How To: Pair Wine With Food

We’re celebrating wine and cheese this week within the Workman family with the publication of two new books–The Guide to West Coast Cheese and Essential Wines and Wineries of the Pacific Northwest. Learn even more about the delicious marriage between dairy and grapes at the Timber Press blog and Story Publishing blog.

Selecting wine at a restaurant or for a dinner party can be an intimidating process, especially if you’re not familiar with the lingo. I’ve been asked if I like my wine to be bright? Tannic? Round? Complex?  Um, well, I’m not really sure. Thankfully, Pia Catton and Califia Suntree’s Be Thrifty includes a concise chart outlining which wines will pair well with different types of food.  Here are some guidelines to use as a shortcut:

• Match delicate to delicate, robust to robust. A delicate red burgundy will taste like water beside a dramatically spiced curry. Dishes with bold, piquant, spicy, and hot flavors are perfectly cut out for big-flavored wines.

• Saltiness in food is a great contrast to acidity in wine. Think about smoked salmon and champagne or parmesan cheese and Chianti.  Asian dishes that include soy sauce often pair well with high-acid wines like German Rieslings.

• Saltiness is also a stunning contrast to sweetness. This is the principle behind that great old European custom of serving Stilton cheese (something salty) with port (something sweet).

• With desserts, proceed with caution. Sweet desserts can make the wine they accompany taste dull and blank. The best dessert and wine marriages are usually based on pairing a not-too-sweet dessert, such as a fruit or nut tart, with a fairly sweet dessert wine.