In the process of wine collocation, food has a certain influence on the taste of wine, and vice versa, wine will also have an influence on the taste of food. The purpose of food and wine collocation is to make full use of the advantages of these influencing factors, so that wine and food complement each other and bring sensory experience that can not be achieved by tasting wine or food alone. Knowing this knowledge can also help to avoid some unpleasant wine matching experiences.
Abstract: In addition to understanding the basic elements of flavor interaction between food and wine, we must also remember that people have different sensitivities to various flavor and aroma factors. The same degree of bitterness may be strong for one person, but not so strong for another (this is different from personal preference-some people like stronger food, others will find the same food unpleasant). This difference in individual sensitivity and preference will lead to what seems to be a "perfect match" for one person being common or even failing for another. Therefore, the collocation of food and wine should not only consider the interaction between food and wine, but also consider the difference of personal preference.
The main points of the interaction between food and wine taste
After the food is finished, the taste buds will adapt to these foods, so the sugar, salinity and acidity of the next bite of food or wine will be affected and changed. An extreme example is drinking orange juice immediately after brushing your teeth. Orange juice will taste sour. In addition, some sticky foods, such as chocolate or creamy foods, will also reduce taste sensitivity.
In short, two ingredients in food (sweetness and umami) tend to make wine taste "harder" (astringent, bitter, sour, less sweet and less fruity); There are two other ingredients (salinity and acidity) that can make wine taste "softer" (less astringent, less bitter, less sour, sweeter and more fruity). Generally speaking, the influence of food on the flavor of wine is greater than that of wine on food, and most of them are bad.
Sweetness in food
It can increase the bitterness, astringency and sourness of wine and the burning sensation of alcohol.
It can reduce the fullness, sweetness and fruity taste of wine.
The sweetness in food will make dry wine lose its fruity taste and make its acidity unpleasant. When paired with sugary foods, a good basic principle is to choose wines with higher sweetness.
The freshness of food.
Will increase bitterness, astringency, acidity and? Burning sensation of alcohol
It can reduce the fullness, sweetness and fruity taste of wine.
Umami is a delicious taste. Although it is difficult to separate it separately, it is obviously different from other main flavors. Sweetness can be expressed by separating sugar; Salinity can be separated by sodium chloride, while acidity can be separated by various acids (such as tartaric acid); Umami flavor is usually presented with other flavors (salty flavor in monosodium glutamate) or flavors (cooked mushrooms or dried mushrooms). There is a very simple way to experience umami. Take straw mushrooms at both ends, heat one of them in the microwave oven for 30 seconds, and then compare it with the taste of raw food. After heating, the flavor of mushrooms has been greatly improved. You can also experience the characteristics of umami flavor by tasting monosodium glutamate (which can be a small amount of particles or diluted into a lighter solution), but it should be noted that umami flavor is combined with salinity in this case.
Which foods are more difficult to match with wine? Many of them contain heavy umami flavor, but there is no corresponding salinity to neutralize them, which makes the taste of wine stiff. This kind of food includes asparagus, eggs, mushrooms and cooked soft cheese. Other foods with heavy umami taste contain high salt, so they can neutralize the influence of umami taste (see below). For example, this kind of food includes smoked seafood or meat, and hard cheese (especially Parmesan cheese, an Italian hard cheese).
It is worth noting that the bitterness in wine comes from tannin extracted from grape skin or oak. For a wine with balanced tannins, the change of bitterness (due to umami) will not be too much, and it will not be enough to break the balance of the wine body. However, for red wines with low tannin content, or white wines cultivated in oak barrels or in contact with grape skins, foods with strong umami flavor will make these wines taste particularly bitter, thus losing their balance.
Acidity in food
It can improve the fullness of wine body and increase the sweetness and fruity taste of wine.
Can reduce the acidity of wine.
Generally speaking, acidity in food is a good thing for both food and wine, because it can balance wine with high acidity and increase the fruit flavor of wine. However, if the acidity of wine itself is very low, foods with high acidity will make the taste of wine a little boring, greasy and not refreshing.
Salt in food
It can improve the fullness of the wine.
Reduce the astringency, bitterness and sourness of wine.
Salinity is another ingredient in food that is easy to match with wine, which can help balance other ingredients in food that are difficult to match with wine.
