Food writers can make wine pairing seem like an intellectual exercise. The descriptions of flavor are so vivid and the reasoning slack pairings so clear as to give the illusion of precision, right down to the bottle and vintage. While some wines certainly go better with some dishes, and some foods–asparagus, artichoke, collard greens–do not admit a wine pairing at all, there is no single correct pairing for most dishes.
"Drink what you like", in other words, but finding likable pairings can itself be a bit of challenge for the uninitiated. Red wines, with their tannins and lower levels of acidity, are a bit more difficult than whites. Below are rules-of-thumb and a few specific recommendations to get you started:
- A few simple rules will attend in any wine pairing. Taste is somewhat relative. A sweet food will perform a dry wine taste bitter; pair dishes with sweet sauces with off-dry wines. High-acid foods like tomatoes will fabricate a low-acid wine taste flabby; pair high-acid wines with high-acid foods.
For reasons that are less clear, high-fat foods will make wine taste older, softer, and lower in acid; pair high-acid wines with fattier foods. This also means that rich foods admit wines higher in tannin without the wine overwhelming the food.
- High-alcohol wines are not food pleasurable. California and several other New World growing areas have problems others wish they had: growing conditions that are too good, resulting in overripe grapes. Vintners do have methods available to control alcohol levels after the fact, such as spinning cone distillation, but the bad decision is usually viticultural in nature, ranging from late picking to bad choice of rootstock.
"Bad", however, is relative to taste. Wines are made high in alcohol because high-alcohol wines please tasting-room visitors and a few influential wine writers.
While they may be impressive to some in the tasting room, high-alcohol wines go poorly with food. It's bad enough that overripe wines lose powerful of their varietal character; they also become palate-coating, they are often out-of-balance with insufficient tannin, and the alcohol itself can dull one's sense of taste an smell. Given the choice between a low-alcohol and a high-alcohol wine to pair with a meal, choose the low-alcohol wine.
- The classic pairings are classic because they work. Pinot noir is soft enough yet flavorful enough to have with duck. Chianti and other sangiovese-based wines, barbera, and nero d'Avola are had with red-sauced pasta dishes not just because they are Italian but also because they have enough acid to not taste bitter or sweet when paired with tomato. The tannins and earthiness of a cabernet sauvignon or Bordeaux-style blend go very well with mutton and game. Barbera is almost the only red light and zippy enough to pair with fish. Beaujolais and mild soft cheeses like brie bring out the best in each other. Likewise, stronger flavored cheeses like aged cheddar go well with cabernet sauvignon. That earthy cabernet blends are a good pearing with steak and spicy syrah pairs well with lamb is something nearly all cooks know because once one tastes it, it makes sense.
- Zinfandel, is the cook's and the restaurantgoer's friend. What other wine pairs equally well with steak, with roast chicken, with ratatouille, and with both meat and poultry stews? Zin is also the closest one can find to a red wine that goes well with (milder) Indian dishes.
- Pizza presents an unique challenge. Its strong flavors–oregano, olives, anchovies, garlic, tomato sauce–call for red wine, but the mozzarella cheese makes in too oily for most reds. One could almost say that the best wine pairing for pizza is "beer". There's a clue in that. Think also of why Champagne and paté de foie gras is considered a classic pairing, aside from tacky "conspicuous consumption". Carbonation provides the extra acid needed to match beverages with rich dishes like cheese-topped pizza.
Carbonated red wines are few, but the most common of them, lambrusco, is very good with pizza. Riunite is sold almost everywhere wine is sold, including convenience stores and gas stations. It'll do, but it's a bit too sweet. Le Grotte, sold at Trader Joe's, is better, and drier lambruscos in the $10 range can sometimes be found at wine shops. For a few dollars more, one can also obtain sparkling shiraz from Australia, which is fuller-flavored and a bit more tannic but pairs equally well with pizza.
- Try a few new pairings. Zinfandel goes well with Thanksgiving turkey and side dishes. As mentioned above, lambrusco is probably the best pairing for pizza. Cru Beaujolais and lighter pinots noirs match salmon, swordfish, and tuna. Merlot and syrah/shiraz both complement pulled pork and smoky dry-rubbed barbecue ribs very well as long as there's no sweet sauce.
