Learn the basics of food and wine pairing to create your own. This guide will show you the steps to pairing. You’ll also learn what to look for in a recipe to make great wine matches.
A great food and wine pairing balances the components of a dish and the characteristics of a wine.
As much as pairing food and wine is complex, the basics are simple to grasp.
9 Tips For Pairing Wine & Food
These beginner-friendly tips will help you create consistently great pairings. As you get more familiar with different wines, you’ll become confident and can experiment with breaking the rules! (Gamay with trout anyone?)
- Choose a wine that’s more acidic than the food.
- The wine should be sweeter than the food.
- The wine should have the same flavor intensity as the food.
- Pair red wines with bold-flavored meats (e.g. red meat).
- White wines pair best with light-intensity meats (e.g. fish or chicken).
- Bitter wines (e.g. red wines) are best balanced with fat.
- It is better to match the wine with the sauce than the meat.
- More often than not, white, sparkling, and rosé wines create complementary pairings.
- More often than not, red wines create congruent pairings.