How to find your favourite meal’s perfect wine match

We all like to eat and drink well, especially when we go to a restaurant. For this, it is essential to know how to combine dishes with a good wine to obtain the best culinary result. This is known as pairing, or harmony, and the aim is to enhance the flavour of the food or to make the dishes and the wine enjoyable together without one interfering with the other.

However, you must bear in mind that it is not an easy task to combine two elements with so many variants such as food and wine. This is why, in order to identify the perfect wine to accompany your dish, you should follow some principles and tricks.

The keys to pairing wine with food

There are some basic rules for matching wines with food. The order of the wines is important. It is said that young wines go before old ones, and that light wines are also served before the more powerful ones. However, it all depends on the food to be consumed.

However, the most important thing is to strike a balance between the intensity of the food as a whole and that of the wine. The idea is to try to combine light dishes with light-bodied and light-flavoured wines, and strong-flavoured dishes with full-bodied wines, as this will enhance the flavours.

Red wine, for example, is very versatile, so it can be combined with many foods, although roasted or grilled meats are preferred. Rosé wine is best paired with light, Mediterranean meals. And white wine is perfect to pair with poultry, seafood and fish.

Examples of perfect pairings

These rules can give you some idea of how to pair dishes. However, there are so many dishes with different nuances that sometimes it can be difficult to identify the perfect wine to pair with your favourite dish. For this reason, we offer you some specific examples of dishes and wines that go very well together.

• Stuffed avocados: This dish goes well with sparkling wines with a fresh acidity such as Champagne or Cava. It also goes very well with a white Muscatel wine.
• Bread stuffed with cream cheese, mushrooms, onions and bacon: This dish can be paired with a white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay. It can also be paired with a light red wine such as Pinot Noir.
• Beef tenderloin: It pairs very well with medium-bodied or intense and structured red wines such as Merlot, Carménère, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Malbec, Pinot Noir, among others.
• Creamy lemon dessert with biscuits and palm honey: For fruity desserts, especially if the fruit is acidic such as lemon, it is best to choose a sweet wine or a demi-sec sparkling wine.

Now that you have a better idea of how to pair wines with food, you will be able to identify the perfect match for your favourite dish. This way, you will undoubtedly enjoy a great gastronomic experience.