Wine Angel’s forethought on wine and food matching

This is where experiencing and learning about new wines can be fun! There are general rules that should (can) be applied, but these are purely guidelines to help you maximise your wine drinking and food experience. With certain wines, food tastes completely different and vice-versa.

A good tip to remember if you get stuck choosing, is that wines were originally made locally to reflect their particular region’s/country’s cuisine. So, choose a wine to complement the dish’s origin e.g. full bodied, highly tannic Spanish Rioja with their inland, rustic cuisine of stews, wild boar and red meat. The chewy meat is matched with the richness of the wine which tenderises the meat. Another example is high acid red wines e.g. Chianti, which matches perfectly with high acid, tomato-based Italian foods, such as Bolognese. Also cooking methods can influence the best style of wine to choose e.g. with steamed food, you should try and drink a lighter wine, otherwise the delicacy of the food will be destroyed.

On the reverse, food can exagerrate or diminish flavours in the wine. Sometimes you need a wine to complement the flavours (same) and other times you need a contrasting wine to match(opposite). When you think of how you match up ingredients as components to create a delicious meal, you should include wine as being an additional ingredient and this will help to choose the best one. People spend so much time planning food, then why does wine always come as an afterthought? Give it some thought and in just a few minutes you will make a massive difference to your enjoyment.

I always insist that when it comes to food and wine matching, it is all about personal choice at the end of the day. The old rules of white with fish and red with meat, are such sweeping statements and really do involve so much more. After reading these guidelines and explanations as to what happens to each wine with different types of food, I hope you will be able to make a more informed decision based on this knowledge and your personal preference. That is what Wine Angel is all about.

But, bottom line is, if you want to drink a highly tannic, full-bodied, red wine with your lemon sole, then be my guest! And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Now check out some general rules for food and wine matching…