What rules can you follow? The wrong mix can spoil the taste of your wine. Was it easier in the past? Experts offer some great tips.
Past and present
Wine used to be Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône, Spain, Italy and a little bit of Germany. And you knew: white with fish, Bordeaux or Spanish with meat, Burgundy with game. In the last 30 years the supply from other areas has grown considerably and the great wines of the classic areas are almost impossible to afford. How can you still see the forest through these trees?
The wine world has changed a lot
Nowadays you can get just about anything in the Netherlands. Producers from all over the world are eager to sell to the Netherlands. Wines that catch on here can then be marketed in the rest of Europe. One consequence, however, is that the glut in the supply of wine is gigantic. An extreme example is the blue wine that was very popular in the Netherlands this year; white wine with a natural dye. A striking gift of course if you don't know anything else for someone's birthday.
These days we want new things all the time
The Netherlands is the only country in Europe where more (60%) red wine is drunk. Rosé and sparkling wines were popular for a while, but are on the wane again. It is the role of the importer and retailer to make the choices in that huge supply and to guide the consumer. The story behind a good wine and the education of the consumer is most important in this.
New trend
The big trend we see is that fewer and fewer luxury wines are being sold, but the demand for good, affordable wines is high. The desired flavors are all a bit lighter and easier. The downside is that in the pairings with dishes, you'll soon go wrong, so it's nice to get a bit of guidance from some tips.
Find the similarities
Combine sweet with sweet, sour with sour, spicy with spicy, et cetera. A tight wine with a tight dish. A slightly more acidic cheese like goat goes well with a wine that is itself fresh and acidic, such as a Sauvignon Blanc. A fatty farmer's cheese, or fatty cheeses like Epoisses or Camembert give a thin greasy layer on your tongue; a filmy one. You can pair that "filmy" well with a more "fatty" wine like Viognier or wood-aged Chardonnay. A Brie de Meaux does well with a Chardonnay from the new world (Australia, South Africa, South America), which often have a bit more fat and alcohol and a bit less acid. Salty dishes like oysters and mussels go well with wines that naturally have some of that, such as a Muscadet.
Find the contradiction
With strong flavors in wine and dish, you can also let the contrast work. A salty, sharper cheese like a blue vein goes very well with a sweet wine like Sauternes, Monbazillac, a Muscat or Port.
Don't start too heavy
Food and wine should both be built up slowly. The same goes for a cheese board: with a cheese board, a good restaurant will tell you in what order you should eat the cheeses, because after a heavy cheese, the mild cheeses fall away. So the order in which you drink your wine or eat your dishes is important. Otherwise, a cheese board is often difficult to pair with one type of wine because the cheeses differ precisely in acid, in fat and in salt, and each cheese calls for a different accompaniment.
From the region
You used to be pretty close if your dish and your wine came from the same region. Flavors among producers develop with what is already being eaten or drunk nearby. Epoisses from Burgundy go well with white wine from Burgundy for a reason. Mussel casserole from the Loire? Muscadet. But so much good wine is being made in many other wine regions today. A "new" region like the Pays d'Oc offers wines from all kinds of grapes, and often with decent quality. And Gewürztraminer also comes from Chile and New Zealand.
Get inspired
A good retailer will try to offer a wide distinctive range, in taste and story. He knows what he has to offer and will be able to advise you which wine will do well where. For many delis, the wine selection is not the biggest specialty of the house, but often there is a very attractive package.
Wines with cheeses
White
- Sparkling wines can be paired with almost all cheeses.
- Sauvignon Blanc goes well with mozzarella, with herb cheeses, Cantal or young mature Dutch and young goat cheese.
- Chardonnay, a wine with sometimes a little, and sometimes a hefty buttery flavor, goes nicely with creamy cheeses, such as Brie, Camembert, Reblochon, Triple Crème or full-fat Dutch cheeses. The more spicy among the Chardonnays also call for spicier cheeses, like tomme de Savoie, Morbier, Tête de Moine, Leidse Boeren or Frisian Nagelkaas.
- Grüner Veltliner goes nicely with cheeses with a delicate pâte, but all goat cheeses also pair well. And birch cheeses like Comté and Gruyère.
- Pinot Grigio also goes well with mountain cheeses.
Red
- Merlot goes nicely with a saint Nectaire or a mild fruity cheese like Emmentaler, or a milder sheep's cheese.
- Spanish Garnacha, with soft red fruit in the taste, can go with Munster, Grana Padano, Pecorino or Taleggio.
- Tempranilio with a lot of wood/vanilla (such as red Rioja) goes well with older Dutch cheeses and blue-veined cheese. Firm sheep's cheeses also go well with this wine.
- Shiraz/Syrah gives spicy wine and it can accompany hard Dutch and Italian cheeses, but also mountain cheeses and blue cheeses such as Stilton and Blue d'Auvergne.
