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What are you having for dinner?
Wine Suggestions for your Meal.
| Beef |
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Chicken |
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Fish |
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Pork |
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Turkey |
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Veal |
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| Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir or Syrah with roast beef or steaks. Medoc (Bordeaux) with tenderloin. |
Merlot, Chianti or Chardonnay with roast or baked chicken; white Burgundy with chicken in cream sauce. |
Pinot Noir (red wine with fish!) is a perfect match with salmon. |
Medium-bodied reds like Chianti or Merlot are just right for pork roast. |
Vouvray or a big Alsatian Gewurztraminer with a roast turkey holiday feast. |
Chianti or lighter Bordeaux red or white with fuller-flavored veal dishes. White Burgundy with veal in cream sauce. |
 Wine and food matching is the process of pairing food dishes with wine to enhance the dining experience. In many cultures, wine has had a long history of being a staple at the dinner table and in some ways both the wine making and culinary traditions of a region will have evolved together over the years.
The main concept behind pairings is that certain elements (such as texture and flavor) in both food and wine react differently to each other and finding the right combination of these elements will make the entire dining experience more enjoyable. However, taste and enjoyment are very subjective and what may be a "textbook perfect" pairing for one taster could be less enjoyable to another.
Most food and wine experts believe that the most basic element of food and wine pairing is understanding the balance between the "weight" of the food and the weight (or body) of the wine. Heavy, robust wines like Cabernet Sauvignon can overwhelm light delicate dish like a quiche while light bodied wines like Pinot Grigio would be similarly overwhelmed by a hearty stew.
Below is a rough guideline of the various weights of wines.
- Lighter whites
Pinot gris, Pinot blanc, Riesling, Sauvignon blanc, Chablis, Champagne and sparkling wines, Gruner Veltliner, Vinho Verde
- Medium to heavy whites
Oaked Sauvignon blanc, Alsatian wines, Albarino, White Bordeaux (Semillon), White Burgundy, Rhone whites (Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne) and New World Chardonnay
- Lighter reds
Beaujolais, Dolcetto, some Pinot noir
- Medium reds
Chianti, Barbera, Chinon, Rioja, Cabernet franc, Merlot, Malbec, Zinfandel, some Pinot noir
- Heavier reds
Syrah, Brunello, Cabernet Sauvignon, Port, Barbaresco and Barolo
In General
Wine and Food Pairing does not need to be rocket science. The right wine can make a dish "sing" while another selection may seem just "so-so". Worst case the wine can clash or overpower. You need to experiment with wines to find what works best for you.
Important Pairing Notes
 Know the cooking method (poached, braised, broiled, grilled)
- Identify the key flavors or sauces
5 basic rules for pairing food and wine:
- Match the weight & texture of the food to the weight and texture of the wine
Example: A light-bodied fish like sole works best with a light-bodied white wine like pinot grigio, while a heavier-bodied fish like salmon calls for a richer, fuller-bodied white like chardonnay
- Balance the intensity of flavors in the food and wine
Example: A mildly flavored food like roast turkey pairs well with light-bodied white and red wines like sauvignon blanc and Beaujolais, but in the context of a Thanksgiving dinner featuring stuffing, cranberry sauce, and other strongly flavored side dishes, an intensely flavored white like gewürztraminer or a rich, fruity red like syrah or zinfandel would be preferable.
- Balance tastes
The five basic tastes are sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami (the recently discovered fifth taste found in savory foods like mushrooms, tomatoes, soy sauce, and aged cheeses and meats). Salty and sour tastes in food make wines taste milder (fruitier and less acidic), while sweet and savory (umami) tastes make wines taste stronger (drier and more astringent). Example: A simple cut of beef tames the tannins and brings out the fruit of a young cabernet sauvignon, but chocolate (which some people enjoy with cabernet) will accentuate its tannins and diminish its fruit.
 Match flavors
Flavors are combinations of tastes and aromas, and there are an infinite number of them. You can fine-tune food and wine pairings by matching flavors in the food and the wine. Example: Roast duck in a plum sauce is well-served by red wines, like barbera or syrah, with pronounced black plum flavors while grilled steak in a pepper sauce will go beautifully with a peppery zinfandel.
- Counterpoint flavors
Sometimes the best choice is to counterpoint flavors rather than matching them. Example: Pairing a spicy dish like Jamaican Jerk Chicken with a high-alcohol red wine may seem logical, but, in fact, the heat in the dish will ignite the alcohol in the wine to produce an unpleasantly hot, harsh impression. A better choice is a low-alcohol, fruity wine like Riesling or gewürztraminer, which will both frame and tame the spicy flavors of the dish.
The main rule to remember about pairing wine with food is that there are no rules: you should drink the wines you like with the foods you like.
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