Food and Wine Principals
Wine has the ability to elevate the food you eat - but how do you know what to pair?
I follow a set of wine and food pairing principals, but I also spend a lot of time experimenting with flavours and pairings. It’s such a subjective concept that it’s important to find your own personal taste and style.
Top wine and food pairing principals:
Fat + Tannin
Think steak and a big bold red wine. Tannin and fat work seamlessly together to help scrape the toungue and lift the flavours, making heavily tannic reds soften and deliver a burst of fruit.
Acid + Fatty-oils
A high acidic wine with a fresh fish steak. The acid helps cut through the fatty oils found in a lot of fish. The harsh acidity in the wines will soften and the citrus flavours from a nice white wine will be elevated and compliment the fish.
Sweet + Sweet
This is a harder one, because the level of sweetness needs to be balanced, but next time you order a dessert ask the server to recommend a dessert wine to match, you’ll see what I mean.
Match the weight of your meal with the weight of your wine
Light wine needs a light dish, a heavy wine needs a heavy dish - they need to stand up to each-other, to hold their own on your palette. No one likes dominance
Match your wine to the most dominant thing on your plate
You’re having a full Sunday roast with chicken. You may think that chicken goes nicely with a white wine, but think about the heavy gravy, roast potatoes and sautéed vegetables, they are the dominant flavours and can benefit from a medium bodied red.
Other than that, experiment, don’t think too much about it and most of all - have fun!
In Olive & The Vine tasting groups we try a ‘perfect principal’ pairing with each of our wines, and then I’ll ask you to experiment with other wines and other pairings. You’ll notice the difference straight away, and start to learn what you love (along with what you don’t). To book onto one of our tasting events click here
