Photography by CORBIS
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9 Sure-Fire Tips to Help You Match Wine and Food With Confidence
By Lance Helgeson, January-February 2003
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1. Think of wine as a condiment. It should complement, not overpower,
your food. Wine is like a spice: It reacts differently with different foods.
Seek out wines that bring out the nuances and characteristics of your
food—and vice versa.
2. Aim for similarity/contrast. Foods that are salty, smoked, or
spicy tend to mix better with wines that are fruity and lower in alcohol
content. Likewise, a rich, fatty food goes best with a full-bodied wine.
3. Mind the sauce more than the meat. The ubiquitous rules—red
wine with red meats; white wine with white meats—are sound benchmarks.
But to make a truly successful pairing of food and wine, you should focus on
the sauce used to prepare the meat. Think about it: A sweet/sour sauce on beef
tastes far different than barbeque sauce—and therefore dictates a
different choice of wine.
4. Compare the culture/regions where a dish originated. Why do all
the work yourself? Favorite dishes emerge from different regions, and companion
wines soon follow. If you know you'll be eating a dish popular in southern
Italy, try using a wine that hails from the same region.
5. Consider the preparation of the dish. Is delicacy required, such
as in poached or steamed dishes? You may try similarly delicate wines to find a
good complement—all the while being mindful of the dominant flavor (i.e.,
sauce) of a dish.
6. Keep an eye on the salt. Salt in food can suppress a wine's
bitterness, thereby making a sweet wine taste sweeter. On the flip side, you
also can use wine to overcome saltiness in a dish; experts recommend whites and
sparkling wines in those cases.
7. Tease the wine in your food. Chefs recommend cooking with wines
similar to those you serve. Some also like to keep a small amount of a wine as
part of the finish on a sauce or dish to tweak a complementary food and wine
pairing.
8. Serve lighter wines before those with more body. At meals with
multiple courses and wine selections, serve dry wines before sweeter
wines—unless an early course offers a dish with sweetness.
9. Alter a dish's flavoring to better match a wine. You'll
want to be careful of too much second-guessing, but if, for example, you
suspect a wine is too bitter for a dish, a drop of citrus or nuts in the dish
might calm the effect.
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