Wine Food Pairing

The following does not presume to train the readers to learn all the aspects necessary to make good food-wine pairings. In food wine pairing there aren't absolute rules. In fact subjectivity plays a large role in it. De gustibus non est disputandum. A pairing is not an easy thing to do given the variety and complexity of both wines and foods. There are, however, basic criteria to help us guide in this vast world of wines and foods. Ultimately only personal experience can say whether or not a particular pairing go well together.

1 Regional or Traditional Pairing Mostly inspired by regional cuisine, food and wines are paired with each other according to local customs handed down from generation to generation. What grows together goes together. This kind of pairing grew out of necessity, since given scarce resources, it was necessary to use easily available local products. Wine and food according to this criteria are paired based on the place they come from. For travelers this is great because it allows learn feeling of "entering" more in the spirit of the place and "discovering" the gastronomic and cultural roots of the region they are visiting.

Examples:

Tagliatelle bolognese with Lambrusco

Trenette with pesto - White wine from Liguria

2 Seasonal Pairing

In Spring and Summer we generally prefer lighter foods while in the winter we prefer more complex plates. Summer wines are lighter, fresh and young. Winter wines are reds, complex whites. Summer wines easily drinkable. Winter ones are more structure and aged.

Eating seasonal foods is not only a pleasure because it marks the passing seasons but also because it gives us the right thing at the right time, cooling in summer and warming in winter. Seasonal pairings are based on common sense. That is, food particularly suited to the cold seasons are less recommended in summer and vice versa.

Warm season food is characterized by low fat dishes served with light sauces, vegetables, salads, pastas or shell fish, white meats, cheeses. Generally these dishes are simple, prepared with ingredients that have a delicate and short lasting flavors. The choice is towards flavorful, fresh even sparkling white wines, or rosé with similar characteristics. These wines have a low alcoholic content and are served cold. The same goes for young red wines served with food that has more complex organoleptic (the taste, colour, odour and feel) characteristics.

During the cold season there is a tendency to eat foods that are rich in fats, warm, with more calories. They are paired with mature or aged red wines or complex whine ones with a higher alcohol content. Red wines are served at room temperature.

3 Pairing by Similarities

Choose a wine based characteristics that remind you of the food. A very aromatic wine, fruity and floral, will exalt its peculiarities if paired with food of similar characteristics. Match the flavors.

Examples:

Pinot Noir with mushroom soup

4 Psychological or poetic pairings
The choice here is based on a particular occasion or an important moment in one's life. Weddings, important business dinner, trying to impress new acquaintances, etc. A great wine, an old stored up bottle or Champagne even if it doesn't pair well with the food may be devoted to these special occasions. Ex. Champagne paired with caviar for a particularly romantic evening.

5 Pairing for enhancement
The objective here is on putting special emphasis on the characteristics of a dish, a wine or both. In the first case the wine should not have a strong personality nor be too aromatic. The idea is to bring out the aromatic aspects of the food. In the second case, by contrast, the food should have fairly neutral characteristics, allowing the characteristics of the wine to shine. If you want to put the emphasis on both the food and wine make a choice so that, given certain characteristics of the proposed dish, chose the wine that enhances those characteristics without detracting from its own. In this case you reach a perfect harmony between the food and wine served, since neither the organoleptic (the sensory property of the products) characteristics of the wine nor those of the food will prevail, in terms of smell and taste.

6 Pairing by Contrast

Here we try to pair wine and food that have different characteristics between them. This is more difficult than the previous ones because of the wast choice of wines. The idea is to bring their differences to an equilibrium. This may also be more fun because it brings into play your willingness to experiment. The first principle is based on the fact that the characteristics of the wine chosen for a pairing has to be in contrast with that of the food. If, for example, the dish has a tendency toward acidity, the wine to be paired should not be too high in acidity (and therefore have strong qualities of freshness), as this would increase and reinforce the acid sensation of the food, which would make the meal at this point too aggressive. The wine choice should have a softness that counters acidity in the food, which would make the pairing harmonic. To make a good match it is necessary to learn to "read" our senses.
The senses of smell and taste (the chemical senses) provide direct information on the composition of foods and wines and help to assess the pleasantness of the pairing. It's important to understand the characteristics present in the food, to decide what should be the features to be found in wine to be paired with.

If there is a greasy taste due to oil in the food the wine must have the characteristics necessary to counteract this greasy feeling and should therefore be tannic. The tannins are components of wine can cause a certain "roughness" in the mouth, particularly on the tongue, through their action of "blocking" of salivation, which contrast appropriately to the feeling of greasiness. But if we contrast a delicate seafood salad, enhanced with a good extra virgin olive oil? In this case a red wine (tannic) in combination is not quite the suitable choice, but in this case we will have to opt for a white wine with a higher alcohol content, also a good to counter the greasiness of the food.

Ex. Marsala (a liquorish wine) with Gongorzola, this is a great pairing by way of contrast.

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