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An Easy Guide to Food and Wine
Somewhere
along
the way, the
process of pairing food and wine became a complicated and
potentially
pretentious affair. It is about the fusion of flavors and the
savoring of
great tastes---isn't that enough?
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Pairing
food and wine creates a union of tastes' that makes your
special
occasion come
alive. Wines
brighten your meals and add a
 smart stylishness
to
your entertaining.
We've all heard it
said, "Red wine with
meat,
white wine with fish." That's fine, except that
most of us
enjoy more then meat and fish and there is a great
range of flavors and textures within the two.
More Matching
Food And Wine
Food
and Wine
Pairing Chart
It is perfectly correct to
serve any wine that you prefer...as long as you
are serving wine! Just make sure the food is good
and the wine
is first-rate. Even if the match is not perfect,
you will still enjoy what you are drinking.
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The KISS Method of Matching
Food and Wine
If
you are not
familiar with the distinguishing characteristics of a particular wine,
look for descriptions on the bottle or in the wine shop.
Don't
hesitate to consult with knowledgeable personnel, generally present in
local
wine businesses and in some liquor stores. They are
on hand
to make the selection process much easier. And remember,
there are no hard and
fast rules here, just follow your instincts...and your tastebuds.
 Five-star restaurateurs and beverage
purveyors follow rigorous guidelines
when evaluating a wine, including the aspects of age, color, aroma,
flavor
complexities and the all important "finish". For the rest of
us, there
is no need to over analysize a good match for our
favorite
foods. For simplicities sake, focus on flavor
and body |
DID YOU KNOW?
Wines
may have distinguishable flavors of tobacco,
cherry, smoke or grass. These
flavors are not from actual ingredients in the
wine, but are subtle flavor characteristics
developed
throughout the wine-making process
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| FLAVOR:
Fruitiness,
acidity and sweetness |
| Fruitiness
goes beyond grape flavor and
can include
apple, blackberry,
butterscotch, black pepper, tobacco, green grass, mint, almond
and vanilla |
| Acidity
is the crispness of a
wine; it refreshes the palate after a bite of food.
Whites are more acidic then reds |
| Sweetness is associated with the
dryness of a wine. A dry wine is not
a sweet wine. |
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| BODY:
Weight or the
consistency of a wine on the tongue. This actually
relates to
alcohol content and
is stated in percentages as marked on
the label of the wine bottle |
| "Light"
wines
such as Chablis have an alcohol content of 8-9% |
| "Medium"
wines such as Merlot have an alcohol content
of 10-12% |
| "Full-bodied"
wines
such as Bordeaux have an alcohol content of
14-17% and have the hightest degree of tannins. Tannins
are present in grape skins and produce that flimly feeling on your teeth |
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