Pairing Basics

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What are the rules?

For some, the rules are simple: red wine with beef, white wine with chicken. While this wine-choosing shorthand may provide a greater probability of success, the basic rule is even simpler yet.

Wine’s primary purpose is to *complement* your food, to punctuate, and amplify it. Everyone understands that certain combinations taste great together—like peanut butter and chocolate—and others clash terribly, like drinking orange juice after you brush your teeth. So the only true rule of pairing is to find the wine that harmonizes with your food, taking it to new heights. And, above all, Robert Mondavi’s guiding rule was always to “Drink what you like, and like what you drink.”

Break The Rules

Try not to think of wine selection as an exercise in etiquette. Instead of general rules, consider the flavors in the meal at hand. For example, if you put barbecue sauce on your chicken, its flavor becomes as intense as any steak, and you might need something besides a light Sauvignon Blanc. If you put lemony béarnaise sauce on your beef, your ideal wine choice will vary from the usual hefty Cabernet you might select for beef. Red wine may pair nicely with fish if the dish has a really intense sauce, something with Greek olives and tomatoes and onions; a Pinot Noir, which is a very light-bodied, dry red wine would provide a nice complement.

But as a general principle, if you’re not adding pungent sauces or other flavorings to the following foods, see Food & Wine Pairing for a good, basic guide to trying some simple pairings.

Match Strength And Weight

As important as flavor is the idea of wine’s relative “weight”. Red wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon make sense with steak because both the wine and the food have big, bold, complementary flavors. Drinking a light white wine such as, say, Pinot Grigio with a grilled rib-eye is perfectly legal – it will satisfy thirst much as a glass of lemonade would, and not necessarily clash with the meat’s flavor. But it also wouldn’t truly complement or “stand up” to the juicy, strong flavors of char-grilled beef and balance the fatty richness the way a big California Cabernet does. The right wine combination makes the food itself taste better, and vice-versa, without overwhelming or disappearing next to it.

Similarly, white wines make more sense with delicately flavored, subtler foods like chicken and fish. If you drank Cabernet with simple steamed salmon, you wouldn’t be able to taste the fish at all. You’re better off with a dry white, like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. Unless, of course, you introduce a powerful sauce and the need to break the rules again.