Whether you are having guests over or are just preparing for a family meal, it is always a treat to have wine with food. A correctly selected wine for food increases the tastes of a meal. Following are some tips to select wine for food.
1. Balance
A wine that balances the flavor of the food is always the best choice. If you are cooking spicy food, then you should match a spicy wine with it. A flavorful food should be paired with a flavorful wine. Suppose if you are serving a flavorful beef dish then a bottle of big Cabs would be great.
2. Acidity
While selecting wine for food, select something that has equal acidity as the food. For example if it is a pasta dish, a chianti would be the best match, as both are high in acidity.
3. Dessert Wines
The dessert wine should be the sweetest. Never match a very sweet wine with a more sweet food. Just for example do not serve sweet wine with an apple tart. The best thing you can do in this case is serving the wine after the desert instead of serving it with it. Any red wine would go with chocolate, it is the easiest combination.
On the whole make sure that the food never overcomes the taste of the wine. Wine has to be the strongest in taste. Whether you are serving spicy or sweet the wine has to have a more powerful taste or at least equal taste. A sweet wine served with a spicy meal will not be a good idea.
There is no hard and fast rule of what to serve with what but just a general guide line. You can virtually serve any wine with food unless it complements the taste of the food. If you are having guests over then it is better to first experiment the wine with the food you are serving.
There is no ideal pairing of wine for food, but just preferences and the best combination of wine for food would be the one that complements each other.
Comments?
Any thoughts or questions? What is your best meal/wine combination?
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