As a chef who also owns a winery and teaches cooking classes, I think a lot about food and wine when I’m cooking or preparing a meal. My guiding principle for food and wine pairing is pretty simple. I believe a great pairing is when drinking the wine makes you want to eat more of the food, and eating the food makes you want to drink more of the wine. You know it when you taste it.

But how do you know which wine to serve to achieve a palette pleasing pairing? For optimal pairing results, a wine should either contrast the food to create balance, or match up to the food to amplify the flavors in both the food and th wine. Paying attention to the elements of weight, mouth feel, sweetness, acidity, and even alcohol percentage can help you identify strong pairings.

Don’t feel hemmed in by the generalization that white wines pair with fish and salad, or red wines pair with red meat. There are so many ways to pair food and wine, that lengthy books have been written about it. That said, red wines tend to shine in pairings that amplify flavors, whereas whites, rose and sparkling wines can create either a great contrast or a lovely balance. The most notable example is when a crisp white wine balances the fat of a creamy sauce, but can also amplify the acidity in a vinaigrette dressing. A sweet wine always balances a spicy dish.

A great recipe is often the explosion of different flavors, textures, sauces and spices coming together in the mouth. A great wine pairing should pick up on the dominant flavor profiles of the dish. Focus on matching the wine to the flavors of the dish, not just the meat. Depending on the flavors in the dish, you may find that a red wine pairs equally well as a white or rose.

You’re gonna love it!

The first step to pairings, is to have an understanding or basic profiles in food and wine, and start from there.

Weight
Acidity
Mouth Feel
Alcohol Percentage