1. The choice of wine depending on the food served
A light wine is what you want if the dish served is light. A table or country wine, which is young and easy to drink, may accompany any casual dish. If the meal is classy with high cooking preparation: an elegant, powerful wine will certainly reveal the subtle flavor of the dish. If the meal is spicy, go for a sweet wine: the sugar from wine highlights the hot, spicy touch of the dish.
2. Serve the wine according to character
The order in which the wine is served is important to avoid one cancelling the other’s flavor. The wine should be drunk dry prior to sweet. White and rose wines can be enjoyed, preferably before the red wine, young wine prior to old wine, the wine before the light bodied. Do not “burn” your palate, let them get accostumed slowly.
3. No red wine on cheese
Contrary to popular belief, red wines do not fit always well with cheese, because their tannins accentuate the bitterness of the latter. Choose a white wine from the same terroir as cheese. Think that back in the days, people used to drink and eat the food they had locally at hand. Examples: a white Sancerre with goat cheese. Cider goes well with camembert…
4. “Sweet/salty dishes”
Don’t always mean “sweet wines”. For Oriental cuisine and Asian curry, fresh and aromatic wines will identify with the exotic flavor flavors without denaturing them, contrary to sweet white wines.
5. Color harmony
Play with it, you’ll not likely to go wrong! Red meat and red wine, white wine and fish, salmon and light red, cheese and white wine, chocolate and red wine… However, according to the preparation and ingredients, it’s up to you to find the dominant ingredient which should be given wine.
Tips from Eatwell 101