Let’s face it, wine is surrounded by an air of snobbery. Wine connoisseurs look down their noses at mass market brands such a Blossom Hill and their consumers, while those not in the know write off wine buffs as upper class, up tight toffs. Can we not find some middle ground? There is an emerging school of thought generated from cookery shows such as BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen, that wine as a topic needs to be demystified in order to shake off it’s bourgeois image.

 

A book was recently released on pairing wine with food effectively, using simple language and avoiding the aloof tone associated with most wine literature. Although not a wine-enthusiastic myself, I do entertain a lot and I have been using this book to learn about wine through pairing different varieties with certain foods, Australian shiraz with sea bass for example. I can’t be doing too badly as I’ve received no complaints from my guests as yet! I hope that one day my palette will be well developed enough to pair effectively without external aids, but for now here is my idiot’s guide to wine and food matching:

 

 

Light Whites (Reisling, Sauvignon Blanc)

Very Crisp and clean in taste, go well with mild cheeses, shellfish such as shrimp, crab and lobster.

 

Heavy White (Chardonnay)

A deeper, richer flavour while still remaining light and delicate in taste, compliments poultry dishes as well as light pasta sauces

 

Light Red (Beaujolais, Brunello)

Reds as rule go with darker, more substantial foods. These varieties work well with cream-based pasta sauces, as well as beef, pork and heavily spiced poultry dishes

 

Heavy Red (Merlot, Port)

At the top end of the scale, you would be best of pairing these hefty wines with strong flavours such as mature cheeses, red meat and rich chocolate-based desserts.

 

 

This is by no means set in stone and it is best to use your own taste-buds as a guide to what food and wine pairings go hand-in-hand. The possible combinations are endless but a good rule of thumb is to pair soft textures and light flavours with white wines, and bold, meatier food with reds. Play it by ear, learn as you go and you will be hard push to go wrong, just be sure not to give wine-virgins a stonking great port to go with their salad-starter!