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One of the great pleasures of drinking wine is matching it with equally mouth-watering food.
Traditionally, red wine with meat and white with fish are no longer flexible enough to accommodate the multi-cultural taste influences that modern cuisine reflects. Common sense dictates that every wine experience should start with taste. When pairing food and wine, you should keep in mind that you are trying to find balance and harmony – balance between flavours, textures, intensity and taste. To increase your chances of a successful match, consider how the food was prepared, seasoned, the texture and also any accompaniments. Food and wine has its own flavour and texture, so too does every palate. So please use this tool as a guide only. There are no hard and fast rules, rights or wrongs. Just experiment to find your matching ideas.
Overview
If you are having guests, you probably spend a lot of time planning your menu, right down to the side dishes and the cheese. But when you’re getting your wine lineup ready, don’t forget about the bread. Even if you’re not having a party, tearing a nice hunk of bread off of a fresh loaf can be a pretty awesome. Add the right wine, and it’s a little party in your mouth.
Brioche
It’s the perfect pairing because brioche is tender, it toasts beautifully and it’s rich yet delicate enough that it doesn’t overwhelm. The bubbles really complement that texture. Top the brioche with decadent toppings like smoked salmon and crème fraîche or caviar, the saltiness of which is washed away perfectly by the bubbles.
French Baguette/Sourdough
If you’ve got a crusty French baguette, which will be mild in flavor and not bitter or acidic like a sourdough, Pinot Grigio or Sancerre might be the perfect complement.
Crisps/Chips
A fan of Rosé. Make crisps out of bread to serve as a snack with a glass of pink. Use a mild-tasting whole wheat, or for something stronger, rosemary bread. Also, Foccacia crisps, with their tender white crumb, are almost like a chip and go great with Hummus and Rosé.
Wheat/Rye
A deep-flavored wheat and rye combo that has a dark, caramelized crust and a chewy light brown crumb. A light-bodied or medium-bodied Pinot Noir is the perfect fit for this sort of bread. Add a little aged Gouda, and the salt and crystallization of the cheese will offset the slightly bitter taste from the dark crust.
Black Olive
Treat it like you’re serving a nice fatty meat sauce on pasta, and pair it with a bold Italian red. Both Nero d’Avola and Sangiovese wines hold up to the full-flavored olives and their smokiness.
Raisin/Seeded
Any bread with raisins or fruit and nuts, or anything slightly sweet goes best with Riesling. The sweetness of the wine will pull the raisin fullness forward and that an option to offset the sweet would be to add a soft, rich cheese, like an Italian Robiola, into the mix.
