Pairing Wine with Food Isn't Hard!

Most neophyte wine consumers believe that pairing wine with food is difficult, requires intensive training, and needs to be handled by experts. Let me assure you that this simply isn’t the case. Pairing wine with food is adventuresome, fun, often exciting and can be successfully done by anyone with functioning taste buds, sense of smell and everyday common sense.

We professionals in the trade talk a lot about “organoleptics”. That’s the art of analyzing the tastes of things through the use of all the sensory organs (sight, smell, feel and taste). As professionals, it helps us to understand and learn about each wine we study. It applies, as well, to food and is an area of study and skill development for any serious chef. Applied to both wine and food together, it provides a basis for understanding the technical aspects of pairing food and wine.
For those of us who constantly want to learn and explore more in our beloved fields, it’s an important area.

Organoleptics isn’t required, however, to successfully pair wine with food. Those that believe that are the same ones who propagate the myth that for every food item, there is a “perfect” or “ideal” wine pairing. There should be many great wine pairings for each food item. Remember that wine IS food and has been the natural accompaniment to meals for over 4,000 years. It developed out of the need to have a safe beverage that would complement the food and make it safer and easier to consume.

The first hard and fast rule to remember is: Never pair food with a wine that you wouldn’t enjoy by itself. While it might be a terrific pairing for someone else, if you don’t enjoy the wine, you won’t enjoy the pairing. Always pair food with a wine you enjoy!

To complement food, wine doesn’t have to match perfectly in flavors. In fact sometimes, a contrast works very well. What the wine and food must do to one another is to enhance and highlight the key positive flavor characteristics of each other. They should not enhance or highlight any negative flavor characteristics nor should the key characteristics of one overpower and totally overshadow the other. How do you know when that has happened? Your taste buds will tell you! Trust them to be your guide just as you’ve trusted them to choose your favorite foods and beverages all your life.

The second rule to remember is: to know if a new experience is suitable for you, you have to try something new. Since it’s your taste buds involved, it really is mostly a trial and error process and pairing suggestions should be considered as guideposts or starting points to discovering the wine pairings that work for you.

Asking for advice and help is fine, but always make sure the wine professional you seek advice from does the following:
1) Gets a sense of the kind of wines you normally like to drink.
(This helps insure his recommendations are more based on your taste preferences than his.)
2) Asks how the item to be paired is being prepared.
(Additional flavors from preparation, spices and sauces may impact the choice of wine.)
3) Offers multiple pairing options for you to choose from.
(I personally love restaurants that will list more than one suggestion for each item when they do suggested wine pairings on the menu and generally mistrust them if they only list one.)
4) Advises what you should avoid in selecting a wine to pair and gives the reasons why.
(You’ll probably learn more about good wine pairing and develop more of your own pairing common sense from this advice than anything else.)


The final rule to remember is: YOU are the best judge. The purpose of pairing wine with food is to enhance the enjoyment of both. If it doesn’t work for you, then it simply doesn’t work! Seek another pairing that will.

O.K. it’s time to go forth and try some pairings. Make it fun by inviting friends over to sample 3-4 different wines. Try pairing each one with several different food appetizers and rating each combination on a 1 to 5 point scale. With each wine, try the same appetizers. Have your guests see which appetizer scored highest (and/or lowest) with each wine and discuss why. It’s fun and you’ll learn a lot.

If you would like to have some examples to use as guideposts, here’s some wine pairings that The Wine Guy has enjoyed:

Pasta with meat or mushrooms and red sauce:
Almost any good Italian red is worth trying but my favorite is a good Montepulciano d’ Abruzzo. The earthiness of this wine serves it well in pairing with red sauce pastas.

Shrimp stir-fry:
Good crisp, dry white wines with subtle fruit flavors work well. My most frequent choice is a Chenin Blanc, preferably from South Africa.

Mexican Bean Dip:
The Wine Guy makes his own with refried beans, cheese, green onions, cilantro and salsa. I’ve tried a lot of combinations that were so-so but had my socks knocked off when I paired the dip and good quality tortilla chips with a Spanish Cava.

Baked Halibut:
This light and delicate fish can be easily overpowered but still needs a wine that will bring some flavor accent. On someone else’s suggestion, I tried my halibut with a Spanish Albarino and it’s been my first wine of choice for this dish ever since.

Grilled Hamburgers:
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot come to most people’s mind (unless you’ve got a good Trappist Tripel Ale in hand). While they work, given the choice, I’ll pour a good Carmenere from Chile.

French Onion Soup:
We tend to think of entrees for wine pairings but certain soups are regular meals for Mrs. Wine Guy and myself. With this one, we enjoy having a good French Viognier especially if it’s been lightly aged in oak.

