The Food and Wine combinations that most of us grew up with were the “Red wine with beef” and “White wine with fish or poultry” rules. Since then, we’ve heard “any wine as long as you like it”. A person can differentiate (on average) about 9,000 different aromas. Even those of us with a poor sense of smell can identify more than 3000 aromas. One can taste only four things: Sweetness, Acidity, Bitterness and Saltiness. The surest and easiest way to match foods with wines is to look for sweetness, acidity or bitterness in the food and serve wines that have the same characteristics
White wines with high acid: Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, White Bordeaux and almost all sparkling wines. These wines usually pair well with most seafood.
Red Wines with high acid levels: Pinot Noir (including Red Burgundies), Sangiovese (including Chiantis) and Gamay (including Beaujolais) These wines are usually very good pairings with grilled seafood and with most red sauces (tomato-based).
White wines sweetness include Most German wines, Vouvray, Chenin Blanc, Asti Spumante and many Rieslings. White Zinfandel has sweetness and high acidity.
Red wines with sweetness include: Lambrusco and Port (very sweet)
Red wines with bitterness include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Red Bordeaux, Zinfandel.
