FOOD AND WINE PAIRING THE 5 COMPONENTS OF WINE
The beautiful days of spring are among us and with them comes more fun. Quality food and wine pairings can help you take your meals to new heights and give even more enjoyment to even a quiet family dinner.
FOOD AND WINE PAIRING – THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
Food and wine pairings are based on three fundamental principles:
- The balance between the weight of the wine and the richness of the food
- Have at least as much acidity in wine as there is in food
- Shimmer or contrast aromas and flavors (and intensity)
You may be getting out of it all these terms, but we’re all born with the tools you need to assess a wine’s potential for food and wine pairing.
With all the wines you taste, you’ll get an instant reaction – you either like it or you don’t. This is important because you are drinking wine for pleasure. The key is to determine why you like or dislike wine in order to avoid it or adjust the circumstances (e.g. an acidic white like Muscadet with seafood rather than on its own).
THE MAIN ELEMENTS IN A WINE
Here are some tips on how to evaluate the main elements.
ALCOHOL
You feel a high alcohol content by a burning sensation in the back of the throat and alcohol in general by the weight in the mouth. A high alcohol content can give a smooth feeling. The higher the alcohol, the heavier the wine. High alcohol wines (14.5alc per flight plus) are not ideal with food because they are too potent.
ACIDITY
You feel the acidity of a wine on the flanks of your cheeks – this makes the mouth water if the acidity is high, as is the case with lemon juice. The higher the acidity, the lighter the wine. Thinking about the above principles – a relatively high white wine, such as sauvignon blanc, will work well with grilled fish with a squeeze of lemon.
SUCROSITE
The sweetness on your tongue, or, to use the term wine, the level of residual sugar (if any) in a wine is perceived on the tongue as if it were something sweet. More sweetness means more weight. A sweet wine is a great candidate for a contrasting pairing like Roquefort and Saussignac sweet wine. But if you opt for a mirror pairing, putting the wine with a dessert, the wine must be at least as sweet as the dessert, otherwise it will be crushed by the dessert.
FLAVOURS
What we think of as flavors are usually flavors. We smell them from the inside of the mouth to the back of the nose, which we call “retro-olfactory”. Most of them belong to four main families of flavours: fruit, spice, vegetable or animal. The slightly leathery/animal character of an old Bergerac/Bordeaux style red is fantastic with game.
TANNINS
Tannins provide a feeling of astringency or dryness of the gums and tongue. Think about what a strong cup of tea does to your mouth. Think of the classic pairing of a steak tartare with a tannic red. The tannins mix with and remove the salivary proteins that lubricate the mouth, creating a feeling of dryness. They act in the same way with the proteins in food, thus facilitating digestion and giving more flavor, hence the classic pairing of a steak tartare accompanied by a high tannin Pauillac red wine (usually a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon) or Château Feely Vérité. Try it yourself – cook half a rare steak and the other very well done, then compare the two with a tannic red wine and a low-tannin blend (e.g., Resonance 2017) to see this for yourself. You’ll find that well-done steak is better paired with less tannic red wine.
We wish you a happy spring of excellent food and wine pairings!
Come and discover our wine pairing lunch as part of a half-day excursion with lunch.
See the first part of our series on the main food and wine pairings. Come and learn more about organic farming by visiting Château Feely in the South West of France or stay with us. You can read about the history of our organic farm. The series includes three Grape Expectations books; Saving our Skins and Glass Half Full by Caro Feely.
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