For successful wine and food pairings

Many people are leery about picking the “wrong” wine, having heard fast-rules like “white wine with white meat, red wine with red meat,” and contradictions to it. Pairing wine with food is supposed to be fun and exciting—not stressful. If you find yourself feeling anxious, take a deep breath and relax, perhaps pour yourself a glass of wine. Renowned chef and Wine Educator of Beringer Vineyards, Jerry Comfort demystifies pairings with a simple exercise to show how sweet, sour and salty flavors in foods affect wines. Here’s what you need: a slice of red apple, a lemon wedge, salt, white wine (like Sauvignon Blanc), red wine (like Cabernet Sauvignon) and water to cleanse your palate. Follow the steps below and jot down your observations.

1. Take a bite of the apple, then take a sip of white wine

2. Taste the lemon, then taste the wine

3. Do the same with the salt

4. Squeeze lemon over the remaining apple, then sprinkle salt before tasting the white wine

Cleanse your palate in between. Repeat steps 1-4, this time with the red wine. You can try pairing chicken broth (for that umami flavor) with the wines to see what happens.

Beringer Vineyards Welcomes Pauli Antoine to The Hudson House
On the restaurant level, I espouse the “Wine is King” approach that shifts the responsibility of wine and food pairing from the customer to the chef. Since the taste of the wine is a given, the flavor of the food is the other part of the equation that can be adjusted. A skilled chef, after knowing the customer’s food and wine choice, can come up with a wonderful match by carefully adjusting the acidity, salt level or the sweetness of the food to achieve a balance of flavors. The successful pairing is what creates an extraordinary dining experience, and the customer will leave completely satisfied without even knowing why.