Wine and Food Deconstructed| Tough Matches| Weighing Food and Wine| Classic Pairings|

Using Weight for Paring:

 
Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein notes that food and wine pairing is like two people having a conversation: “One must listen while the other speaks or the result is a muddle”.

• Using the balance between the weight of the food (a heavy, red sauce pasta versus a more delicate salad) and the weight or “body” of the wine (a heavy Cabernet Sauvignon versus a more delicate Pinot Grigio)
• Body is determined primarily by the alcohol level of the wine and can be influenced by the perceptions of tannins
• The “weight” of a food can also be described in terms of the intensity of its flavors-such as delicate and more subtle flavors versus dishes that have more robust and hearty flavors
• A key to pairing upon this principle is to identify the dominant flavor of the dish (sauces can be the dominant flavor instead of the meat or main component)
• Pairing heavy wines with light dishes or vice-versa, can result in one partner overwhelming the other
• Either the food or the wine will be the dominant focus of the pairing, with the other serving as a complement to enhance the enjoyment of the first
• If the focus of the pairing is the wine then a more ideal balance will be a food that is slightly lighter in weight to where it will not compete for attention with the wine
• After considering weight, pairing the flavors and texture can be dealt with using one of two main strategies — complement or contrast
• The first strategy tries to bring wine together with dishes that complement each other such as an earthy, Burgundian Pinot noir with an earthy, mushroom dish.
• The second strategy operates under the truism that “opposites attract” and brings together food and wine that have contrasting traits (The racy acidity of sparkling wine and the rich texture of foie gras is an example of a contrasting pairing)
• For most of history, the “complementary strategy” was the prevailing thought on food and wine pairing

Weights of wine

• Below is a rough guideline of the various weights of wines
• Winemaker, regional style, and climate can cause a wine to be lighter or heavier in body
• Warmer climate wine regions tend to produce wines with higher alcohol levels and thus more fuller bodied wines 

Lighter whites:  Pinot gris, Pinot blanc, Riesling, Sauvignon blanc, Chablis, Champagne and sparkling wines, Gruner Veltliner, Vinho Verde

Medium to heavy whites: Oaked Sauvignon blanc, Alsatian wines, Albarino, White Bordeaux (Semillon), White Burgundy, Rhone whites (Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne), Tamaioasa Romaneasca and New World Chardonnay

Lighter reds:Beaujolais, Dolcetto, some Pinot noir

Medium reds:  Chianti, Barbera, Chinon, Rioja, Cabernet franc, Merlot, Malbec, Zinfandel, some Pinot noir

Heavier reds:  Syrah, Brunello di Montalcino, Cabernet Sauvignon, Port, Barbaresco and Barolo

Quick Review of Parings:

• When you’re serving more than one wine at a meal, it’s customary to:
  1. Serve lighter wines before full-bodied ones
  2. Dry wines should be served before sweet wines
  3. Lower alcohol wines should be served before higher alcohol wines

• Balance flavor intensity
  Pair light-bodied wines with lighter food and fuller-bodied wines with heartier, more flavorful, richer and fattier dishes

• Consider how the food is prepared
  Delicately flavored foods — poached or steamed — pair best with delicate wines
  More flavorfully prepared food — braised, grilled, roasted or sautéed with larger stronger flavored wines

• Match flavors
  An earthy Pinot Noir goes well with mushrooms and a Sauvignon Blanc goes with fish for the same reasons that lemon do 

• Balance sweetness
  Keep the wine sweeter than the food or the wine will taste sour

• Consider pairing opposites
  Very hot or spicy with sweet desert wines
  Opposing flavors can play off each other

• Match by geographic location
  Regional foods and wines have developed together and there is a reason for this