The Culinary Arts

Culinary Arts - I found these  guidelines for food and wine

Ensure that the wine does not overwhelm the food. This is perhaps the most important principle. Delicate foods need subtle wines, and robust wines need powerful flavours.

Food that is rich due to fat or oil suits a wine with good acidity. This works because the acid and oil emulsify, leaving the palate fresh, clean, and free of any hint of greasiness.

Tannin is softened by red meat and salt. Wine with pronounced tannins is quickly softened by reaction with red meat or salt. This is why a young claret is much better with food, than on it’s own.

Mature red wine is low in tannin. The message here is that the taste profile of a wine changes with time. So a good match with a mature wine may be no match when young.

Oak adds a bitter dimension to white wine. Chefs often add a bitter element to savoury food, for example, by grilling or adding herbs. Oaked white wine also has a bitter dimension, making it well suited to these savoury dishes.

Intensity of flavour, acids, sugar, and tannin is the key issue. Matching aroma to the food is a side issue.

Imagine how the combination would taste. This is how an expert sommelier does it. The experts may tell you that it is very easy. But it is easy only because they have acquired an enormous databank of taste memories.

© Phil Cooke 2003.

Phil would appreciate any feedback to phil@wineappreciation.co.uk