President’s Message
WINE AND DINE
The goal of food and wine pairing is to combine two elements that bring out the best in each other and create a harmonious whole. Good balance between the two components is essential; think of it as a conversation where neither
person dominates.
Or you could say a perfect pairing is one that may be described as one where neither the sensory experience of the food and wine combination is usually greater than either of them had individually.
How do we pair food and wine? There are a number of factors to consider when methodically putting together a match. The most important being the 5 tastes and how the components in each will affect the other.
Follow this cardinal rule when entertaining and you can never go wrong:
The 5 major “tastes” are sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. Only sweetness/lack of sweetness and acidity are present in wines, whereas all five can be found in food. Whenever different combinations come into contact with one-another, the result can be pleasing or disappointing.
By considering the elements of wine and food, these can be aligned in a way that will have a positive outcome. This is the base consideration of food and wine pairing, but many additional elements must be considered. Weight and Intensity both need to be matched like-for-like; lighter bodied foods with lighter bodied wines, and more intense foods with more intensely flavoured wines.
Another main concern is texture, which in food is more of a neutral element; however in wine, texture is mainly found in the form of tannin in red wines. Tannin can react negatively to a number of factors, but can also be quelled by combining tannins with other elements that will help to minimize their impact. In general, a safe rule of thumb is to opt for red wines that have lower levels of tannin which makes them less reactive to other elements and minimizing the possibility of ending up with an unappealing match.
Lastly, there are particular aromas and flavours to consider. Major flavour families can be found in both food and wine, some common ones being “fruity”, “vegetal”, “savoury”, “spicy” and “earthy”. With aromas and flavours, the like-for-like approach tends to work fairly well.
Even with all of these considerations in mind, a match that may look perfect on paper may still leave something to be desired in reality. In order to get a fairly accurate match, it is necessary to try the particular wine and food together at least once to get a sense of the match. Sometimes these pairings can be tweaked by adjusting the food recipe; otherwise it’s a matter of trial and error and sampling other candidates for the wine.
There’s nothing more satisfying than marrying a superb wine
with your food.
Framroze Mehta
President