Pairing food and wine is a journey of discovering taste. It happens often, at a restaurant or at home, that we find ourselves struggling with which wine to pour.
Our advice: build your own personal database, a series of tasting notes kept in a notebook or in memory, to guide your choice at the restaurant or to compare one wine with another. Tasting different wines, again and again, lets you form judgments and explain them. With culture, sensitivity and experience, you'll choose the right wine at the right moment, comment on it, and share it with your guests.
Never has the pairing of food and wine mattered so much on the world stage. Discovering taste is a long, demanding journey: just think of Italy's 70,000 traditional recipes. Choosing the right wine for what's on the table becomes a fairly complex task.
The basics
Taste first, then pour
The trick is to taste the dish and understand its dominant flavors — sweet, bitter, salty, acidic, spicy — then choose a wine that enhances or balances similar or opposite notes. The balance between food and wine is the goal. A delicate dish calls for a delicate wine; a dish with strong flavors needs a big, important wine.
With every bite of the same food, the taste buds send weaker signals to the brain, so the food loses flavor and we enjoy it less. Wine matters here: it cleanses the mouth completely of the food's flavors, so every bite tastes as good as the first.
Pairing red meat
How to match red wine to red meat
Start with how the meat is cooked. For meat served rare, like Fiorentina steak or tartare, choose a young wine such as Chianti.
For well-cooked meat, such as braised or boiled dishes, choose an aged wine such as Chianti Classico or a Rosso di Montalcino.
If the red meat is a little fatty, like wild boar or ribs, you need a full, substantial red wine, such as Brunello di Montalcino, Rosso di Toscana Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Pairing white meat
How to match red wine to white meat
Pairing red wine with white meat is trickier, though it can certainly work — red meat with red wine simply remains the more common match. A roast veal pairs very well with Cabernet Sauvignon.
Even a nicely grilled white meat, such as chicken, hare, rabbit or turkey, can be paired with a lighter red wine such as Lambrusco or a Rosso di Montepulciano.
Pairing fish
How to match red wine to fish
This is a trickier choice, but not one to give up on. It depends on the type of fish and how it's cooked and seasoned. Fish cooked in tomato sauce should be paired with young, fresh red wines. For dishes with meat stock, tomato sauce or carrots in gravy, pair with Chianti and Chianti Classico.
Pairing cheese
How to match red wine to cheese
Red wine and cheese is a wonderful match, but pay attention to the type of cheese, its age, its flavors and the intensity of its aroma. A well-aged cheese calls for a full-bodied, aged and more alcoholic red wine, such as Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon Rosso Toscano. A fresh cheese, like pecorino, needs a lighter red to keep the balance between the flavors: here we suggest sweet, delicate wines.
FAQ
What wine pairs with Fiorentina steak or tartare?
For meat served rare, like Fiorentina steak or tartare, choose a young wine such as Chianti.
What wine goes with well-cooked red meat such as braised or boiled dishes?
For well-cooked meat, such as braised or boiled dishes, choose an aged wine such as Chianti Classico or a Rosso di Montalcino.
What wine pairs with grilled white meat like chicken or rabbit?
A nicely grilled white meat, such as chicken, hare, rabbit or turkey, can be paired with a lighter red wine such as Lambrusco or a Rosso di Montepulciano.
What wine goes with fish cooked in tomato sauce?
Fish cooked in tomato sauce should be paired with young, fresh red wines.
What wine pairs with a fresh cheese like pecorino?
A fresh cheese, like pecorino, needs a lighter red to keep the balance between the flavors, with sweet, delicate wines suggested.
