Wine and food pairing can be intriguing. For any pairing, you must always keep an open mind and give space for new combinations that can be tastier. Consuming food can affect how the wine tastes, and the wine can also affect the taste of your food.

Food and wine pairing seek to take advantage of the effects so that you can enjoy the food and wine more when paired instead of enjoying them separately. If you are successful with your pairings, you will experience more enjoyment and pleasure during your dining. Here are some excellent wine and food pairings that you might want to try.

Friends gathering having Italian food together with tasty wine pairings

Monterey Chardonnay With Wild Mushroom Risotto

Mushroom risotto makes many types of wines taste delicious. The taste will, however, depend on the ingredients of your mushroom risotto. Since the dish is creamy and savory, Monterey Chardonnay will pair very well with it. To get the best out of the pairing, you can ensure that your dish contains onion, garlic, and celery. These three ingredients will give a nice flavor when taken with the wine and make the wine taste better.

Duck and Pinot Noir

Duck is delicious and versatile meat. The meat has gamey flavors, and it can be used in a wide range of dishes, thus making it quite enjoyable with wine pairing. Pinot Noir goes well with such pairing since duck can be a little fatty and rich. However, it is not as strong as other game meats.

You must choose a wine with good acidity and freshness if you want to balance the duck’s fat. Your wine should have a fruity and smoky aroma to pair well with the flavors of your duck meat. Since the fat content in the duck is not very high, you can keep the wine tannins at medium or low.

Salmon and Chilled Pinot Noir

Salmon is a reasonably versatile fish; therefore, the pairing can depend on your salmon and how you cook it. The wine pairing also depends on the side dishes you use for the salmon. With salmon, you must avoid pairing it with full-bodied red wines as the flavors of both the fish and the wine will die.

If you are serving seared salmon, especially the farmed varieties, a chilled Pinot Noir would be a great option. The wine will pick up the salmon’s richness ideally, and you will also enjoy the caramelized crust. The good thing is that you will not lose any flavor from your tasty salmon or chilled Pinot Noir. Farmed salmon has a coarse taste and fatty texture compared to wild salmon. Therefore, avoid white wine as a pairing for your fattier salmon as you won’t get the best flavor.

Crab and Australian Riesling

When you pair seafood with the right type of wine, you enjoy a novel experience in your mouth. Although most people believe that seafood can only be paired well with white wine, red wine and rose wine can also give you a perfect pairing. Riesling wine can match crab beautifully as it is fresh, especially when cold. Australian Riesling will reveal the crab’s authentic flavors giving an excellent after taste with its zesty notes. To enhance the flavors, you can add a squeeze of lemon to add to the food’s acidity. The balance on this pairing can be so natural and straightforward.

Steak and Californian Cabernet Sauvignon

Steak and Californian Cabernet Sauvignon is natural and perfect because of the chemistry between the two. During the processing of Californian Cabernet Sauvignon, the grape skins tannins deliver a bitter and astringent taste to your taste buds. When tannins bind with the steak protein, the taste is exquisite. When paired, the tannins in the Sauvignon bind with the proteins of your natural saliva, thus making the wine a little astringent. The overall taste of the steak and Californian Cabernet Sauvignon is smooth as the fats in the proteins will wash the tannins on your tongue. You can never go wrong with this pairing.

Pairing food and wine does not have to be complicated. You only need a few simple guidelines on what pairs best with white wine and which food matches well with red wine. Experimenting with the pairings can be fun, and with the experience, you can create the best potential matches that will dramatically improve your dish and wine taste.