Bitterness in food
Will increase the bitterness of wine.
Everyone's sensitivity to bitterness varies greatly. People who are particularly sensitive to one bitter taste may be less sensitive to another. Generally speaking, bitterness will be superimposed on each other, so the bitterness in a food may bring a pleasant feeling, while the bitterness in a wine may reach a balance, but the combination of the two may bring an unpleasant bitterness. This feeling is very subjective.
Spicy taste in food
Spicy degree should be regarded as touch rather than taste, and the sensitivity to spicy varies from person to person. Not only are some people more sensitive to spicy food than others, but there are also great differences in whether the experiences they bring to different people are pleasant or not.
The spicy degree in food will
Increase the bitterness, astringency, acidity and burning sensation of alcohol.
Reduce the fullness, richness, sweetness and fruity taste of wine.
The alcohol content in wine is directly proportional to the spicy reaction in food. The higher the alcohol content, the heavier the spicy taste. Alcohol can also increase the spicy taste. For some people, the hotter the better.
Other factors
Flavor intensity: Generally speaking, in an ideal situation, the flavor intensity of food and wine can be balanced with each other, so that the intensity of one side will not overwhelm the other. However, in some cases, a light wine (such as simple, oak-free and light-bodied white wine) can be successfully paired with some strong dishes (such as curry). Similarly, some light desserts can be well matched with sweet wine with rich flavor.
Acid and fat: Most people find that when wine with a certain high acidity is used with greasy food, the effect is satisfactory. This combination gives people a pleasant sensory experience, as if wine with high acidity can remove greasy taste and make the whole mouth feel fresh. This is a subjective feeling.
Sweetness and salty taste: The combination of sweetness and salty taste can also bring subjective pleasure. Many people like this combination, and there are some very successful examples, such as sweet wine with blue cheese.
practical application
Because everyone has different sensitivities and preferences, there is no single answer to which wine is suitable for which menu. Although there are some common rules about the influence of food on the taste balance of wine, whether people like certain combinations depends entirely on themselves. Most people like wine that tastes more fruity than sour, bitter and astringent. According to this preference, we can carefully make some suggestions to our guests. It's best to say "most people think that A-type wine and B-type food go well together", but the host and sommelier should understand that the guests may not fully agree.
When choosing wine to match with food, a very useful method is to divide food and wine into two categories: difficult to match and easy to match. Of course, most foods and wines contain more structural components than those listed below, so the choice of collocation should be diversified.
Difficult ingredients to match
Foods with sweeter sugar should be accompanied by wines with at least the same sweetness.
Umami-because umami in food can enhance the astringency and bitterness of tannins, umami-rich foods are suitable for fruity wines and avoid tannins.
Umami-adding acid or salt can adjust umami in food (making dishes easier to match), but it should be based on not changing the taste of food itself.
Bitter taste-Bitter food will make wine taste bitter, so it is more suitable to match white wine or red wine with low tannin content.
Spicy-white wine or red wine with low tannin content is suitable for spicy dishes, and the alcohol content is low (for more sensitive people, the bitterness and burning sensation of alcohol are unbearable). Pungency can also reduce the fruity taste and sweetness of wine, so wines with rich fruity taste or high sweetness can neutralize these effects.
Food ingredients that are easy to match-foods with high salinity or acidity.
Need to note:
Food with high acidity should generally be paired with wine with high acidity, otherwise the taste of wine will be too soft and greasy.
Wine that is difficult to match with food.
The more structural components there are in wine (and food), the more they will react with each other. This makes the combination of food and wine more complicated, but also more interesting. Wine is the most difficult food to match, which has the following characteristics: they have strong bitterness and astringency from oak and grape skin, high acidity and alcohol content, and complex flavor. Nevertheless, when these types of wines are paired with food, they may produce very interesting changes, thus showing a unique flavor that should not be perceived when drinking alone.
Wine with food.
Simple, sweet wine without oak barrel culture may be regarded as a common type of various dishes. However, these types of wines can bring relatively limited changes when paired with food, so the matching experience may not be so interesting.
