Pairing Food and Wine

If food and wine pairing can get a bit confusing to you, here are a few tips to get you going. Think of the basic elements that stand out in the dish, and then you can either choose a wine that is congruent, meaning in agreement or harmony, or a wine that is contrasting, meaning differing strikingly. A congruent match would be a buttery croissant with a buttery Chardonnay. A contrasting match would be friend chicken with Champagne. Imagine you are the chef designing the items on a food dish, and insert wine as one of those elements. Here are some of the tricks of the trade.. Salt likes acid. If you would squeeze a lemon on something, you can drink white wine with it. Fish and chips and sauvignon blanc is delicious. Salt also likes sweet. Tacos and and Lambrusco is a winner, as is a dry-rub bbq with zinfandel. Fat likes acid. Fettuccine Alfredo with Chenin Blanc works here. Fat also likes tannin and high alcohol. This is the classic ribeye steak and cabernet sauvignon. Acid likes acid. Here the Italians make life easy, Pasta Bolognese with Chianti sangiovese. Sweet likes sweeter. I try to think of cake with frosting. I had Panna Cotta with demi-sec Champagne and thought I died and went to heaven. Spicy likes sweet. Next time you order Thai food to go, pull out a bottle of off-dry riesling. Discovering what you like to pair together is a wonderful adventure, so have fun with it. Cheers!