on the mid-palate. When trying to discern the weight of the wine, either ask the retailer, or check the depth of color. Apart from Pinot Noir, the darker the color, the heavier the weight. Use your sense of smell to help you pair food and wine. The two senses are one, and you can trust your nose unless it's blocked. Wine smells can be floral, perfumed, mineral, fruity (common fruit smells are peach , melon, and fig), butter, nuts, earthy, truffle or mushroom, meaty, or even like the barnyard. If the smell is unpleasant, avoid it. An aging wine can have overtones of toast or engine fuel. Consider pairing wine with the regional or origin of the cuisine. For example, Provençal grilled lamb with garlic and rosemary with red Bandol or Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Be aware also that the same type of wine can have a very different taste when it is sourced from a different region or country. For example, an American made Sauvignon Blanc tends to have a grassier flavor than a Sauvignon Blanc produced in New Zealand. The only way you'll know this is by tasting and contrasting the wine, paying attention all the time to pairing it with the right food. Plan the meal and wine. When planning dinner, many people opt for planning the food first and adding in the wine according to the food. However, you might like to work from the other way, and plan the meal according to the wine. Either way is appropriate but will impact how you explore the flavors, and the perspective gained by looking at the wine first, then the food, can be quite a refreshing one. 
Start with an open mind. Understand what matters when assessing the affinity of a wine with a food. Know how to taste food and wine together. Know your taste experience. Start pairing wine and food. Deepen your pairing knowledge by discovering the nuances. Consider pairing wine with the regional or origin of the cuisine. Plan the meal and wine. 