If you haven’t realized already from reading this blog or following along on Instagram, I love wine (I went to work in a winery, that’s how much I love it!). There are so many things to enjoy: the beautiful settings to taste in, the subtle differences between the varieties, the culture and history surrounding it. One of my favorite things, though, is pairing wine with food. With the perfect pairing, the wine you choose can instantly elevate the enjoyment of the food you are eating, and vice versa. It tastes like a match made in heaven, like that scene from Ratatouille when Remy is pairing the cheese and grape. How do you know what wine to pair with what food though? It can be tricky, so read on for some tips!
Food and Wine Pairing Principles
There are some people out there who are on the snobbier side of things. They’ll say “you can only drink this wine with this dish, otherwise it will taste like trash.” While there are certainly some things to avoid, you can often drink many different wines with a food and still enjoy it.
The food you eat influences how you perceive the wine more than the other way around. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to key elements in the food and how it affects the wine. Here is a common suggestion – drink red wine with red meat and white wine with white meat. There are some gray areas though! What about fish? Other seafood? Pork? Other things to think about are the sauce or flavor profile used in the dish, how heavy or fatty it is, and how complex it is. Here are some food and wine matching basics that will help you decide.
- Salty food: This will make a wine taste sweeter and less acidic! So you can choose a dry wine with higher acidity, and you will taste more of the fruity flavors. Salty food can also reduce the perception of tannins.
- Sweet food: This will make a wine taste more bitter and more acidic. When you eat dessert, you want to make sure the wine you are drinking is sweeter than the food you are eating.
- Umami food: (Mushrooms, aged cheese, or soy sauce) These flavors will make the wine taste more bitter and acidic, so pair these with a wine that is not too acidic to begin with.
- Acidic food: This will make a wine taste less acidic, so you can choose a wine with higher acidity
- Spicy food: This is a case where the wine does affect the food. Alcohol in a wine will amplify the spice in your mouth, so don’t pair a high alcohol wine with spicy food (unless you love the burn!)
- Complex/heavy food: To avoid overpowering the wine, you may want to choose a wine with more body and complex flavors. Conversely, you may want a simple, light wine to cut through the complex flavors of the dish. How do you know which one to do? Experiment!
- Easy to pair wines: Some wines go with many things! An example of this is champagne. It can be served with any course and is lovely to drink on its own too, of course. The bubbles reduce your perception of the acidity, and the flavors are generally amenable to many different flavors in food.
- Regional pairings: These are classic pairings that often come from regions that have been making wine for a long time, where it is ingrained in the culture (Old World wines). The food and wine has developed over the years together to bring out the best in each other. Many of these come from Italy, Germany, and France, but even salmon and a Pinot Noir from Oregon is a classic (and delicious) regional pairing. If you have a wine from a specific region, research what kind of food they eat there! Read on for specific examples and classic food and wine matches.
Examples of Excellent Food and Wine Pairings
Some food and wine pairings are just meant to be. These classic pairings are always going to be a hit, and are definitely good to start with as you’re feeling out what you like and what you don’t. Some of these amazing matches are going to come from regional pairings, as I mentioned earlier. Here are some classic food and wine pairings you have to try:
- Salmon and pinot noir (especially from oregon)
- Unoaked Chardonnay and light seafood dishes
- Oaky Chardonnay and creamy sauces, pork, or turkey
- Cabernet Sauvignon with a fatty red meat: lamb or beef, especially Filet Mignon
- Muscat and goat cheese, or apple pie
- Merlot and grilled red meat
Regional Pairings
- Alsace Riesling with smoked or roast pork
- Sancerre with local goat’s cheese
- Rhone Syrah with wild boar
- Willamette Valley Pinot Noir with salmon
- Gamay (Beaujolais) and dried sausage, or a simple roast chicken
- Sangiovese with osso bucco or bistecca fiorentina
- Nebbiolo with bollito misto (meat stew)
Cuisines from around the world
Sometimes food from other cuisines will have different flavor profiles or spice levels that seemingly make it harder to pair with. Never fear! You can still choose a good wine to drink with these foods.
Each of these cuisines has a wide range of dishes within them, so I’m just going to suggest a few wines to try that will work with some common themes.
