Chris Kissack (2011), author and wineologist of the Loire Valley and Bordeaux regions, suggests a matching paradigm of contrasting and complimenting. Choose wines that contrast with the meal (non-oaked white wines go well with fish because their higher acidity levels contrast well with the natural oiliness of fish. Selecting a nice dessert wine (typically quite sweet) to go with your already sweet dessert is an example of complimenting one another. Another "rule of thumb" when it comes to meat dishes...match the color of the wine to the color of the meat. Remember, it is not set in stone and you will not be arrested by the pairing police if you serve a favorite red wine with chicken!
A slightly more entailed recommendation from another oenophile, Tom Black (2011), the Wine Doctor, is as follows:
Tom writes...A wine high in tannins (Bordeaux, for instance) mated with a food high in tannins (like walnuts) will render the wine almost undrinkably dry and astringent.
Protein tends to calm tannins, so a very tannic wine might be rendered glorious when enjoyed with rare beef.
Delicate foods - veal, or filet of sole for example - will be overwhelmed by a full-bodied red wine. By the same token, a hearty lasagna will virtually cancel out a dry, medium-bodied Sauvignon Blanc.
A wine can add its primary flavor to a dish, giving food a layer it didn't start out with.
Some wine and food combinations result in a flavor that was not present in either one and is not meant to be, metal for instance. Try white turkey meat with red Bordeaux if you doubt this.
Some times it's as though this wine has been searching all its life for this food and fireworks ensue.
Tannic wines make sweet foods taste less sweet; salty foods emphasize tannin.
Salty foods mute the sweetness and enhance the fruitiness of a sweet wine.
Wines that are high in acid taste less acidic with salty or sweet food; acidic wines also can offset oily foods.Interested in Spanish recipies with which to showcase your wine selections? Then check out Tama's blog!
