THE SIX COMMON
FOOD AND WINE PAIRING
MISTAKES TO AVOID
M
any people spend a lot of
time analyzing, writing and talking
about the best food and wine
pairings. And there are professionals
who make it their life work to study
these flavor explosions.
For example, at an upscale ski
resort—Deer Valley Resort in Park
City, Utah—the head of food and
beverage and the executive chefs
work for hours on each pairing they
suggest to their guests. Each chef
prepares a dish, the team takes small
bites, and pairs them with wines. The
chef goes back to the kitchen and
makes the entire dish again, this time
with or without a certain spice or herb,
more wine is brought to the table and
the process starts again, over and
over, until the match is perfected.
At this level of pairings, one may
need to be a master of taste to really
appreciate the nuances.
But all of us can recognize really
bad pairings: a cookie and lemonade,
or light beer with marinara, or a tuna
sandwich with hot chocolate.
So you can choose to cross your
fingers and hope that what you have
put together will work, or you can
become informed and avoid some
very common mistakes. Knowing
these will put you way ahead in the
food and wine pairing game.
Six Mistaken Matchups
#1
Choosing a highly acidic wine
to go with a sweet dessert.
#2
Choosing a heavy, rich wine with
a delicate dish. Or vice versa.
#3
Serving a high alcohol wine with
spicy foods.
#4
Getting stuck on one type of wine
and serving it with all your food.
#5
Pairing your best, most prized,
hardest to cook meal with your
best, most prized bottle of wine.
#6
Serving high iodine fish (cod,
haddock, mackerel, shellfish)
with high iron red wines.
#1
Choosing a highly acidic wine
to go with a sweet dessert...
Same as taking a sip of lemonade after a bite of
chocolate chip cookie, tart wine after a sweet can be
awful. Been to many wedding receptions? A bite of cake,
then lift your flute to the happy couple… ouch! Hard to
get behind the toast when you mouth is puckered up.
The fix for this… Always choose a wine that is slightly
sweeter than the dessert.
#2
Choosing a heavy, rich wine to pair
with a delicate dish... Or vice versa...
When you consider your meal, think about...
* The center-of-the-plate item
* The way it is cooked
* The sauce on it
In my head, I place the center-of-the-plate on a scale from between 1 and 10.
Lean fin fish… Grains… Chicken… Crustacean… Salmon… Pork… Duck… Lamb… Beef… Sausages… Game
1…. 2…. 3…. 4…. 5…. 6…. 7…. 8…. 9…. 10
Now consider how the above is prepared from least amount of flavor
(poaching) to lots of flavor added (smoking)... and bump up the number of the
center-of-the-plate a little or a lot, per below.
Poaching……..….
Broiling……..….
Searing.....…….
Roasting……...….
Grilling……......
Smoking
Then consider the sauce, if there is one, and bump up the number again a little
(for salsa) or a lot (for heavy cheese sauces.)
Salsas, pesto… Butter sauces (beurre blanc)… Emulsified sauces (aioli, hollandaise)… Brown sauces (mushroom gravy)… Cheese sauces
Then I just do quick scale-making in my head… Poached halibut = 1, with a
butter sauce = 3. Or pork = 6, roasted = 7. Or sausage = 9, smoked = 10.
Take that final number and place it on the scale below. In order to best match
the meal, choose wines that are within a couple numbers of it.
Pinot Grigio… Reisling… Chenin Blanc… Sauvignon Blanc… Oaked Chardonnay
Beaujolais… Sangiovese… Pinot Noir… Merlot… Cabernet Sauvignon… Syrah… Nebbiolo
1…. 2…. 3…. 4…. 5…. 6…. 7…. 8…. 9…. 10
The fix for problems… Avoid pairings that are at opposite ends of the graph.
#3
Serving a high alcohol wine
with spicy foods...
Spicy, or hot, foods are often made from chiles containing capsaicin, which
when it comes in contact with mucous membranes in humans, (and all
mammals, in fact,) causes a burning feeling where it touches. High alcohol
wines often impart a hot, or burning sensation themselves. The two together is
a major fire in your mouth.
The fix for this… drink a very cold, low-alcohol, off-dry or slightly sweet wine
with the spicy food. The sugar will help coat the mouth to minimize the burn. Or
choose a cold, sparkling wine (or, dare we say it… beer!) to refresh the mouth.
#4
Getting stuck on one type of wine
and serving it with all your food...
This especially happens to beginners because as you start learning about
wines, you’ll find a wine you actually like and are confident buying, so you drink
it, and only it, all the time. Other wines begin to taste “off.” So you pair
everything you eat with that one wine.
But no matter what wine you’re in love with, it will not enhance all the foods you
eat and it will definitely taste awful with some of them. Don’t subject your
guests or yourself to your current, limited view of the wine world.
The fix for this… Ask questions. Branch out. Experiment.
A good way to move away from “YOUR” signature wine is to ask at your liquor
store for a wine that is close, but not quite the same. For example, you love
California Chardonnay. You ask your liquor store employee to recommend a
different white that is oaked. You may find a Greco from Italy or a Viognier from
Australia. Cool!
#5
Pairing your best, most prized,
hardest to cook meal with your best,
most prized bottle of wine...
You have been slaving over a hot stove, working on a beautiful dish for your
guests. You have everything perfect. The guests arrive, they are seated at the
table and you present the wine, something special and the guests ooh and aah.
The food is presented and the guests ooh and aah. The meal ensues with
guests trying to make both the food and the wine center of the meal, often
creating a challenging dining experience, especially for the cook!
The fix for this… Only one, the food or the wine, should be the star. Choose
and allow it to shine.
#6
Serving high iodine
fish with high iron red
wines…
The iron ( and the tannin, as well) react with the iodine in the fish and make
the fish taste fishier and the wine taste metallic. High iodine fish are typically,
but not limited to, cod, haddock, mackerel, and shell fish.
The amount of iron in the wine is affected by how much the grapes absorb from
the soil, as well as how the grapes are harvested and processed. The resulting
amount of iron in the wine differs from varietal to varietal, location to location
and even from plant to plant. Hence, since the outcome is so undesirable, it is
safest to avoid pairing iodine-rich fish with potentially iron rich red wines.
The fix for this… Stick to whites with high iodine fish unless you have tried the
pairing before and like it.
Other than these six common mistakes, ( contrary to
what your mom taught you, ) play with your food and
wine, experiment, enjoy and be relatively certain that you
will not be offending your taste buds anytime soon!
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Kirsten Fox is, not only Headmistress of Fox School of
Wine in Park City, Utah, but also Founder and CEO of
Culinary Wine Institute, an award-winning, online wine
sales training and certification system for the restaurant
industry. She is a published author, a Certified
Specialist of Wine by the Society of Wine Educators
and a Sommelier. Questions or comments?
[email protected] or 435-655-WINE