Pairing Food & Wine -

“Pairing wine and food is an art, not a science.”

As you start your journey into drinking wine, it will become apparent really fast that pairing food and wine is necessary in order to truly get the full experience of a wine and to complement a meal the best way possible. In general, we recommend drink and eat what you like. However, if you take some easy steps when choosing which food or wine to consume, your experience will be enhanced like no other.

Pairing Food & Wine Basics

Our goal is to help others learn how to enjoy wine the best way possible. A critical part of enjoying wine to the fullest is to pair it with the food you are eating to enhance both the food and the wine. Here are a list of things to consider when pairing wine with your food (or visa versa).

Red wines tend to pair best with meats with strong flavors, usually red meats.
White wines tend to pair best with lighter flavored meals and meat, like chicken & seafood.
Try to pair the wine with the sauce on the meat, rather than the meat on dishes where there is a lot of sauce (like pasta)
Meals with high acidity (like tomato based pasta sauce) should be paired with wines with high acidity.
Fatty foods pair best with bitter wines (like a ribeye and a cabernet)
Sweet wines go well with sweet food (like dessert wines)
There are two ways to pair wine and food, congruent (wine & dish share flavors) and complementary (do not share flavors).

Congruent – this is typically a red wine that is paired with a dish. The flavors in the wine and the food are both elevated this way. But remember that the food should never overpower the wine, otherwise the wine will just taste bland and very underwhelming. Complementary – these combinations of wine and food share no flavors, but they do complement each other. A good example of this is a sweet wine paired with a spicy dish. The sweetness will tone down the spiciness and the flavors in both the wine and the dish will be enhanced.

Pair By Wine Type

Red Wine Type Bordeaux Food Pairing Cabernet Food Pairing Cabernet Franc Food Pairing Chianti Food Pairing Malbec Food Pairing Merlot Food Pairing Montepulciano Food Pairing Pinot Noir Food Pairing Rosé Food Pairing Sangiovese Food Pairing Syrah Food Pairing Tempranillo Food Pairing Zinfandel Food Pairing

White Wine Type

Chardonnay Food Pairing

Grüner Veltliner Food Pairing

Pinot Grigio Food Pairing

Moscato Food Pairing

Riesling Food Pairing Sauvignon Blanc Food Pairing

Pair By Food Type

Meat Type BBQ Chicken Duck Fish Ham Lamb Pork Seafood Steak Turkey

Other Foods Cheese Curry Dessert Nuts Pasta Pizza Salad Soup Vegetables

Pair By Region

Europe Wine With English Food Wine With French Food Wine With German Food Wine With Irish Food Wine With Italian Food Wine With Polish Food

Asia Wine With Chinese Food Wine With Filipino Food Wine With Indian Food Wine With Japanese Food Wine With Korean Food Wine With Thai Food Wine With Vietnamese Food

North & South America Wine With American Food Wine With Brazilian Food Wine With Cajun & Creole Food Wine With Cuban Food Wine With Jamaican Food Wine With Mexican Food Wine With Puerto Rican Food

Mediterranean & Africa Wine With Greek Food Wine With Lebanese Food Wine With Mediterranean Food Wine With Spanish Food

Pairing Wine With Ribeyes & Prime Rib

Pairing Wine With Cigars

Pairing Wine With Chocolate

Food & Wine Pairings To Avoid

There are some pairings that do not go well together and can actually make the food and the wine taste worse. In these scenarios you would be better off to just drink water or a different drink with the meal, and then enjoy the glass of wine after the meal. Unless you can find a wine that does go well with your meal. Learn more about which pairings don’t go well together above.