Wine with Food : A Guide to Pairing and Enjoying Classic Combinations
Introduction
Any foodie will tell you: great food is just about as close as you can get to an out of body experience here on Earth. And, similarly, any wine lover will admit that a truly great bottle of wine is pretty near perfection. But, caught up in their reverie, both the foodie and wine lover miss a critical fact: that together, food and wine are capable of taking you to still greater heights to a state of gastronomic bliss unachievable when just one is consumed without the other. This nether world of dining nirvana is the product of stellar food and wine pairing, and by reading on, you too will be able to unlock its mysteries and savor its rewards.
The Basics
Let s get started! Pairing food and wine is a creative exercise with few rules and lots of room for experimentation. However, since learning anything requires ramping up before mastering a full-on understanding of the subject, I ve outlined a few guidelines to help you form a context in which to think about food and wine:
- Food and wine can be matched by weight, intensity of flavor, texture, sweetness (or lack thereof), or acidity. More on this later.
- Keep in mind the cooking method when pairing food and wine. Smoked foods usually have more intense flavors than do those that have been steamed, for instance, and as such require a more intensely flavored wine. Again, more on this later.
- Consider regional pairings. It s no accident that many classic pairings occur between food and wine originating from the same area, like Burgundian Pinot Noir with the French specialty Coq au Vin, made from the region s superb chickens.
- Think outside the box. Many of the best pairings involve esoteric wines with which you may be unfamiliar but that will reward those adventurous enough to try them.
- Listen to your palate above all else. The best wine and food pairings for you may not be found anywhere in this primer.
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