Matching & Pairing Foods and Wine

I'm no longer the Section Leader of CompuServe's Food and Beverages Section Leader, but I used to spend quite a few hours each week discussing food and wine pairings. Wine and food pairing isn’t tough at all, as I’ve come to find over the last few years. With the help of my good friends on CompuServe, some good books and lots of patience from my wife, I’ve come up with some general guidelines. I jokingly refer to them as my Ten Commandments, because in reality, there’s little carved in stone about selecting a good wine for your meal.

Jim’s Ten Commandments for Pairing Food and Wine

I. Thou shalt remember: the best wine or beer for any meal is one you like.

It doesn’t matter if you’re choosing to serve a cabernet sauvignon with lobster -- as long as that’s a wine you like a lot. Do you want to pop open a bottle of a chardonnay you love with a beef roast? Fine! Go ahead, because you enjoy the wine and all this leads to rule number 2:

II. There shall be few BAD wine and food pairings.

All the mumbo jumbo about acidity matching, component matching and which vintage to serve can be just that: mumbo jumbo. Again, don’t get me wrong here: if you have the experience and interest to get into detailed, exacting pairings, more power to you! But, the bottom line on all this is that few wine and food pairings will turn out horribly. Which are the few that do turn out horribly? Usually, and I mean usually, they’re something to do with rule number 3:

III. Thou shalt always avoid extremes in thine wine and food pairings.

Extremely sweet wines with foods probably won’t work because sugar zaps the palate and a really sweet wine will probably run the food right over. Extremely acidic foods with wine probably won’t work because acid also tends to zap the palate. Here I’m thinking of a really vinegary, tart salad. While I love a nice salad, if it’s got lots of vinegar in the dressing I’ll usually push the wine glass away and save it for the next course. Extremely oily foods probably won’t work because you’re coating your tastebuds with grease, especially if you’re dealing with red wine.

IV. Thou shalt save complex wines for simple foods. Complex foods shall thee serve only with simple wines.

If you’ve got a great bottle of wine, the best way to showcase it is serving it with a simple dish. You don’t want some heavily sauced, rich food overshadowing your great vino. Keep things simple and you’ll leave the wine to show off by itself. Examples? If you’ve got a 20-year old Bordeaux or Californian Cabernet, roast up a simple hunk of lamb or beef. The opposite is true if you want to wow your guests with an incredible meal. If the food is the centerpiece, don’t worry yourself about popping the cork on a once-in-a-lifetime bottle of wine. Pour a good-quality wine, but let the food stand on its own.

V. Thou shall keep the wine sweeter than the food.

Since sugar kills your palate (see III), if you’re serving a dish that’s got sugar in it, either added or coming from fruit, you’ll want a wine that’s got a bit of residual sugar in it. The two sugars (in the wine and food) will help to balance each other out a bit. While this usually only applies to desserts, some dishes like meat curries have fruit added to them. As with rule III, avoid extremes.

VI - X. Thou shall repeat the first Commandment: The best wine or beer for any meal is one you like.

Actually, I just ran out of creative rules. I may update my list with more rules, but the first five are so simple that I think I'll keep 'em as is. Works for me!

Return to Jim's Kitchen

Return to Jim's Homepage