Food friendliness
March 8th, 2010
Wine and Food
While wine can be a beautiful thing all by itself, the greatest joy of wine for me is discovering new an exciting food and wine pairings. Wine, to me, should be much more than something to slug back after a mouthful of food.
Nevertheless, pairing food and wine can be a challenge. It should not be hit-or-miss, though. There are as many rules and recommendations for pairing a dish with a wine as there are people who drink wine. Not everyone proposing different pairing recommendations looks at the process the same way, so not every approach is going to be successful. Of course, there are also different ways to approach wine and food pairing depending on personal preference.
While a certain contingent of wine enthusiasts recoils at, and resists, the notion of rules in food and wine pairing, there are rules of chemistry and physiology underlying the success or failure any particular pairing. While no single paring is necessarily ideal or “correct”, one should keep in mind the way food and wine interact and consider what kind of culinary or food and wine experience it is they want.
Food and wine pairing is really about the chemical interaction of the two. To achieve an understanding of what works and what does not, one has to give a little thought to the character of the food, wine and how the two interact.
I’ve written to some extent about the way food and wine interact and how that is perceived by human physiology. Most recently, I wrote about the interactions between big, tannic wines and different elements of food in an article published on PalatePress.com. I will be writing more articles along this vein in the future, but readers should not wait for me to do this. Instead, I wanted to offer my loose framework of looking at a wine’s food friendliness. This is an approach which emphasizes structure, texture and mouth feel while, at the same time, acknowledging that wine an food can complement each other or clash aromatically when they are both in the mouth.
The interaction between food and wine can be placed into several categories, with increasing degree of synergy between food and wine being thought of as a greater degree of friendliness. I offer these as possibilities of what can happen. Think of them not as absolute categories, but a series of questions to ask yourself as you try out food and wine pairings:
1. The wine clashes with food. The interaction between food and wine is unpleasant and there is a harsh and striking discord and an unpleasant contrast or mismatch between the food and wine. This may be due to very incompatible aromatic and flavor profiles of the food and the wine, insufficient acidity in the wine, excessive alcohol in the wine (especially problematic with spicy foods) or, at times, high residual sugar.
2. Wine and food flavors and textures stand side-by-side without any negative interaction. The wine, at best, may only cleanse the palate for the next mouthful. This is most easily exemplified by a generic Pinot Grigio (or some other insipid white wine with decent acidity) paired with fish.
3. Wine and food character (flavors and structure) match or reflect each other. The body, weight and acidity of the wine are on par with the food. Think: fatty white fish like Sturgeon or Catfish with Rhône whites (or white Rhône blends) or a California Chardonnay with lobster or shrimp.
4. Wine flavors and structure complement the food (or vice-versa), positively affecting, enhancing or augmenting flavor and texture characteristics already present in both food and wine. One example is the way rare or medium-rare red meats mitigate the astringency of tannins in a Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine and bring out it’s fruit. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and oysters can frequently demonstrate this as well.
5. Ultimate synergy of wine and food. Pleasing flavors and textures not present (or noticeable) in either the wine or food alone. This is a scenario where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Artisan goat cheeses with a well-balanced, younger Pinot Noir can illustrate this very well.
In a nutshell, the food-wine interaction can range from an absolutely unpleasant one, through a neutral and unobtrusive one, to one where the food and wine work in ultimate sensory synergy. Part of learning what works is finding out what does not. I encourage readers to experiment and pay attention to their senses. The key is paying close attention to your senses. An example of this system at work is found here.
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March 8th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Amen to this!
Wine is a liquid food, and becomes more whole and wholesome when combined with solid ingredients. Sometimes it’s great; sometimes, not so great… but one must experiment and please one’s own palate.
Thanks for a great story.
March 16th, 2010 at 9:22 am
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March 17th, 2010 at 6:14 am
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March 21st, 2010 at 8:05 pm
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