Dare to Pair?
Do you dare to pair? “I often cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it into the food.” It is clear that wine goes with everything. Wine and cheese, wine and chocolate, even wine and music.
Some wines are clearly what we call “food wines.” Those are wines have some special character to them that makes them particularly suitable for some specific types of food. They are wines that have a particularly tannic quality for example. Tannins are chemical compounds that add some bitterness and astringency to wine. Bitterness of course is a flavor you taste on the tongue. Astringency by contrast is about mouthfeel. Astringency is that property in wines that gives one a drying sensation on the mouth. And it is not just a sensation – tannins actually bind to the proteins in your saliva and draw them out of your mouth such that your mouth is actually dryer after you drink wine than before. Tannins, as they age or receive micro-oxygenation, also form chains or “polymerize,” allowing fewer bonds to form with saliva and give you additional sensations in the mouth such as a grainy, velvety or even a pebbly texture. As a result, tannin-heavy wines are said to pair well with fatty, protein-rich foods which allow the tannins to cut through the lipids and complement the umami flavors in food.
Similarly, acidic wines are said to pair well with lighter foods that may need to be rounded out or fatty foods that require a bit of a palate cleansing – oily fish or rich salad dressings for example. Perhaps a cream soup or bisque. Conventional wisdom also holds that one should have a sweeter wine with spicy food to balance out the flavors. I pair this way for all of my dinner parties – often even planning the menu around the wine I would like to serve rather than vice versa.
But what about when you just want to sip a good glass of wine? It does not always matter what food you are meant to eat with it or even if you have to have food with it. There are lots of wines that are pleasing all by themselves. Choose at will - there is such a variety of high-quality carefully made wine now from every grape and every region of the world.
So, how does one choose? Is it based on the weather? A beautiful chilled Muscadet for a day on the beach, a warm comforting Zinfandel curled up in front of a fire? Or perhaps on your mood. A bubbly prosecco while getting ready to go to a party or a brooding syrah for deep thoughts and important decisions? Maybe you choose your wine based on where you would like to go on vacation next – whether Greece or Chile, Australia or Austria. It may also be about where you want to go next on vacation. Or maybe it is just what the wine seller recommended when you went to pick up some sandwich makings at the store and you got pulled into conversation.
However you choose your wine, remember, wine goes with everything – food, yes, but also friends, topics of conversation, television programs, the color of your shoes, anything at all.
Join us for our upcoming Daring Pairings:
April 10th - Sake and Chocolate, April 16 - Go, Go Goats. Pairing Wine with Goat Cheese
And Seema’s next class will delve into the best of the best: April 9 - Iconic Wines
