Tips for achieving the ideal pairing

Finding the ideal pairing is not an easy task. However, it is essential to know which ones can work best, so that the dish you choose can complement each other and enhance the flavour of your wine. Our expert sommelier Claudio Comella has some simple tips and recommendations up his sleeve that can help you make the best decision.

1. Matching by colour

A tip that can help you choose the perfect combination is to look for a wine that has a similar color to the main ingredient of your dish. Thus, for example, a salmon can go very well with fine wines, such as orange wines.

2. Get away from myths

We should not be guided by the idea that red wine must be combined with meat and that white wine can only be combined with fish. One example: a Riesling, a German white wine from the Alsace area that is usually eaten with pork or wild boar.

3. Matching by affinity

A good strategy to choose your food and wine combination can be that of affinity pairing, that is, those in which the flavours are not disturbed. Following this idea, if we have a very fine dish like, for example, sushi, an ideal wine would be one that is delicate, discreet and subtle, with low alcohol content and tannins, no skin maceration and a very contained acidity. On the contrary, the strongest dishes will ask us for a greater forcefulness and power of flavor, more wood and tannins.

4. Pairing by contrast

In a pairing by contrast, what we seek is that the flavors of wine and food are compensated. So, for example, if we have a very salty hard cheese, we can look for a wine to counteract the salt. In that case, a semi-dry wine such as a Kabinett that also has a touch of acidity could be very good, which also provides a dynamic in the mouth, making all the sensations much more agile on the palate.

5. Regional pairing

Regional pairing can also serve as a good strategy. A good example of this is a raw unpasteurized milk cheese from the traditional French Loire region, which can go very well with a white Sauvignon Blanc wine from the same area.