The Theory Food and wine were made for each other. Although certain nouvelle beer drinkers may disagree, no other beverage apart from wine offers anything approaching its diversity and complementary ability with food. Certain wines only show of their best when presented with appropriate with food, mature wines especially. Don’t be diverted away from experimenting with different combinations of wine and food because of the conservative approaches of certain old-fashioned rules that are as ill-conceived as their motives are questionable. But although it’s hard to generalise about the relationship between wine and food, there are still some guidelines worth observing, which still permit all the flexibility and originality you could wish. The message is largely philosophical. Consider the wine as an extension of the meal on the plate. Then use a similar sort of logic when selecting it as you have already demonstrated when designing or ordering the actual meal itself. The object is to set off the food and the wine against each other by creating a difference that isn’t too stark and highlights their better qualities and individuality. If the flavours or characteristics of food and wine are too similar they simply compete. For that reason, crisp, tart wines with acidic foods are out. Try to ensure just enough difference to shift your attention from one to the other as you eat and drink your way through the meal. Neither food nor wine should clash or dominate. It’s almost impossible to put a wine with a heavily-vinegared dish, for instance. Think about colours, textures, richness, intensity and flavours. The concept of choosing a white wine to accompany a white meat and red wine for red meat is too sweeping to be valid. While contemplating a meat’s colour, think also of how its preparation may have changed its nature, if at all. The dressing or sauce may equally contribute in a major way to the flavours and textures of a meal, so perhaps the wine should be chosen with it more in mind than simply the meat itself. Aperitifs Aperitifs should be crisp and dry, for their object is to prepare the palate. Sweet beverages tend to kill the appetite, about the opposite of what a good aperitif should achieve. Fino sherries and delicate sparkling wines are recommended. If you don’t want to go quite so dry, try not to extend beyond a medium-dry wine, for unless your first course is sweet, the sugar will certainly clash with the meal. Table wines made without residual sugar include bone-dry rieslings, sauvignon blancs and chardonnays. Seafoods Red wines frequently taste too metallic to handle seafood, although popular ‘meaty’ new cuts such as tuna steak can be at their best with some reds. With salads and more delicate seafoods such as prawns, lobsters and scallops try dry and fresh young Rhine rieslings, sauvignon blancs and semillons. Delicate chardonnays and chablis styles could also be highly appropriate. Stronger seafoods like deep ocean fish, crabs, oysters and chowders are more suited to fuller wines like sauvignon blancs and bottle-aged whites, such as semillon. Chicken and Fowl It’s easy to change the character of chicken once you cook it. Consider the spatchcock, the warm chicken salads and the creamily-dressed breasts of chicken, plus the wide diversity of other chicken dishes, from curries to terrines. Suggested wines for roast chicken or coq-au-vin are a light Coonawarra red or pinot noir, to a full-flavoured older semillon or Rhine riesling, depending on the type of preparation. Creamy sauces may require a fresh, acidic young white wine to cut through the richness. Chicken casseroles can handle a richer, fuller white, such as a semillon, chardonnay or older riesling. Rose styles come into their own with cold poultry and ham. Game birds are frequently stronger in flavour, possibly more fatty, and have more texture. Mature cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir are ideal with a roast duck, Guinea fowl or spatchcock, and with duck or goose try a rich old Hunter semillon or Victorian marsanne. Veal and Pork Veal and pork are suited to fuller whites, like Hunter semillons, Barossa chardonnays and older Clare rieslings. Or else try lighter reds, like pinot noir and the Beaujolais-like carbonic maceration styles. The Red Meats Red meats like beef and lamb are suited to the fuller reds like clarets and burgundy styles, although peppery Victorian shiraz does particularly well with lamb. I suggest wines made from cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, a blend of the two, or else the newer cabernet merlot blends. The stronger and richer the meat, the stronger and richer the wine you need. Game meats like buffalo, venison and kangaroo are becoming increasingly popular. The more gamey the meat, the richer, fuller and spicier the wine should be, or else it runs the risk of being overpowered by the beast itself. It may well be worthwhile to try the meat first, or ask the waiter or supplier, since it’s hard to predict how ‘gamey’ game meats can be. Some, however, can almost taste identical to lean fillet beef. Asian Foods Chinese cuisine (which in Australia is most commonly Cantonese) is frequently spicy and sweet. Gewurztraminer is the spiciest of the white wine grapes, and is frequently made with a trace of residual sugar. Straight varietal traminers or the less intense and usually sweeter traminer-riesling blends can be an excellent accompaniment, as can the small number of bone-dry white frontignan table wines. Another alternative is the now-rarer, but sweeter moselle-like riesling style. It would be rare to match a good claret with Chinese food, but the ‘Beaujolais’ or carbonic maceration styles can work well. With many regional Chinese cuisines it is quite possible to match all manner of wine with various dishes. The only concession you may need to make to the conventional order of things is that your aperitif wine might be a dry red, followed by a white, then a sparkling wine. It’s more important in these cases for the wine to follow the meal than for the meal to be altered to suit our own ‘sophisticated’ order of drinking things. With Japanese food select fresh young rieslings and sauvignon blancs with the seafoods and lighter reds, such as carbonic maceration wines or pinot noirs with meat dishes. Lighter chardonnays without excessive wood-age can also blend in well with the cuisine. Thai and Malaysian foods tend to have stronger, more intense flavours and richer textures, so fuller and matured reds and whites can be appropriate, depending on the dish. Pinot Noir ably handles the chilli flavours of Thai food. Dessert Courses When choosing a wine for sweets and dessert courses, consider the wine’s depth of flavour, sweetness and body. It would be a mistake to pair a very sweet wine with a very sweet dessert. You can generally match a lighter dessert with a less-sweet dessert wine (those labelled ‘spatlese’, for instance), but as the sweet course you choose gets richer and sweeter, so must the wine. But remember the limit mentioned above, or else you’ll enjoy neither the sweet nor the wine. Cheese It’s a popular misconception that any wine will go with any cheese. Strong, pungent cheeses like Stilton and Gippsland Blue absolutely steamroll delicate white wines. You should consider the fattiness, depth of flavour, texture and acidity of the cheese. For example, tannic wines may require drier, tarter cheeses, and creamy cheeses may demand an acidic wine. Some combinations of wine and cheese you could try are:- (a) full-bodied vintage red wine with a full-bodied vintage cheddar, (b) camembert/brie with a dry Rhine riesling or a chablis style, (c) a mild, mellow gouda with a soft, full-flavoured pinot noir, (d) the mild, salty taste of fetta with the soft body and dry finish of a Hunter semillon, (e) a mild, nutty edam with a chardonnay, (f) a mature, astringent dry red with a soft chevre, (g) fruit cheese with a late-picked white style or port, and (h) rich, soft blue cheese with port or muscat.
