Pairing Food
with Wine
How to Enjoy the
Wine You Like with the Food You Eat
Sue Ann
Scheppers Wercinski
The holiday
season is upon us – time for parties, get-togethers and festive recipes.
Naturally, when you are the host, you want everything to be perfect, including
the wines that you serve.
But how can you
ensure that the dishes you prepare will be enhanced by the wine that you serve,
and vice-versa? Wine and food pairing can be a bewildering task even when you
consult the experts. Should you always drink red wine with red meat? What if
you honestly prefer white or blush wines?
The Tastes of
Wine and Food
The key to
enjoying wine with any food is balancing tastes. Sensory scientists have known
this for years, and now, progressive chefs are putting it into practice. All
foods can be categorized into five primary tastes. The four most familiar to
you are sweet, sour, salty and bitter. The fifth taste, umami, is also
familiar, although you may not realize it.
“Umami is the
Japanese term for the taste we refer to in English as “savory.” It’s the
delicious taste – neither sweet, nor sour, nor salty, nor bitter in foods like
crab, aged beef, mushrooms (especially dried mushrooms), baked potatoes,
chocolate, stocks and broths,” states Tim Hanni, president of WineQuest, Inc, a
wine education firm dedicated to the unconditional enjoyment of wine and food.
Japanese food researchers were the first to identify and extract this taste,
which is common in their cuisine.
Mr. Hanni
further explains that wine has three basic tastes: sweet, sour and bitter,
which is caused from tannins in red wine. Tannins also cause astringency, the
puckery feeling that is actually a touch, not taste sensation.
Wine and Food in
Balance
What happens to
your taste buds when you combine different foods and wines? Foods that are
sweet or savory in taste will make any wine taste stronger, i.e., drier (less
sweet), more acidic (sour) and more tannic (bitter). On the other hand, foods
that are sour or salty in taste will make wines milder, i.e. less dry
(sweeter), fruitier (less acidic) and less tannic.
Need convincing?
Try this experiment yourself with a strong wine, such as a tannic red, and a
slice of sweet Red Delicious apple. Take a bite of the apple, then a sip of a
red wine. The sweetness in the apple will accentuate the tannins in the wine,
creating a harsh (and typically unpleasant) combination. Now, sprinkle a few
drops of lemon or lime juice on the apple slice and try it again with your
wine. This time, the wine’s fruit, acid and tannins are balanced just as the
winemaker intended!
Here’s another
experiment. Pasta with tomato sauce cries out for red wine, right? Take a bite
of a fresh, unseasoned tomato and a sip of a tannic red wine. What you’ll
experience is that the tomato’s umami makes the wine stronger, again creating a
harsh-tasting experience. Next, sprinkle a little salt on the tomato and try it
again with your wine. This time, the salt beautifully balances the tomato with
the wine.
Does this sound
radical? Perhaps. Mr. Hanni, who has been in the wine and food business for
over 25 years and is one of the first Americans to achieve the coveted Master
of Wine status, admits that at first, he struggled with how a few simple
adjustments will balance a dish for any wine. Now he teaches these techniques
to chefs and wine experts, who are applying these principles at their
restaurants and finding that properly seasoned food not only goes with any
wine, but overall, tastes better.
How can you
apply these principles to your cooking? When I’m in the kitchen, I try a sip of
the wine that I’m serving (or a sip of the most tannic wine if several wines
will be served) with a bite of the food. If the wine becomes stronger, I simply
adjust the acidic or salty ingredients to balance the food with wine. Here are
some seasonings that you can use to balance your food for any wine:
Ingredients That
Will Increase Sour Tastes in a Dish:
Vinegars (cider,
balsamic, unseasoned rice wine)
Lemon, lime or
other citrus juice or zest
Mustard
Reductions of
dry wine (for sauces)
Dry fortified
wines (e.g. Sherry, Madeira or Vermouth)
Ingredients That
Will Increase Salty Tastes in a Dish:
Salt
Soy sauce
Olives or olive
brine
Asian fish sauce
Fermented black
beans
Parmesan cheese
Our recipes this
week are great for holiday dinners and pair with any wine. Harvest Apple
Chutney contains a perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty. Serve it at your
buffet table or seal it in pretty jars to make a lovely addition to a holiday
gift basket. White Wine-Lemon-Shallot Sauce enhances grilled or broiled fish,
chicken or veal. The lemon juice, teriyaki sauce and salt will balance the dish
for both white wine and red wine lovers.