During March, we explored a topic that is one reason why many of us have an interest in wine. We looked at how food and wine can work together. Having dinner with our partners, or simply going out with friends, often will involve opening a bottle of wine. If you like your wine and food, they can work very well together, complementing each other to help enhance your experience. The challenge, of course, is choosing a wine that makes it a pleasant experience rather than a less pleasant one. When sitting at the restaurant table and looking through the wine list, how many of us focus more on the price than the wine itself to decide which one to buy? As a side note, the restaurant owners know this and often put the most margin on the second wine on the list (which is a commonly selected wine on the list)!
We tried to unpick this dilemma and followed some general rules of food and wine pairing to see if the principles worked. The first thing to say is the “rules” are only a guideline, whatever works for you is right! During the evening we looked at some wine “enemies”…food that is very sweet or rich in taste will make most wines taste a little dull, so you need to find a wine that is sweeter than the food to bring out the best in both. We tasted a Sauternes with a wonderfully rich chicken liver pate and this enhanced both wine and food. We also tried chocolate with Port (which also went really well with some blue cheese). Another wine “enemy” is the umami taste, which you find in foods such as olives, tomatoes and mushrooms. You can either try to complement the food, and enhance that strong flavour by choosing a heavier wine such as a Barolo, or as we did, try a contrast and choose a light, fruity wine. We served a mushroom risotto and selected a pinot noir from Germany, which cut through the deeper taste of the mushrooms.
We next tried a creamy dish – spinach and ricotta pasta – and paired the creamy sauce with a “creamy” wine: a lovely Chardonnay that had strong buttery flavours. The combination was exactly what we were looking for! We also tried a wonderful champagne that was paired with some exquisite salmon blinis; a pork pie with a lovely fruity Cote du Rhone and a beautiful acidic dry white that was balanced with some salty almonds. All the pairings were excellent and well received and made for a very special night, made even better with contributions from some of our members!
