HOW TO: ELEVATE YOUR FOOD WITH WINE
Here at Brown Bag Wines, our aim is to simplify things for you. We believe that tasting a wine, discerning its flavour and pairing shouldn’t be stressful! Here's how we plan on going about it in three easy steps:
- We will consider four conventional wines and a few suggestions and what we feel goes well with them. We will select two whites and two reds - Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Names you are familiar with, we presume? We chose these as they are light to full-bodied wines for both the whites and reds.
- We will explain how you decipher the “flavour profile” of a wine.
- We will pair them with dishes we love and enjoy regularly.
But before that, let's revisit the three essential tips that we covered off in the previous blog 'Wine For Beginners'.
- The wine should have the same flavour intensity as the food.
- Now zone in on the dominant flavour of the dish.
- Red wines pair best with boldly flavoured meats and white wines pair best with light-intensity meats
The whole idea is the flavour that you experience needs to establish balance, avoid one characteristic from overpowering another. The wine and food act as equal partners.
LET'S GET YOU STARTED!
Check this table out where we have listed down a few popular dishes (including Asian dishes!), and the suggested wine pairing to go with the food. We believe it is the easiest way to elaborate on the points we’ve made above. What you need to remember is that our profile descriptions are in no way representative of typical wine terminology. We have simplified the terms to make them relevant and easier to understand.
A TIP ON STORING WINE
If you are curious about the storage and serving temperature of the wines, don’t sweat it. Especially if you don’t have a wine fridge. Keep wines in your fridge shelf away from the doors, as the constant opening and closing is not ideal for wines.
For whites, you can drink it straight off the bottle (when it is stored in your regular fridge). This would be as refreshing as a cold glass of soda (with four to five cubes of ice). For the reds, pour a serving into your glass and leave it to 'warm up' for about 15 minutes. This would increase the average temperature since it is taken off your fridge which would then be ideal to drink. If you are in a hurry to have a drink, pour a much lesser amount into your glass as there would be lesser volume that would be exposed to the 'heat' or room temperature thus bringing it to the ideal temperature much quicker (while leaving the bottle of red wine on your counter top to 'warm up').
We hope our starter course has cleared your doubts about which wines you should be pairing with the food you cook at home, serve to guests or order at a restaurant. What we want to stress (pun not intended!) is that wine shouldn’t be stressful! Ultimately, the wine you select should complement the food you eat and, most importantly, make you happy.
Note: While we have stated the grape varietal, ie. sauvignon blanc, merlot etc. in the infographic above, do note that not all the wines featured are of that specific variety.
If you wish to try the wines we have shown above, simply click the links here:
(STILL WHITE) CORTESE BY ICARDI (ITALY)
Price: $39
Purchase here.
(STILL WHITE) ORGANIC SAUVIGNON BLANC BY NATURE'S STEP (AUSTRALIA)
Price: $42
Purchase here.
(STILL WHITE) ORGANIC CHARDONNAY BY NATURE'S STEP (AUSTRALIA)
Price: $42
Purchase here.
(STILL RED) SIRO FIFTY BY FATTORIA DI GRATENA (ITALY)
Price: $49
Purchase here.
(STILL RED) SUPERTUSCAN TANGANO BY CANTALICI (ITALY)
Price: $80
Purchase here.
References:
Also in Sustainable Wine Blog
SIP BACK AND RELAX: THE BEST WINES TO DRINK AT HOME
WINE DOWN: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WINE AND SLEEP
Minoli Almeida
Author