Complement the dish

Complement the dish

The best way to learn what works and what doesn’t is to try out different combinations.

That’s all very well when you have time on your side and several bottles lined up at a relaxed weekend dinner party, but not so helpful at a business lunch when the wine list is in your hands.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. After all, the sommelier has put the wine list together and understands the flavour profile of the dishes. It’s his or her mission to make sure the wine you drink maximises your enjoyment of the food.
Choosing wine by the glass is a good option for a group where everyone’s ordered different dishes; restaurants often match dishes themselves. 

When you get the match right, it brings out hidden elements in both the food and the wine and creates wonderful new flavour harmonies. Here are some tips.

1. Forget the old rules
The old adage that you should drink white wines with white meat and reds with red meat is a cliché, says Nick Hildebrandt from Bentley Restaurant and Bar in Sydney’s Surry Hills.  “Sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn’t.”

Some whites, such as oaky Australian chardonnays can be too heavy-bodied for fish or seafood dishes. Similarly, lighter-bodied reds such as Italian valpolicella or French beaujolais might not hold up against a heavy red meat dish.

2. Drink wines you love
“I’m happy to recommend what I think goes well with the food,” says Lara Caraturo, sommelier at Pilu at Freshwater on Sydney’s Northern Beaches (winner of Best Wine List in the Good Food Guide 2010). “But I always start with what the customer wants to drink.”

Nick Hildebrandt concurs. “What’s the point of me recommending a riesling because it’s a perfect match to a dish if the customer doesn’t like riesling?”

3. Balance
A basic element in food and wine matching is understanding the weight of the food and finding a similar weight or body in the wine. A light, delicate seafood entrée might call for a light-bodied white such as a Clare Valley riesling or a zesty young Hunter semillon; a medium-bodied red like a Tuscan sangiovese will suit burgers and snags on the barbie; whereas a hearty, meaty main cries out for a feisty shiraz.  

4. Complement the dish  
Sometimes food needs wine as a foil. Rich dishes need wines with good acid structure to cut through them. “If you’re having something rich and powerful you don’t want to add to that,” says Hildebrandt. “Foie gras is really rich and you wouldn’t necessarily match it with a really rich, full wine. You need a wine to slide underneath all those flavours, such as a light fruity riesling.”

Salt needs careful attention too. Caraturo balances Pilu’s signature roast suckling pig, which is rich and salty, with a fruity, medium-bodied cannonnau (a Sardinian version of grenache) or another Sardinian red, monica, known for its good acid structure and star anise flavour.

5. Classic pairings
Duck with pinot noir, lobster with chardonnay, lamb with cabernet sauvignon are classic pairings that have evolved over time in European wine-producing regions where the local tipple and the local specialty dish were always consumed together. Some things, like oysters with champagne, are just meant to be.

6. Chilli and spice
Many people choose beer over wine if they’re eating spicy Thai, Chinese or Indian food. But wines can work well – you just need some acidity and sweetness to mollify the heat.

Roses that are not too dry will do the job nicely as will lighter, aromatic wines such as gewurztraminer, riesling or pinot gris. Sweeter reds can work well too, such as a fruity pinot noir.

If you’re tucking into a hot, rich Indian curry consider matching it with a spicy shiraz. Lara Caraturo reckons a cocktail with the right level of sweetness and sourness can be a great match with spicy Thai food.

7. Desserts
Hildebrandt’s rule of thumb is to make sure the wine is sweeter than the dessert. “There’s nothing worse than a dish that is sweeter than the wine – it strips the sweetness out of the wine and all you’re left with is acid.”

He recommends trying fortified wines with desserts, as they have more texture and sweetness. Chocolate can be tricky to match; think about a Rutherglen tokay or muscat or a Pedro Ximenez sherry from Spain.
“Champagne often works well,” says Lara Caraturo, “especially if it’s a light, fruit based dessert.”
8. Cheese
Cheese and red wine are perfect partners, right? Wrong. Australian reds in particular are often too tannic for most cheeses, except mature semi-hard or hard cheeses, like cheddar or parmesan.

“As a general rule, white wine goes better with cheese,” says Hildebrandt. The smellier the cheese, the more it suits a sweeter wine. Dessert wines and fortifieds are excellent partners for a wide range of cheeses, especially washed rind cheeses. For blue cheese, Hildebrandt favours beer, which “really refreshes the palate.”

9. Tricky foods
Some foods, such as asparagus, artichokes and anything with a lot of vinegar in it are really difficult to match. Hildebrandt refers to these as the “enemies of wine”.
For artichokes, try sake, a sour cocktail or a fino sherry, and for asparagus consider a chenin blanc or a flinty chardonnay.

10. Consider the occasion
When you're choosing a wine, consider the setting, the occasion and the weather. A light, crisp white wine or a dry rose will probably work better for a sunny afternoon lunch than a big heavy red that you’ll have to sleep off afterwards.

•    Don’t be afraid to ask for help from the sommelier.
•    The old white wine with white meat, red wine with red meat rule doesn’t always hold true.
•    Dessert wines should be sweeter than the dessert.