The Secrets of Wine Food Pairings

Recently, I bought a ‘Wine O Clock’ personalised glass as a birthday present for a friend because she is such a wine fan.  She is one of those people who doesn’t just buy what’s on offer at the supermarket but plans her purchases around the meals she is making.  She can list what wine goes well with what meals but I always wondered what the basis for this was.  What are the secrets of the wine food pairings?

Flavour profiles

According to WineFolly, a good source of information for those in the know and those without a clue, there are six basic flavour profiles that can be used to pair up food and wine.  This is one of the main ways that a chef or a sommelier works out which wines should be offered with which meals.

The six profiles are:

• Acidity – this works well with fatty or sweet food
• Fatty – these foods need with an acidic or a high alcohol wine otherwise the wine won’t taste great
• Bitter – also called tannic wines can be balanced out with food that is sweet
• Salty – keep it away from acidity in wine and use it sparingly to make the meal have a little sharpness
• Sweet – both foods and wine work well with a little acidity
• Alcohol – high levels work well with fatty foods or to balance out a dish that is sweet

Pairing techniques

One of the easiest pairing techniques is to look at where the food and the wine are from and pair them by this.  So you can add a bottle of Italian wine to an Italian meal or a wine from Oregon to a cheese from the same area of the US.

Acidity is a profile that doubles up, unlike most of them.  This is because if a wine has less acidity than the food, the wine will taste really flat.  So think along the lines of taking an oaked chardonnay from a warm climate with a vinaigrette salad.

Combining profiles is another successful idea with sweet and salty being one of the most popular.  If you are a fan of salty food such as salted caramels or maple bacon, then a sweet wine makes for an ideal pairing.  Riesling, for example, works really well with some of the Asian dishes such as Pad Thai or fried rice.

Bitter food and wine don’t pair well but by taking a fatty food with a bitter wine, a perfect balance can be achieved.  This is the classic example of red meat and red wine but there are plenty more examples.  A red Italian wine such as Sangiovese works well with a Tuscan dish with tomatoes and rocket and a potato croquette as the fat in the croquette works well with the tannins in the wine.

Fatty foods also work well with acidic wines so champagne cuts through the fattiness of a dish – this is why white wine butter sauce is a popular sauce for many dishes.  The white wine works well in the butter and adds life to the dish.  If you have a fatty dessert such as cheesecake, add a glass of champagne.

Can Wine Be Good for You?

Many of us enjoy a glass of wine or two with a meal or on an evening while relaxing.  While we all know that too much of anything is bad for you, how accurate is the idea that a sensible amount of wine can actually be good for you?

Real facts

One of the most commonly mentioned ideas is that a glass of wine, particularly red, is good for the heart.  There is evidence to show that one or two units a day can help to protect the heart against heart disease but this is only for men over the age of 40 and for post-menopausal women.  In younger people, this doesn’t have much of an effect because younger people aren’t at risk of heart disease as much.

However, there are other benefits that will work for younger people and older ones.  Firstly is the presence of those helpful antioxidants such as quercetin and resveratrol.  Antioxidants have been shown to work against the causes of both heart disease and cancer as well as a number of other conditions.

Good Red

If you are a fan of red wine, then the darker the better.  Scientists have discovered that the darker a red wine is, the most antioxidants is contains as well as another useful chemical called polyphenol.  Polyphenols are classed as phytochemicals, meaning they come from plants and are known for their health benefits including helping with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and even some forms of cancer.

One study by Professor Andrew Waterhouse of the University of California showed that merlot, zinfandel, Syrah and petit Syrah grapes all had medium to high levels of antioxidant in them. It also showed that wines from milder regions such as Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Napa Valley of California may have higher antioxidant levels that those from hot areas such as southern Italy and Languedoc in France.

Even white wines were shown to have some of these benefits, with a special chardonnay called Paradoxe Blanc having four times as many polyphenols in it than a red wine does.

Drinking the right amount

The key to gaining these health benefits from wine is to drink the right amount.  Drinking too much wine can work the other way with an increased vulnerability to heart disorders, high blood pressure and strokes.  There is also a connection between younger women drinking heavily and developing osteoporosis in later life. 

There is also a connection between alcohol and cancer according to some research.  Around 3% of case of cancer of the mouth, larynx and throat come in people that drink more than five units of alcohol a day.  And we are all aware of the potential problems that come from binge drinking, not lease the simple increase in the risk of having an accident – falling down drunk may look funny but it can lead to a serious injury.

So when it comes to buying your friend that beautiful personalised wine glass for their birthday that sums them up perfectly, make sure you only pop the one bottle of wine in the bag for them so that they can enjoy the benefits without becoming in danger of the perils.