Sweet & Sour Chicken (or Pork):
With sweet teriyaki, sour pineapples, meat green peppers, etc, there’s a lot going on for a wine to stumble over. Some of the traditional Asian food whites (Riesling, gewürztraminer, et al) have a tendency for me to over accent the sweet side. My trial and error led me to try a rose’ of pinot noir and it was a delightful pairing with both the wine and the dish becoming more enjoyable than they would have been on their own!

The above example is what you’re hoping to find as you explore pairing wine with food. Lots of wines will go with almost any dish you choose but when you discover a pairing where both the dish and the wine taste significantly better together than they would on their own, you’ve hit the bulls eye!

Happy exploring and good luck with your pairings!

Pairing Wine with Food

The Wine Guy has to admit that I approach this blog with a certain amount of anxiety. Pairing wine with food has been one of the most written about, most discussed subjects in the world of wine and probably the most abused. It is also the source of the greatest number of questions we in the wine trade ever get asked about wine. There is a perception among most wine consumers that you have to be an expert in wine to approach this subject and attempt to answer “What wine do I serve with….?” The more I learn about wine, the more I’m convinced of these three things:

1) Wine reaches its best levels of enjoyment when paired with food.
2) Proper pairing of wine and food mainly requires good common sense and a confidence in your own ability to decide what tastes best to you.
3) All the advice you get from wine professionals (including myself) should be treated as guidelines and then tempered by your own taste preferences and experiences.

Sounds terribly simple, doesn’t it? Well it is and, then again, as with all things in the world of wine, it is also varied and complex. Let’s begin with a look at why.

Wine has been a beverage associated with food for thousands of years. At first its alcohol content simply made it one of the safest beverages to drink. It also probably countered the effects of some of the microorganisms that developed on food as it waited to be prepared and consumed. In short, it was highly practical. As both winemaking and food preparation evolved, it became apparent that there were endless tastes and flavors available in both beverage and food. There were also endless combinations possible. Obviously some combinations worked better than others and some didn’t work well at all. We also began to discover that just as the wine modified the taste of food, the food modified the taste of the wine. Thus began the long arduous examination of what wine goes well with what food. (So far, the common sense part seems obvious, doesn’t it?) The big variable that enters this equation is you and I are the consumers of both products. Just as each of us who eats a particular food dish has a different taste experience, so does each of us who sips a particular wine. It would follow that our reaction to the combination of those flavors varies as well. What works well for me may not for you and vice-versa.

So where do we begin? Let’s start with some general (and sensible) guidelines that will assist and help you in exploring and discovering your own preferences and favorite combinations. I use the word sensible because there are many guidelines floating out there that perpetuate the myth of “only certain wines go with certain food”. Chief among these is the old “white wine with white meats, red wine with reds meats”. What Bunk! While I don’t count myself, there are many wine consumers who prefer to consume just whites or just reds. While some of us think you’re unnecessarily restricting yourself, there’s nothing wrong with that. Certainly you can (and should be able to) find many different wines that will pair well with any just about any food you choose to enjoy. I’ve found reds that pair well with poultry and whites that were highly enjoyable with a steak. The perpetuated myth of “the perfect wine” with each food dish is just that: a myth.

Here are some guidelines that may serve you well:

Guideline #1: Always choose a wine you would enjoy anyway:
Good chefs will tell you to never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink. The same credo applies to accompanying your food with a glass of wine. Just because some expert listed a particular wine as his best pairing with a certain food doesn’t mean there aren’t others. If it’s not your kind of wine, move on and look for another pairing.

Guideline #2: Wine can either complement or contrast the flavors of food you pair with:
Both situations can be enjoyable. You must decide which job you want the wine to perform. You may choose either effect at different times. (Variety is, indeed, the spice of life!) Just as you may sometimes choose to accent a dish with spices that add a new flavor to the dish you’re eating or sometimes you may add a spice that brings out the basic underlying flavor of the food, you can do the same with the wine you choose.

Guideline # 3: Watch your alcohol content, particularly with spicier foods:
High alcohol content in wine will sharply accent hot spices in food and vice-versa. Utilize lower alcohol wines with spicier food. If you’re looking for a contrasting wine, choose one with a little more sweetness or fruity characteristics to balance the hot spices.

Guideline #4: Watch your level of tannins with milder dishes:
Bold and flavorful tannins can rapidly overpower very mild dishes. Keep in mind that tannins also come from the wood that wine is aged in as well as the parts of the grapes, so this proviso is not just restricted to reds. It is possible for a heavily oaked chardonnay to make a succulent, baked turkey taste as flavorless as cardboard.

Guideline #5: With a complex meal, you may want to choose a palate cleansing wine:
When there are a lot of different dishes on the table, you may want to choose a wine that will refreshingly rinse the mouth and reset the taste buds for the next course or bite of food. Sparkling wines, for example, fit this purpose very well and also add a sense of festivity.

