Drinking Wine With a Meal
by karl 10 months ago

Tricks and tips for deepening your enjoyment of wine and food.

Food and wine compatibility

Finding the right wine to accompany a given meal is not easy. We would like to provide you with a few guidelines. Everyone knows that white wine goes with fish and that reds are accompanied best by meat. This is usually true but a white wine can also be enjoyed with a white meat. Do avoid, however, a good red wine with seafood and a white wine with a main course of red meat. For a regional specialty, it's often best to choose a wine from the same area. A fois gras is best savored with a Cahors, a Madiran or a Jurançon. A plate of saurkraut demands a Riesling or another dry wine from Alsace. As for cheese, red wine is not obligatory, especially for sweeter cheeses like goat or sheep. Desserts, though, do call for a more sugary white, the sweeter the dessert. Too sweet of a wine can interfere with your pallet, making the dessert seem faded and boring.

Factors influencing the wine

Temperature has an enormous influence on the taste of wine. The hotter it gets, the stronger and more acidic it seems. A colder wine feels more astringent and sour. The longer a wine has been open, the more balanced and softer it becomes. Therefore, you should always open a decent bottle of red wine about an hour before you plan to drink it, especially if it's a wine younger than two years old. Many other factors can change the composition, including the cork, noise, exterior odors, objects near the wine, and the glass of the wine bottle itself. If the wine has been moved recently, let it rest a few days before you drink it.

Drinking order

You should usually start a meal with white wine, then move to reds. Start your repast with dry wines then move to sweet; lighter wines before heavier, colder wines before lukewarm and young wines before aged. If you're corking a prestigious vintage, it's definitely better to start the meal with something else. This way, you're sure to appreciate the superior wine more when the splendid moment arrives.

Should you use a decanter?

Pouring your wine into a decanter helps air it out, thus balancing and softening it. It's especially helpful to do this for a sour wine. The same goes for an aged wine. Take care not to pour the deposits, sometimes found at the bottom of the bottle, into the decanter.

Wine at what temperature?

Types of wines have different temperatures at which their character can be appreciated most, whether it's a more acidic wine or a rounder wine. Reds should generally be tasted between 13°C and 15°C (55° and 59°F) when still young and light. Warm them a bit more to between 14°C and 16°C (57° and 61° F) when they are older and have more structure. Even more complex reds can be enjoyed between 17°C-18°C (61-63° F).

Mostly, whites and rosés are to be chilled to 7°C and 10°C (45° and 50° F) and 11°C and 14°C (52 and 57° F) for more complex wines. Sparkling wines like Champagne and the "Crémants" need to be colder, between 6°C et 8°C (43° and 46° F), up to 10° C (50° F) for higher-quality Champagnes.

Cooling and warming wine

To warm a wine, just take it out of the cellar in order to attain room temperature. If you have an opened bottle that has already been served, hold the bulb of the wine glass in your palm. Cool a wine by putting it in its cellar or in the refrigerator or even in a champagne bucket filled with ice water. A wine thermometer can be used to get the right level of warmth or chill but remember it's always better to serve a wine cold. It will warm up nicely soon after being served.

What kind of wineglass?

There are a multitude of wineglasses available today. It all depends on your budget and how much you're willing to spend. The best glasses for everyday wines are normal wineglasses. Tulip-shaped, transparent and clear, they have enough volume to air the wine (250 to 400 ml). The edge of the glass should be as thin as possible. Use two different glasses for white and red wine.

What kind of bottle opener?

Screw-pull, pulltaps, or sommelier... it doesn't really matter, as long as the cork is damaged as little as possible and isn't punctured.

temperature, wine and food compatibility, wineglasses, decanter, bottle-opener