The most effective way to apply these rules to practice is to carefully study typical successful combinations and analyze the reasons for their success. If we understand the internal reasons, we can find similar wines and successfully match them with food. For example, muscat wine and champagne are not cultivated in oak barrels, have no bitter ingredients, and will not become more bitter because of the umami taste of oysters; Its taste is light and elegant, and it will not overshadow the light taste of oysters; The acidity is very high. Even if oysters and lemon juice are eaten together, the taste of wine is still full of vitality and refreshing, so they are a good choice with oysters. Then other wines that meet these conditions should also be well matched with oysters. For example, Rias Baixas Albarino of Alvario in Xiawan producing area and Semillon of Hunter Valley in Hunter Valley.
Other ways to mix food and wine alone.
Let's use the above principles to evaluate the rules of table wine collocation that we often encounter in our daily life.
Collocation or contrast of tastes
In the collocation of food and wine, one of the most widely used concepts is that the flavor in food is similar or opposite to that in wine. For example, when paired with wine with smoked, spiced, game or cream flavor, dishes with smoked, spiced, game or cream flavor may be very successful. However, success does not depend on whether it matches the flavor, but on the interaction between the structural components of food (sugar, oil/fat, salt, etc.). ) and wine (sugar, alcohol, acid, tannin, etc. )? . If the structural components can be successfully matched, the matching or contrast of flavors can bring more fun, but if the structural components fail, the matching of table wine will not be successful.
Conclusion: Structural components are more important than flavor.
Local wine and local food
For local dishes, the best wine to go with it may be the wine from the local area. This can be regarded as an entry-level suggestion for table wine collocation, because for the producing areas with a long history of wine making, the table wine collocation will inevitably evolve together. For example, if some wines taste bad with all local foods, the winery may replant other grape varieties that are more suitable for local foods, or people may increase the salinity or acidity of food in areas where high-tannin wines are more common, such as Italy. However, most producing areas will produce all kinds of wines (red wine or white wine; Fruity or tannic; Sweet or dry; Simple or complex), in this case, the above suggestions are not so helpful, but it is necessary to know some principles of food and wine collocation, which can help you make a choice when pairing food and wine. At the same time, many delicious foods originated from little or no wine production, so we should also consider how to match these foods with wine, even if the conclusion may be that some of these foods are difficult or impossible to match with wine successfully. On the contrary, the food in some wine producing areas is not very good. In order to match wines from such producing areas, there should be some principles to help us find food suitable for these wines.
Summary: It is not "everything" to match local food with local wine.
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Red wine with red meat and white wine with fish.
The first half of this sentence is based on the fact that tannins in red wine can combine with protein in red meat, thus softening the astringency of red wine. However, although tannins do combine with protein (when highlighting red wine, matching with food is not so important. On the contrary, it is the salt in meat dishes that softens tannins. The second part of this sentence is based on the strong umami flavor of some fish, which will make red wine taste more bitter and astringent. However, this can be offset by the salinity and acidity that are common in most fish dishes. It is even more inevitable that the ingredients in red wine react with very greasy (blue) fish to produce a metallic taste. For such fish, it is safer to match it with white wine. So let's go back to this rule: it's important to consider all the ingredients of a dish (especially sauces and side dishes) with what wine. If the structural components of a dish can be matched with wine, then white wine can also be matched with red meat, and red wine can also be matched with fish.
Conclusion: This rule can avoid mistakes, but it also misses many opportunities.
Looking for a perfect match
There are many well-known classic foods and wines: goat cheese goat cheese with Sansel Sancerre；; Oysters with musk wine or champagne; Stilton blue cheese Stilton with port wine; Manzania olives. Most people (not everyone) will think that these classic combinations are very successful, delicious and food and wine complement each other. The success of these classical combinations is due to the interaction between different structural components (salinity, sweetness, acidity, etc.). ) food and wine, which also inspires people, for every dish, there is a perfect style of wine. According to this idea, chefs and sommeliers can work together to make some fine-tuning in ingredients and cooking techniques, or pay more attention to details in wine selection (in which year? Who is the manufacturer? ), in pursuit of "perfect match". The best result is that they can find this perfect match and get the approval of most guests. However, because people's sensitivity and personal taste preferences are very different, even this perfect collocation can't guarantee that all guests like it.
Conclusion: There is no such thing as a perfect match objectively.
References: WSET3