Note: For the same reason, The Wine Guy usually serves lightly chilled water with his wine when he has guests for dinner. Knowing everyone’s taste buds react differently, I want my guests to have the opportunity to be address the different taste combinations they may experience with the wine and the food that is offered.

Guideline #6: For dessert, make it sweet or make it a finale:
Wines served with dessert should generally be sweeter than the dessert itself; otherwise the sharper characteristics of the wine (acidity, tannins, etc) will be accented and come to the foreground and alter the basic taste of the wine. Optionally, go for a palate cleanser with complimentary flavors.

Guideline #7: It’s O.K. to pair more than one kind of wine with your food:
Set an extra glass or two at your table and open more than one kind of wine. It’s not only fun, it helps address the many different palates around your table when you have guests. And, as you develop your own sense of pairing combinations, it can also add to your variety of enjoyable experiences with the meal. It always amazes me that people will pay exorbitant prices for special wine pairing dinners at restaurants offering multiple wines but remain reluctant to that on their own. You can affordably have a similar, if not better (because it’s based on YOUR taste preferences) at your own table once you learn the basics and follow your taste buds.

Guideline # 8: When seeking advice, let your advisor know what you prefer in wine:
Whether it’s a waiter or sommelier in a restaurant or your steward at the local wine shop, let the person you ask know what kind of wines you prefer. If necessary, also relate how your food is being prepared. Without this information, his recommendation will be based solely on his own experiences and taste preferences. If he is professional, he’ll modify his first instinct based on the information you give him. As a result, you’re more likely to get a wine pairing that you will truly enjoy.

Guideline #9: When in doubt, go to the source for food pairing ideas:
When looking for a pairing for a particular dish or cuisine go that region of the world where that food is famous and look at the most popular wines of the same area. These wines probably developed there (this is most particularly true in the Old World) because for most of the people there, they pair well with the food. As examples: Riojas or Grenachas are good with the traditional tapas of Spain. The pastas and game dishes of central Italy pair well with the Sangiovese and Montepulciano wines found there. Lamb dishes are popular in both Greece and Australia. Naoussa is the best selling red in Greece and Shiraz is the best selling red in Australia and it’s no coincidence that both pair wonderfully with lamb.

O.K. these are some rough guidelines. To see how they apply, let me share with you some of The Wine Guy’s preferred food pairings. Remember these work for me, but may not for you. I offer them as an overview. You may discover different wines under the same guidelines that work as well, if not better, for you.

The Wine Guy’s Go-To pairings:

Pasta with red/meat sauces:
Try Italian Chianti, Montepulciano and Sangiovese blends or Nero d’Avola

Pasta with creamy/vegetable sauces:
Italian Pinot Grigio is a natural choice but I also enjoy a good New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with these and for a red, try a South American Carmenere

Baked or roasted Poultry-white wine Choices:
French Chardonnays (Pouilly-Fuisse or Macon Villages), Argentine Torrontes

Baked or roasted Poultry-red wine choices:
Spanish Monastrel, French Burgundy or Chilean Pinot Noir

Plainer Shellfish Dishes:
South African Chenin Blanc (especially good with shrimp stir-fry), Greek Assyrtico, French Vouvrey

Saucy or buttered shellfish dishes:
Creamy, buttery California Chardonnay, or Gewürztraminer

Salmon dishes:
Nothing for me quite beats a good Oregon or California Pinot Noir especially if the salmon is grilled.

Whitefish dishes:
Spanish Albarino (my favorite with baked Halibut), French Cotes du Rhone Blanc or any good Viognier

Mexican Food:
Nebbiolo based wines, South American or California Merlots, Spanish Mencia (Bierzo)

Pork dishes:
French Cotes Du Rhone, French or South African Dry Rose or any good Pinot Noir (especially if the dish has a mushroom sauce glaze).

Chocolate Red Layer Cake:
Italian Brachetto, this raspberry flavored sparkler goes great with the chocolate and refreshes at the same time.

Cheeseburger & Fries:
Extra Dry Spanish Cava (Seriously, I am not kidding. I was amazed about 15 years ago when I discovered the Miami Subs chain in south Florida offered a high-end champagne. I was more amazed when I saw how many people ordered it. Finally, I was stunned when I tried sparkling wine with fast food for the first time!) I deliberately put this example in to illustrate that you can really go where your taste buds dictate and will allow you to go when it comes to food pairing.

Finally, two of my pairings that are not wine, but the same principle and guidelines apply:

Spicy Thai dishes & Asian food:
A wonderful pairing with these dishes is Sake’. For the spicier dishes, I trend toward the sweeter and softer on the palate Nigori (or unfiltered) sake.

