Learning The Basics Behind Food Wine For Better Cooking
July 24, 2008
If you are one of the thousands of people who don’t know a lot about wine, then this article is for you. Here, you will learn a little something about food wine and what wines should be pared with what foods. It is impossible to learn everything at once, but this will steer you in the right direction. You no longer have to belong to the uninformed masses.
The old rule that white is best with white meats and that red is best with red meats still stands today. Although things are a little more complicated now, it is still a good beginning rule. Another rule to follow in most cases for food wine is that each taste should be counteractive.
What this means is that each taste of food or wine should completely mask the taste of the other. Food wines are supposed to enhance the food’s taste by acting as a palate cleanser, making each bite of food taste as good as the first. And of course, it is vice versa for the wine flavor.
If you can taste the flavor of the wine or food over the other item, then you probably are working with a bad match. It is harder to match food and wine now because so many different flavors of food get worked into a single dish. The best rule for these cases is that the body of it should match the food. Heavier foods get heavier wines and vice versa.
The main determination for food wine combinations is the balance of sweetness, acidity and bitterness of both the food and wine. It is pretty easy to figure out what should go with what foods by considering the wine and food characteristics.
If a sweet food is being served, pair it with a sweeter wine. For bitter foods, a more bitter wine is in order. The best way to determine the acidity of a food is to determine if it would go better with more acid added.
For example, adding lemon to a fish means that a more acidic wine should be consumed. Some common white wines that are acidic are: Rieslings, most sparkling wines and white Bordeauxs. Acidic red wines include: Gamays, Pinot Noirs and Sangioveses. Sweet white wines include: White Zinfandels, other forms of Rieslings and Chenin Blancs. Sweet red wines can include: Port and Lambrusco. There are not many bitter white wines, but there are some bitter red wines. These can include, red Zinfandels, Merlots and Cabernet Sauvignons.
Now you know the basics about food wine and how to pair wines with different foods. There is still a lot more information out there, so if you want to learn more, then you should pursue those options. Joining a wine club is a good option, as well as just doing independent research. This will help you to become quite knowledgeable about wines.
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