Simple Guide to Wine Pairings

More and more people are interested in wine. There are places popping up that allow you to make and bottle your own, tweaking and tasting until it’s perfectly yours. Serving wine at home or ordering at a restaurant usually results in simply drinking what you like best, but there is actually a simple list of really good pairings of wine and food. When you try them, you’ll understand why it makes a difference to choose a certain wine to accompany a certain dish.

Champagne is a staple at celebrations. Regardless of how dry it is, there is generally a faint sweetness in the undertones. For this reason, salty foods taste especially good when served with champagne. Choose appetizers that are savory with a salty finish.

Sauvignon Blanc is a white wine. It has a distinctive taste with grapes traditionally grown in France, accompanied by either lime, green apple, passion fruit, or peach, depending on the ripeness of the grape. Choose tangy dishes that have green herbs to enhance the herbaceous notes in the wine. Sauvignon Blanc is generally served with white meats and soft, sour cheese.

Grϋner Veltliner is a dry white wine. It is a more exotic white than Sauvignon Blanc and contains the flavors of lime and green pepper. The acidity causes a burst of flavor upon each sip that dissipates into a nice tingle. Foods that pair nicely with this wine are Wiener Schnitzel, from Austria where the grapes grow. It is also delicious with veal, turkey, pork chops, and fish. Creamy cheeses play well with the acidity factor in the wine.

Pinot Grigio comes in three different types: dry and minerally, dry and fruity, fruity and sweet. The minerally dry variation is especially dry and pairs well with mussels, and nice salty french fries. The fruity and dry variety has a fruity aroma with lemon and peach at the forefront. Serve this with some creamy brie for nice flavor pair. Fruity and sweet varieties contains late harvest grapes or grapes with a condition called noble rot with honeycomb and apple for a major flavor impact. This is generally called a Pinot Gris and it goes well with most seafood, Gruyere, Muenster, or Grana Padano cheese.

Chardonnay is a smooth white that goes well with fist served in rich sauces, soft cheeses, and white meats. Chardonnay is a widely planted wine grape that offers a variety of flavors. Enjoy!

Moscato d’Asti is a sweet, slightly sparkly white wine that is best with desserts. Fruit based desserts paired with Moscato have an emphasis on the flavors of the fruit instead of the sugars.

Dry Rosé goes very nicely with cheesy dishes. It is versatile as nearly all cheese pairs well with it.

Pinot Noir is a red wine that is translucent. This is a red that goes with most foods from salmon to duck. When ordering wine for a table of people at a restaurant, you can’t go wrong with Pinot Noir.

As for a deep red wine, Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon are great picks. Cabernet is a darker red with a more savory note. It is nice to drink on its own, without food, so it makes a nice gift wine. Merlot is a fruitier wine, slightly lighter, and less expensive. Merlot pairs well with white meats and some nicely spiced red meats. It does not go well with fish or leafy greens.

This is a very simplified guide and there are tons of resources and books available with recipes designed to go with different wines. Check them out to find out more, but for now…how about a glass of Cabernet?