Over the years, I’ve had a lot of wine. And I’ve had a lot of wine with food. Here are some of my favorite, no-brainer, foolproof basics for deciding which wine to pair with which foods. I hope you’ll find these tried-and-true methods helpful in creating consistently perfect pairings.
- The wine should be more acidic than the food.
- The wine should be sweeter than the food.
- The wine should have the same flavor intensity as the food.
- Red wines pair best with bold flavored meats (e.g. red meat).
- White wines pair best with light-intensity meats (e.g. fish or chicken).
- Bitter wines (e.g. red wines) are best balanced with fat.
- It is better to match the wine with the sauce than with the meat.
- More often than not, White, Sparkling and Rosé wines create contrasting pairings.
- More often than not, Red wines will create congruent pairings.
The Grape Geeks 