Wine & Food Pairing Flashcards
Master the keys to matching wine with any food and then peruse through a smorgasbord of pairing suggestions, from salads, sushi, and stinky cheese to roast chicken, spicy curries, and pizza!
What two qualities in food can make a lovely wine suddenly taste astringent, bitter, and acidic on your palate?
read: makes a wine taste “harder”
Similar to drinking orange juice right after brushing your teeth. The mint in the toothpaste makes the OJ taste bitter.
sweetness and umami
Ever notice how that Napa Cab you enjoyed with your dinner mutates into a molotov cocktail with dessert? The sweetness of the dessert overpowers the fruit profile of the wine, making the tannins, alcohol, and acid components stand out. Yuck.
Umami does the same thing, overpowering the lovely rounded, savory notes of the wine, making it taste bitter and soulless (think: pairing shellfish with Nebbiolo).
What two qualities in food can make a wine taste more fruity and sweet and less astringent, bitter, and acidic?
read: makes a wine taste “softer”
saltiness and acidity
For example: pairing bacon with Syrah or tomato sauce with Chianti. The saltiness of the bacon softens the tannins of Syrah, while the acid from the tomatoes curtails the nerve of Sangiovese, making them great food-and-wine pairings.
Generally speaking, does food have a greater effect on how wine tastes or does wine have a greater effect on how food tastes?
food has a greater effect on how wine tastes
Typically, it’s not the dish that suffers from a bad wine pairing; it’s the wine that suffers from a bad food pairing!
Having said that, a great wine pairing can truly elevate the dining experience.
What does sweetness in food do to a dry wine?
it makes the wine taste less sweet/fruity and more bitter/acrid
Think of what happens to that gorgeous Super Tuscan—which paired so well with your steak dinner—when sipped with dessert. It suddenly becomes bitter and unpleasant!
Generally, what style of wines go well with sweet foods?
sweet wines
OR wines that are at least as sweet, if not sweeter than the food; otherwise, the wine can taste bitter.
Give some examples of foods with umami.
- Aged cheeses, like Parmesan and Gouda
- Cured meats
- Dried Shiitake mushrooms
- Soy sauce, oyster sauce
- Fish sauce, bonito flakes
- Seaweed
- Shellfish
- Sundried tomatoes
- Foods flavored with MSG
What the heck is umami?
Umami is a flavor category—like sweet, sour, salt, and bitter—that’s described as a satisfactory savoriness; the kind of savory you get from meat broths and cooked meats. This is because people taste umami through taste receptors that typically respond to molecular compounds (called glutamates and nucleotides) widely present in meats and fermented products.
Interestingly, ‘umami’ comes from the Japanese word umai, which roughly translates into “deliciousness”.
What does umami in food do to a dry wine?
it makes the wine taste less sweet/fruity and more bitter/acrid
the same effect as sweetness in food
For the same reason that a tannic, high-alcohol Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon pairs miserably with dessert, so too does it pair miserably with raw oysters or other umami-rich foods. The umami in the seafood just sucks the soul out of dry wines.
Name some foods that are higher in acidity.
- Citrus juice
- Vinaigrettes
- Balsamic vinegar
- Soy sauce
- Mayonnaise
- Sauerkraut
- Unsweetened yogurt
- Buttermilk
What effect do acidic foods have on a high acid wine?
It makes the wine taste less bitter/acidic and enhances fruitiness/sweetness
Think how well a crisp sauvignon blanc pairs with a salad tossed in lemon vinaigrette!
What happens on the palate if a high-acid dish is paired with a low-acid wine?
the wine will taste less fruity and potentially bitter/acrid
Think about pairing a “fatty”, low-acid Marsanne with a bright, citrusy bowl of ceviche. Kinda disappointing right? The wine completely disappears, becoming flat and gormless against the vibrant canvas of the ceviche.
What effect do salty foods have on dry wine?
it makes the wine taste more fruity and less bitter/tannic
Think how well smoked meats pair with dry red wines, like those from Côtes du Rhône, France!
Watch our YouTube video ‘How to pair wine with savory foods’
When eating spicy foods, do low or high alcohol wines exacerbate the burning sensation?
Spicy foods are those that contain capsaicin (from chili)
High alcohol wines, like heavy reds, exacerbate the heat in spicy foods
If you’ve ever sipped on a spirit (like tequila, whiskey, or gin) neat, you’ll be familiar with the burning sensation of alcohol, which burns because it’s irritating the soft tissues in your mouth. This is why high alcohol wines make spicy foods feel even hotter; because now you’ve got both the alcohol and the capsaicin in the food irritating your mouth!
But in addition to this effect, the spiciness of the food makes the tannins of a red wine seem even more bitter and astringent. (Think: spicy Szechuan with a tannic, full-bodied Chilean Carmenère.) This is why high alcohol, full-bodied red wines don’t typically pair well with spicy foods. But there are always exceptions! (Try: Aglianico with spicy southern Italian fare.)
Instead, aromatic white wines with residual sugar, like riesling and gewürztraminer, or fruity reds with lower tannins, like pinot noir or gamay, are a much better options.
What wines pair well with fatty, rich foods?
because they help to cleanse the palate
A more acidic wine will help cleanse the palate when eating fatty or oily foods.
What four components in wine can make a wine challenging to pair with food?
- Lots of oak
- High tannin
- High bitterness
- Low acid
Bombastic Napa Cabs, Amarone, Toro (Spain), white wines from very warm climates that have high alcohol and/or have seen a lot of oak, e.g. white blends from the South of France.
What three components in wine can make a wine easier to pair with food?
- No oak
- Wines with a touch of residual sugar
- Medium-plus acidity
Maybe make it little to no oak? Riesling Kabinett, Vouvray, Pinot Grigio, Beaujolais, Chinon
