The Chemistry behind Combining Foods with Wine

The natural flavors of wine derive from various elements – sugars, acidity, fruits, tannins, alcohol. On the other hand, foods also tend to get their specific character by things like fat, salt, sweetness, acid or bitterness. It’s said that the best combinations between wine and food are those that merge all components and turn them into a harmonic richness of textures. Of course, in order to get the main idea behind today’s topic, you will need to have at least some basic knowledge about wine. But you already have it, right? If in doubt, be sure to check this article and learn some new interesting stuff about wine itself. So, without further ado, here’s what you need to have in mind in order to achieve the perfect combinations:

1. Fats

Let’s admit it – a big part of our favorite foods tend to contain fats. Luckily, wine isn’t known to have any, so that’s where it can ‘rise and shine’. Wine should create balance with its acidity, but it should also dominate over the fats with its tannins. It’s not that simple, huh!?

2. Acids

In general, acidity can give a lot of freshness to both wine and foods. This is why you should be cautious when choosing wine for a sour meal. “Being too good is also not good”, right? In such cases you have to be sure that the wine’s acidity is at least equal to the one of the food. Otherwise you might end up with a ‘weaker’ taste.

3. Salt

What you have to remember here is that salty foods usually limit the choice of wine. That’s because salt can turn the light taste of Chardonnay into a very strange, unpleasant feeling. Or it may also give a highly acidic wine quite an uncommon bitterness, which is also not nice. However, with a pinch of imagination you can easily achieve brilliant combinations between salty foods and sweet wine. TIP: Champagne is thought to go well with most of the salty meals. You might give it a try and tell us what you think!

4. Bitterness

Do you want to have a real good mixture between your food and the drink? Then make sure the bitter notes are very slight. When we combine more bitter wines with bittery food, both tastes just complement each other. But, of course, you always have to be careful!

5. Sweetness

With desserts and all sweet foods it seems much easier, doesn’t it? You can simply open a bottle of sweet wine and voila. There’s one ‘rule’, though! If you don’t want to get the impression that the wine is bitter, you have to make sure the drink is always sweeter than the food. OK, to end this article we will now pay attention to what goes well with champagne. Keep reading! Except for salty meals (as you already know), champagne is thought to make a pretty good combinations with fruits, nuts and all kinds of mushrooms. If you’re a fan of cheese, you can always use hard ones and mix them with a glass of wine as well. Last but not least, in case you would prefer to have some meat, specialists say that bird meat, veal, pork and lamb are actually very well combined with the ‘sparkling wine’. For a variety of food and wine combinations, you can always rely on us! Click here to shop!