Indian food – spicier food calls for lower alcohol, slightly sweet wines
- Riesling
- Rosé
- Gamay for red/tomato based sauces
Thai food – lower alcohol, slightly sweet wines go well with higher spice levels
- Riesling
- White Zinfandel
Mexican food
- Herbaceous, fruity whites go well with dishes with green sauce
- Albarino, Sauvignon Blanc (especially from New Zealand)
- Rioja, or Tempranillo would go well with red meat or sauce dishes
- Cava (sparkling wine) goes well with spicier dishes
Chinese food – lower alcohol, slightly sweet wines go well with higher spice levels
- Riesling, especially with spicier cuisines like Szechuan
- Gewurztraminer
- White zinfandel
Greek food
- Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot would pair well with beef or lamb dish or red sauce
- Pinot Gris for a light white with a greek salad or other vegetable dish
Food and Wine Pairing Books to Read
Disclaimer: This section of the post contains affiliate links, which means if you buy something through these links I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!
In addition to loving food, I love cooking! I have wayyy too many cookbooks that I can never give up; I just love the pictures and inspiration so much! Recently I have been on the hunt for a cookbook that provides a wine pairing suggestion with each recipe. Here are some that I have come across:
The Sommelier’s Cookbook – Recipes and Wine Pairings for Discerning Palates – Joanie Métivier
This cookbook has a lot of information about wine in general! It also has recipes like Cheesy Cherry-Tomato Bread Pudding. For each recipe, it provides a suggestion of a style of wine to pair. In the description, there is usually a more specific suggestion as well.
The Food & Wine Guide to Perfect Pairings: 150+ Delicious Recipes Matched with the World’s Most Popular Wines
From the well known magazine, this cookbook is organized by variety of wine. Each section has recipes that will pair well with that wine. There are recipes like Chicken Legs Coq Au Vin in the Pinot Noir and Other Aromatic Reds section, and Shrimp Cakes in the Chardonnay and Other Rich, Full-Bodied Whites section. For some recipes there are more specific pairing suggestions in the descriptions, but not all.
Wine Food: New Adventures in Drinking and Cooking – Dana Frank and Andrea Slonecker
I know someone who has this book, and apparently the recipes are “projects.” With dishes like Pomegranate-Roasted Carrots with Lentils, Labneh, and Carrot-Top Zhoug, I believe it. The wine pairing suggestion for this recipe is a southern Rhone red. The recipe also includes suggestions for producers, like Domaine de l’Amandier. I like how specific this book gets.
Big Macs & Burgundy: Wine Pairings for the Real World – Vanessa Price and Adam Laukhuf
This book is fun. It has pairing suggestions like Bagel Bites and Paarl Pinotage and PB&J and Lambrusco Amabile. There are even suggested pairings for Cheetos and Twinkies! This book is a little different from the others here as it’s not a cookbook. However, it seems like a fun read and has the benefit of not requiring any cooking to find your perfect pairing!
Wine Bites: Simple Morsels That Pair Perfectly with Wine – Barbara Scott-Goodman and Kate Mathis
The recipes in this cookbook are all for small, simple appetizers and snacks. These recipes are easy and straightforward and each include a pairing suggestion for an accessible wine. Seems like a good book if you like hosting or appetizers!
What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea – Even Water – Based on Expert Advice from America’s Best Sommeliers – Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page
This book has apparently won a bunch of cookbook and wine book awards. It has content from a bunch of different chefs and sommeliers. This book provides guidelines for choosing your wine based on food type, time of day, characteristics, season and your mood. There are also suggested pairings for fast food like Kentucky Fried Chicken! The book also includes pairings for other beverages, like beer, tea, and coffee. It also does reverse pairings – what to eat if you already know what you’re drinking.
Ok, well now I want every single of these cookbooks… hopefully one of them called out to you! And if you already have a wine cookbook that you like, drop it in the comments and I’ll check it out!
The best way to find the food and wine pairings that work for you? Try them! Eat a lot of food and drink a lot of wine! Such a hard task, right ;). Food and wine are both very subjective though, since everyone’s taste is different
What food and wine pairings do you love? Any that you’re dying to try? Comment below!