Out and About Spring 2021

Head sommelier at The Vineyard hotel and UK sommelier of the year 2019, ROMAIN BOURGER provides some hints and tips on food and wine pairing TOP TIPPLES

W ith a lot more home cooking going on during this pandemic, here are some tips on how to pair wine with food. This is particularly important as, as much as an expertly-paired wine would really enhance your gustative experience, the opposite could just as easily destroy it. First of all, we need to understand how our palate works. There are five basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and, more recently, umami (savoury taste of glutamate, naturally present in tomatoes and mushrooms). It is of course crucial that you go with a wine that you like and following these tips, you might also be able to tweak a dish to make it blend with the wine you choose. There is still a strong belief about how these basic tastes are detected. While it is true that the side and tip of our tongues are very sensitive, recent studies have shown that all areas containing taste buds such as our tongue, soft palate and throat can detect all these different tastes. The tastes prominent in your food will impact the way a wine tastes. Some food, such as chocolate or creamy dishes, can be challenging to match due to their coating effect on the palate that can alter our sense of taste. Some tastes are harder to pair with food; sweetness and umami enhance the astringency, bitterness and acidity of a wine and lower its sweetness and fruitiness. They also enhance the sensation of alcohol in a wine. As sweetness makes a wine taste more acidic, the ideal is to pair a wine at least as sweet as your dish and preferably from an aromatic grape variety such as Muscat or Gewürztraminer. If you prefer a red wine, go for aromatic, low tannins red, but with a hint of sweetness. New World reds are generally better suited although an off-dry red would also work. The level of sweetness in the wine you pair will of course depend whether the dish is a dessert or just as an element of sweetness. Umami has a particular taste, although it can be more difficult to isolate as it is often present with other tastes, especially salty foods such as in

Parmesan cheese, smoked seafood or meat. Wine pairing is made ‘simpler’ because of the saltiness counteracting the hardening effect that umami has on wine. More difficult examples are plain asparagus, eggs or mushrooms. I would recommend the addition of a seasoning, sauce or dressing to give the acidity or saltiness. This will help to balance the umami flavours and allow the wine to shine. If the dish is umami rich, my wine suggestions would be very similar to wine used with sweet food. White wine with a low level of acidity and moderate alcohol, fruity and with some degree of sweetness or a light to medium-bodied red with low acidity and low tannins and good fruit concentration. Generally speaking, New World wine should offer this rounder acidity, richer body and fruit concentration. “There are five basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and, more recently, umami (savoury taste of glutamate, naturally present in tomatoes and mushrooms)” Saltiness and acidity in food on the other hand work the other way round and make wines taste softer and sweeter, decreasing our perception of astringency, bitterness and acidity and increasing the fruitiness of wine. To an extent, if a wine doesn’t taste quite balanced, this can be resolved with certain foods. Acidity is good for food and wine pairing. Since the acidity in food lowers the perception of acidity in wine, it is important to choose a high acid wine, preferably light as the sense of body will be increased too. Beware that if you have a fruity wine, this will also be enhanced. I would suggest a bone-dry style of Riesling, Albariño or Assyrtiko. Salt makes wine feel more bodied, so this has to be taken into consideration. High tannins wines will feel softer,

dry wines will feel rounder and fruitiness will be enhanced. I would opt for a fuller bodied red such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Tannat that has been aged in oak barrels as this can increase the tannins of a wine and therefore its bitterness. White wines should be dry, light to moderate in body and not too aromatic. A good example of this would be a dry Pinot Gris or Grüner Veltliner. Bitterness in food greatly increases the sensation of bitterness in the wine. Ideally, go for a white wine that matches the other flavours in the dish or a light to moderate bodied, low tannin red wine. Ideally, whatever the food and wine pairing, the intensity of flavours needs to be similar in both. There are two main ways of pairing food and wine flavours and texture – match them or contrast them. I personally like fatty food paired with a bone dry wine to have this cutting “through effect”. sweetness and fruitiness of wine and enhance the bitterness, astringency and acidity, as well as clearly multiplying the burning effect of alcohol. Great wines include dry, fruity and low alcohol whites such as some German Riesling. Red wines should be low in tannins, acidity and alcohol and have a touch of sweetness and fruit concentration Most of the time, fish is paired with white wine because some fish are high in umami and generally speaking, white wine would make for an easier pairing. The reality is that you can equally pair a light red wine with fish, especially if you have a salty or acidic element in your dish. Beware of oily fish as this can give a red wine a metallic taste. Most often dishes are best paired with wines from their region of origin, while still following the food and wine matching principles. The magic with food and wine pairing is that you can really enjoy a wine with food that you might not like as much on its own. What a good excuse to try more styles of food and wines. Hot spices tend to lower the perception of body, richness,

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