WINE / FOOD PAIRING
Pairing food with wine is one of the great pleasures of life. Unfortunately, it can also be an intimidating experience. Why is that? We pair other food and drink with the greatest of ease: milk & cookies, coffee & donuts, the list goes on. With a few hints, pairing food and wine can be just as easy, and before you know it you'll be dunking steak in your Cabernet just like those hoity-toities on Park Avenue .

Getting Started
Where do you start? You could go with the standard red wine with beef, white wine with fish and chicken rule, but should you? Consider the chicken. Have you ever had a completely plain piece of chicken? Not much fun. Chicken is all about what you do to it, and what you do to the chicken determines which wine will work best. Rosemary chicken works best with a white, such as Vermentino or Pinot Grigio. On the other hand, Coq au Vin is a chicken that is cooked in red wine. Pairing with red is the obvious choice. Let's move past the standard rules and dig a little deeper.

Dominant Characteristics: Taste and Feel

Think about your meal. What stands out? The richness and weight of a piece of beef? The spiciness of curried chicken? The somewhat sweet, rich impression of lobster? Now think about wines you've had. What were their dominant characteristics? The mouth-drying tannin of a big red? A white that smelled fruity but remained crisp and light? Notice the feel. Wine leaves impressions that go beyond “tastes like cherries” or “smells like peaches”. There is weight, tannin, acidity. You can feel wine. When you are pairing your food and wine, it is important to consider both taste and feel.

Putting it all together: Enhance or Contrast

Now you know what you're having, and you've decided what the dominant characteristics of your dish are. The final question is this: Do you want to enhance or contrast those characteristics? To answer, think of wine as just another ingredient. If you're having lobster, decide if you want to enhance its rich qualities with another rich ingredient such as a oaky, buttery Chardonnay, or contrast them with something lighter. Here is where feel comes into play. Pinot Blanc offers tropical fruit and a smooth texture that would complement the feel of the lobster, as well as the sweet flavors, but unlike the buttery Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc has enough acidity to lift the entire dish. The overall feel is balanced, rather than being overwhelmingly rich.

Conclusion: Help others help you

The best food and wine experience requires a little leg work. At South Lyndale, we know our inventory backwards and forwards and love to pair food and wine. Bring as much information as possible about your meal, even a recipe. Decide what the dominant characteristics are, and whether you want to enhance or contrast those flavors, and let us work for you.