Wine Pairings With Food

Learning different wine pairings with food takes a lot of time and experience, but the right wine choice can really take a well cooked meal to the next level. Wine is a great way to set a relaxing mood and have an enjoyable and mellow meal. Good food combined with the right kind of wine will have your guests raving about your cooking skills and coming back for more.

When pairing wine with food you will need:

• Several different kinds of white and red wine
• A meal that you know how to cook well
• Some experience with win tasting
• Appreciation for wine and food
• Experience, more is better

Steps

1. When pairing wine with beef such as steak, you will need something with a lot of flavor that can match the beef’s plentiful taste. Merlot and Cabernet are great choices for going with steak, and Sauvignon is as well. Choose the wine carefully and taste it yourself with the meat. You will notice that they all go with it, but each has its own unique way of bringing out the steak’s flavor.
2. When you roast chicken, try using Chardonnay or red Burgundy. Either one will bring out all the flavor of the chicken and add a real kicker to your meal that takes it over the edge. You can use the same types of wine when you roast turkey as well.
3. When you cook fish in a lighter sauce, you should serve a lighter wine with it. Sauvignon Blanc is a great choice for this kind of fish and will really help you to appreciate the fish’s flavor. If you use a heavier sauce such as butter, then you should try a more flavorful wine.
4. No matter what you are cooking, you should try pairing it with wine and tasting it yourself before serving it. Sometimes you will just know that a win might be too strong or too light for a certain meal. Sometimes you will want to match a heavier tasting meal with a light wine to cleanse the palate. Other times you will want a flavorful wine to go with a flavorful meal. It all depends on the situation and your own taste.