How To Choose The Right Wine For Food

Proper serving of dishes is a whole art, and often the main snag in it is precisely the selection of alcohol for food.

Proper serving of dishes is a whole art, and often the main snag in it is precisely the selection of alcohol for food. In order to dot all the i's once and for all, we have collected the main rules and the best combinations of wine and food - read and write down!

 

Desserts are best served with high sugar dessert wine, as it should be sweeter than the dessert itself.

There is a simple reason why you should carefully choose wine with sweet dishes: if the drink is not sweet enough, its taste will seem sour against the background of a sweet dessert, meat baked with fruit, sweet and sour or berry sauce, etc. Most often, food does not contain much acids, so the acidity of the wine must be interrupted by its own sweetness.

 

The aroma of the food should match the aroma of the wine in strength.

Everything is simple here: either you feel the aroma of only one dish, and it covers everything else; or you feel two fragrances that are in perfect harmony with each other.

Complex wines should be served with simple food, and vice versa, so as not to interrupt the quality of the dishes.

If you want to serve high-quality expensive wine, do not overdo it with appetizers and do not cook too complicated dishes - wine should become the main violin of the evening. Appetizers and dishes should carefully complement it, and not compete for primacy, since our taste buds are not able to appreciate several incredibly tasty products at once - something will be lost. And in this case, it is better to sacrifice an appetizer, and not expensive wine.

 

This rule also works vice versa: if you don’t dare to serve expensive wine, surprise your guests with super-tasty appetizers and dishes – but don’t expect wine to be praised, as it will be considered just a nice addition.

Spicy dishes should be served with sour wine.

It's all about the right combination of sweetness and acidity: if you serve sweet or semi-sweet wine with a sour dish, the acid flavor of the dish will become even stronger and will contrast unpleasantly with the cloying sweetness of the drink.

 

Red wine rarely improves the taste of fish - it is better to serve it with meat.

This rule has really been tested for centuries and illustrates better than others why it is so important to choose the right wine for the dish. The fact is that most seafood contains specific proteins, under the influence of which the taste of wine seems metallic. The best option in this case would be white wine - it can be served with seafood prepared in any way (with the exception of adding a tomato to seafood - then it is better to limit yourself to red wine).

At the same time, red wine pairs perfectly with meat dishes and red meat.

 

Pair intense wines with intense meals, such as moderately fatty kebab with tart wine.

The intensity of the wine depends on the richness of its taste and aroma. It is "intense" wines that should be combined with the same "intense" dishes - in other words, if you do not adhere to this proportion, something will interfere and take all the attention - either the dish or the wine. Therefore, try to combine as much as possible the acidity, sweetness, brightness of the aroma and taste of the drink with the same parameters of the cooked dish.