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Whether it’s a festive gathering with numerous guests enjoying a lavish feast or simply a tasty dinner after a long day at work, wine is always a special treat, capable of enhancing the overall experience of a truly poetic meal. To ensure the meal is harmonious and the wine complements the food enticingly, it's good to follow a few general pairing rules.
When it comes to pairing wine with food, there are two major schools of thought: the French and the British. The French approach, as one might expect, is more rigorous and formal. After all, this is the school that gave the world the noble profession of the sommelier.
According to this tradition, there are ten golden rules for serving wine at a perfect meal:
Sweet white wines should not be served with red meat or game.
Red wines should not be served with fish or seafood.
Dry white wines should be served before red wines during a meal.
Lighter wines should be served before heavier ones.
Well-chilled wines should be served before room-temperature wines.
Wines with a lower alcohol content should be served first.
Each course should be paired with its corresponding wine (in other words, don't serve the same wine throughout a multi-course meal).
Serve the wine at its optimal age, neither too young nor too old.
Alternate different wines with sips of water.
During a meal, do not drink only one prestigious wine.
However, it is noted that Raymond Dumay's wine-pairing "decalogue" allows for exceptions.
The second major school of thought comes from England, where the appreciation of wine is considered entirely subjective, guided by personal taste. According to this school, the correct wine choice is simply the one that appeals to your senses. In their view, there’s no right or wrong way to pair wine with food; personal preference becomes the ultimate rule.
As a generally accepted principle, however, the food and wine should have a harmonious relationship, without one overpowering the other. The goal is for the two to complement each other, rather than for one to dominate. For example, if a dish is rich in flavors, the wine should also be full-bodied to stand up to the dish. For a fatty dish, a wine high in tannins and acidity is recommended, as it acts as a good palate cleanser. In the case of robust dishes like a beef stew cooked in wine, the accompanying wine should be equally rich, preferably the same type as the one used in the preparation of the dish, so it isn’t overpowered.
There are also certain dishes for which pairing with wine can be a bit tricky, and extra care is needed. These include dishes that are overly salty or contain a lot of vinegar, which are generally incompatible with any type of wine; chocolate (though it can pair well with a sweet wine like Port or Madeira); fruits, which require special pairings depending on the variety; and fish, traditionally paired with white wine, though certain types of fish can also be enjoyed with red wine.
In all cases, it’s universally agreed that champagne is a wine that pairs well with any course of a meal. 🙂
Source:
Giuseppe Sicheri - How to Become a Sommelier, Bucharest, House of Guides, 2009.
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