- Classic Food and Wine Pairing
- Food and Wine Pairing Principles
- Food Pairing by Alpha
- Wine Pairing with Food
- Quick Food and Wine Pairing Tips
- Pairing Ethnic Foods
- Wine Bridges
Goat Cheese Crostini
White wine - Appetizer
Sea Bass with Citrus and Soy
White wine - Seafood
Double Cut Pork Chop with Mustard Sauce
Red wine - Meat
Asparagus and Goat-Cheese Frittata
Red wine - Poultry
Seafood Stew
White wine - Seafood
Corn Chowder with Seasonal Mushrooms and Crab Garnish
White wine - Soup
Ridiculously Good Chocolate Cookies
Dessert wine - Dessert
Broiled Lobster Tails
White wine - Seafood
Mini Beef Wellingtons
Red wine - Meat
Flank Steak over Corn-Kernel Polenta
Red wine - Meat
Find Local Wine Events
The LocalWineEvents.com calendar of food and wine pairing events is where all the world's food, wine, beer and spirits events are listed in one place.
Napa River Wine, Crafts & Jazz Festival
September 11, 2010 Napa, CA The Napa River Wine, Crafts and Jazz Festival is a celebration of art, holiday gifts, wine, food and music.
Cape May Wine Festival
October 9 - 10, 2010 Cape May Ferry Terminal, New Jersey Try something a little different!
Food and Wine Pairing Basics: Food and Wine Pairing Principles
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Food and Wine Pairing Principles
- Consider Complexity Always pair complex wines with simply prepare foods to avoid having complex foods competing with the wine.
- Consider Intensity and Weight The lightness or heaviness of the dish and the body of the wine must be in harmony. Never pair a light dish, such as a poached fillet of sole, with a full-bodied wine, such as a Napa Valley Zinfandel.
- Pair humble with humble and great with great A prime rib roast calls for a splurge wine such as a $60 bottle of pinot noir; however, a humble pot roast would not feel right with the same wine.
- Match delicate to delicate and robust to robust A delicately flavored wine tastes like water when served with a heavily spiced dish. Dishes with bold, spicy, hot flavors are perfect with bold, spicy wines. A classic dish paired with a zinfandel would be a Tex-Mex dish.
- Decide if you want to mirror flavors or create contrasts Complementary pairings are based on foods and wines that mirror their flavors. Contrasting pairings serve as counterpoints to one another. An example of a contrasting pairing would be roasted pork with a riesling. The pork is meaty and dense while the riesling is fruity and crisp.
- Work with flavor affinities Certain natural flavor affinities exist, like coffee and cream. Rely on your instincts and make a pairing!
- Incorporate bridge ingredients Some ingredients serve as a bridge to connect a specific wine with a particular dish. For example, a salad can be difficut to pair with a wine but add crumbled goat cheese and the tanginess of the cheese is a perfect bridge for pairing with a crisp sauvignon blanc.
- Seek out acidity High-acid wines pair more easily with a wide variety of foods than low-acid wines. High-acid wines are lively and vivacious that refresh the palate between bites of food. For this reason, high-acid wines like sauvignon blanc, riesling, pinot noir and dry sparkling wines are considered very food-friendly. High-acid wines also balance a food's saltiness.
- Incorporate Fruit Pair fruity wines, such as gewurztraminer, viognier and riesling with dishes that contain a significant fruit component. A classic example would be pork chops with sauteed apples paired with a riesling.
- Pair salty and sweet Salty foods can dull the flavor of many wines. Try pairing a sweeter wine with a salty dish to offset the saltiness. A classic pairing would be a Stilton cheese with a Port.
- Think about tannin Tannic wines, such as cabernet sauvignon or merlot, taste best with foods that are high in both protein and fat, such as red meat.
- Reconsider Oak Oaky wines, such as many California chardonnays, are difficult to pair with a wide variety of foods. Oaky wines often need a bridge to connect them to a food. Try toasted nuts, brown rice, caramel or sesame oil as bridges.
- Don't forget dessert The dessert wine must always be sweeter than the desset. If the dessert is sweeter, the wine will seem flat and dull.
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