Pairing Food and Wine
Easy ideas for matching food
and wine
If you like your everyday red or white wine,
don’t worry about trying to match the food you
are eating with that particular wine. What
matters most is that you like how your wine
tastes.
Now, for that good, really good, or special
bottle of wine: These wines deserve more
consideration in pairing with food. A good
bottle of wine is more complex with flavors and
the right food match will complement those wine
flavors. You certainly do not want to have a
food mismatch. Example: A Cabernet Sauvignon
would overpower a light and delicately prepared
fish. But, a nice Sauvignon Blanc goes very well
with a light fish. A barbequed steak goes
perfectly with a Cabernet Sauvignon but a
Sauvignon Blanc would be too light.
One standard rule to live by is that light foods
go with light wines. Heavy foods go with heavy
wines. Here is a list to get you started. See
the Varietal Chart for information on the weight
of the various varietals.
Sauvignon Blanc – white or light fish, mild
cheese, fruit
Chardonnay – grilled chicken, salmon, shellfish,
and grilled fish, anything with a cream sauce.
Pinot Noir – light meats, chicken, grilled
anything, salmon.
Merlot – pasta, red meat, duck, smoked or
grilled foods
Zinfandel – tomato pasta dishes, pizza, pesto,
red meats, chicken with heavy sauces
Cabernet Sauvignon – red meats, especially a
juicy barbequed steak, grilled and smoked foods.
Syrah – red meats, spicy pizzas, herbed sauces
on red meat, turkey
Strategies for
Learning How to Match Food and Wine
Experiment with two or more wines
Cook up a great entrée and open a couple of
bottles or more of wine that follow the rules
above. Taste each wine without the food. Taste
the food without the wine. Taste one wine and
then the food. Taste the other wine, then the
food. Does one wine match better with the food?
This is really fun to do with friends and
discuss what each likes.
Plan a meal around a special bottle of
wine
You have a special bottle of wine you want to
open. Plan your meal around the wine. If is a
Cabernet, barbeque a steak with buttery sauce.
If it is a Syrah, cook up a pepper steak. If it
is a Chardonnay, think about shellfish or a
heavy cream sauce on a chicken. This is a
reverse strategy that might help you think about
matching your wine with the appropriate foods.
Go to Restaurant that has a food and
wine pairing menu
Many restaurants now offer food and wine pairing
meals. They are a delight and a good way to
start to learn about pairing food with wine. You
pay a set price and receive three or four
different servings, each paired with a different
wine. We have done this several times and we
find it is fun and very educational.
If you want to learn more about wine and food
pairing, we recommend you read and use "Great
Tastes Made Simple." This is a sequel
to "Great Wines Made Simple."
Like she did in her first book, Andrea Immer
uses a set of step-by-step methods for teaching
the relationship between food and wine. A great
book! See our favorite books to order. |