Other combinations
- Rosé is great with lunch and with salads. Especially the more powerful rosés can go with anything.
- Sparkling wines are ideal if you have a large number of different appetizers together (different cheeses, meats, salad, soft fruit), with the exception of really sweet appetizers).
- Nice, old delicate wine? A nice bottle from your vintage or a top wine from Bordeaux? What you should eat with it? Nothing! Give such a special wine its own stage and give it all the attention. Even a Frenchman will not serve his top wine with the main course, at most with a piece of cheese or with a piece of bread.
- Nuts do not go very well with wine, and especially salted nuts should be avoided. If you want to pair nuts, pair them with a strong sherry or Vin santo (which also goes well with cantuccini, almond cookies). Vin santo itself has something nutty in its flavor.
- Raw ham, such as Parma ham, goes well with a red Italian, such as Sangiovese or a Montepulciano. With serrano ham a Tempranillo, but preferably not a wine full of wood aging.
- Other charcuterie: lightly chilled, red wine (16° C).
- Peppered sausages such as spicy salami, pepperfuet, chorizo: a spicy red wine, such as a Syrah or a Spanish Crianza (with wood aging).
- Red meat with red Spanish (Tempranillo) or Cabernet Sauvignon.
- White fish and fish fillets call for a fresh wine like Sauvignon Blanc, a Pinot Blanc or a Grüner Veltliner. More aromatic fish calls for Chardonnay.
- Smoked fish wants a wine with a smoky accent, such as Champagne, Pinot Gris or Sancerre.
Choose the dish with the wine
Which wine to drink with which dish is quite a difficult choice. In the following overview we do not start from the dish, but from the wine itself. Note: these are only guidelines, in the end you decide what you like to taste with your wine. Of course you can also choose nothing at all!
Sparkling wine and Champagne
Sparkling wine goes well with salty dishes such as caviar, anchovies and sushi. But also with fish, shellfish, chicken and other poultry. Which wines: most sparkling wines.
Dry white wine
Dry white wine goes well with dishes with vegetables such as salad, sauteed vegetables and roasted vegetables. But also with hearty fish and chicken. Which wines: albariño, grüner veltliner, gargenega, muscadet, pinot gris, sauvignon blanc, trebbiana and vermentino.
Sweeter white wine (note no dessert wine)
Sweet white wine goes well with spicy and tangy food, such as Indian, Thai and Chinese. But also with fatty fish and chicken. Which wines: chenin blanc, gewürztraminer, moscato, riesling and torrontes.
Full-bodied white wine
Full-bodied white wine goes well with creamy dishes such as creamy soup, pasta with cream, lasagna, French cuisine. But also with seafood, chicken and other poultry. Which wines: chardonnay, sémillon, viognier, marsanne and roussanne.
Pink wine
Rose wine goes well with richly spiced food such as Moroccan and Indian spicy dishes. But also with seafood, pork tenderloin, chicken and other poultry. Which wines: most dry rose wines.
Light red wine
Light red wine goes well with dishes with mushrooms, such as risotto, mushroom pasta, savory pie, white pizza and French cuisine. But also with pork chops, chicken and other poultry. What wines: pinot noir, St. Laurent, gamay, carignan, counoise.
Medium red wine
Medium red wine goes well with grilled food, such as in Italian and Spanish cuisine. But also with pork, duck, lamb, dried ham and sausage. Which wines: sangiovese, tempranillo, cabernet franc, barbera, merlot, negroamaro, zinfandel, carmenere, nebbiolo.
Full-bodied red wine
Full-bodied red wine goes well with rich meat; roasted, smoked and grilled (barbecue) meat. But also with beef, lamb, pork, game, sausage stone dried ham. Which wines: cabernet sauvignon, syrah, malbec, petite sirah, petit verdot, mourvedre, nero d'avola.
Dessert wine
Dessert wine goes well with sweets like cake, cookies, chocolate and ice cream. But also with soft cheeses and fruit. Which wines: port, Tawny port, sherry, sauternes, madeira, vin santo, muscat and late harvested wines.
General guidelines
Old(er) wines usually have a more pronounced taste and therefore young wines should always be drunk before older, heavy wines. Also, sweet white wines are only served after dry white wines. When cooking with wine, try to serve the wine that you put in the food with the dish. Serve a wine from the same region or country as the dish. Sometimes you can also find some information on the wine label in the store as to what a particular wine goes well with.
Wine and soup
Every dish is served with a matching wine, except soup. Because, with liquid you don't pour new wine. There is one exception: oxtail soup. A glass of madeira may be served with that. The wine you have left over from your appetizers can of course be served with your soup.
The right temperature
Do you want to be able to serve all your wines at the right temperature? Then take a look at our range of wine serving cabinets. Here you can choose between wine cabinets with 2, 3 or multi temperature zones. Especially with the multi zone cabinet, you can put all your different wines at the right serving temperature.
Source: https://www.rudykookt.nl