Roasted Turkey Sandwich with Blue Cheese sauce:
Regular readers will know that this is called a “Dirty Bird” and is featured at my favorite pub & deli in Atlanta. It pairs wonderfully with a Trippel Ale. However, I usually order it with a Canadian La Fin du Monde, an equally marvelous pairing of beer and food.


It’s been a longer blog than usual, so allow me to recap:


A. Each of us brings different taste preferences in both food and wine to the table.

B. Because of that, “the perfect wine” pairing for any food item is different for each of us.

C. Treat advice from experts as a guide to get you started on food pairing and temper that with your own experiences.

D. Always pair with food a wine you would probably enjoy anyway.

E. Taste, taste, taste. Use common sense to guide you in experimenting with new combinations. Then let your taste buds direct you from there.


Finally, wine is wonderful with food. Have a wonderful experience soon!

Thanksgiving Wines

It’s nice to be back!

The ever delightful and fetching Mrs. Wine Guy and I had a great time in Mexico. We enjoyed some great wines, visited two new wineries and I will be sharing some wine stories and experiences from that trip in upcoming blogs.

However, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I would be remiss if I didn’t offer some thoughts and suggestions on pairing wine with your Thanksgiving dinner.

Traditionally turkey dinners at Thanksgiving generally call for white wine and without a doubt Chardonnay is the most popular pairing with turkey, It’s always a good choice, offering body and richness without overpowering the mild and subtle flavors of a good, moist capon. Buttery, creamy chardonnays seem to compliment turkey and also tend to pair well with the assortment and variety of side dishes that accompany a Thanksgiving feast. However, in choosing a chardonnay, be careful of overpowering your bird with too much oak.

Among my recommendations would be:
Rombauer Reserve Chardonnay, a California favorite that is full of fruit with light creamy smoothness. Santa Ema Reserve Chardonnay: this Chilean beauty is more affordable than Rombauer and offers alight touch of oak, light creaminess as well as a nice finish.
For those who prefer to avoid oak entirely, look for Razor’s Edge Un-oaked Chardonnay, a well-balanced Australia beauty that is one of my favorite unoaked chardonnays.

There are a variety of other whites that can also pair well. Chenin Blanc is often overlooked and a good choice here is Sebeka from South African. South African Chenin Blancs (they call the grape “Steen”) are uniquely crisp and fresh. For a dry white alternative that offers less tartness than Chenin Blanc, try Guigal Cotes du Rhone Blanc. This is a highly rated blend of Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne (see the Wine Guy’s previous blog on Viognier). If you have a slight sweet tooth, try a good Gerwurztraminer or better yet, go for a great jewel from California’s Mendocino County: Navarro Edelzwicker, a phenomenal Gewurtztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Gris blend.

For a memorable meal, seriously consider a good sparkling wine. It’s festive and fully appropriate for the occasion, not to mention it’s absolutely a wonderful pairing with moist turkey breast and stuffing! I would suggest leaning to an Extra Dry or a Blanc de Noirs as opposed to a Brut and if you can find a good sparkling Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley of France, you’ll be amazed at how well it pairs with turkey. A good value priced wine from an established French Wine-making family that has a winery in Albuquerque, New Mexico is Gruet and they make a great Blanc de Noirs.

Don’t overlook the reds. While you do have to be careful not to overpower the delicate white meat of a roasted turkey with bold flavors and tannins, it is possible to enjoy a good red wine at your Thanksgiving table.

The most popular red at Thanksgiving is Pinot Noir. Be careful to avoid some of the bolder, fuller Pinot Noirs with heavier fruit and spice notes. What you want is smoothness and a slight touch of delicacy on the finish. Domestically, Willamette Valley Vineyards and Cloudline from Oregon are two choices I’d recommend. My personal preference in Pinot Noir would be toward a dry, old-world style Pinot Noir. Two choices would be the organically grown Cono Sur Pinot Noir from Chile and from France, Faiveley Bourgogne. Both offer excellent turkey pairing possibilities.

If you’re not a Pinot Noir fan, go Monastrel, Mataro or Mourvedre (same grape…different name in different countries). It is a full-bodied grape with a smoothness that can still work with turkey. Two great choices would be Spain’s highly rated Bodegas Juan Gil Monastrel or California’s Cline Ancient Vine Mourvedre. A great sparkling red choice would be a Tuscan Brachetto. They offer a touch of raspberry fruitiness, light sweetness and a delicate sparkling finish. Try Banfi’s Rosa Regale either with your dinner or as a prelude to dessert.

Remember, it’s a feast! Don’t be afraid to try more than one wine with the meal and don’t forget dessert. Try finishing your meal with a Juracon from France or a nice Port from either Portugal or Australia.

Hopefully, these tips were helpful. Enjoy your feast and may you and yours be blessed with an abundance of things to be thankful for on this special occasion.