The wine and the food
Finding the right pairing wine-food is the point of arrival of the tasting, of one and the other. The analysis of the sensory perceptions coming from the tasting of wines and foods allows us to make some considerations. First of all, in evaluating the combinations, we would first of all consider the gustatory perceptions, that is how mouth and taste buds they react to contact with dishes on the one hand and wines on the other. We will therefore temporarily put aside the visual and (at least partly) olfactory considerations and we will try to combine the gustatory and palatal sensations of food on the one hand and on wine on the other.
Sensations inherent in food
Foods give us sensations whose spectrum takes into account the sweetness (deriving from sugar, in sweets and in dessert), the trend Dolce and softness which is found combined with carbohydrates (in starchy bread, pasta) with proteins (meat, legumes) with fats in cured meats; there flavor (for example in cheese seasoned and in many cured meats); there speciatura and spiciness (inherent in food but also due to cooking and adding the same spices during or after cooking); there acid tendency (in some greens and vegetables and in sauces); there bitter trend (in vegetables but also in meats, above all game); there succulence (i.e. the presence of abundant liquids inside the food, such as in rare meats); there grassezza and l 'greasiness (in cheeses, cured meats, in many meats).
Sensations inherent in wine
At the level gustativo the most important sensations are the flavor and freshness or acidity (as in White wines Young people); there sweetness; l 'alcoholicity and the resulting pseudocaloric sensation; the tannin in Red wines; The structure and in general the body of the wine; the major or minor softness conferred by sugar alcohols, minerals and other substances dissolved in wine.
Match the flavors
- The first rule says that sweet wines should be served with sweets and desserts. The sweetness tends to cover all the other tastes for which any dry wine would be overwhelmed or squeak if matched with a sweet or dessert;
- The sensations morbid, Those basically sweet grassezza and l 'greasiness are compensated and tend to be enhanced by freshness, acidity andeffervescence. To the fish we will accompany for this reason White wines and leavened cakes, with XNUMX/XNUMX cup salted butter or creams of the wines sparkling desserts;
- La flavor it is compensated and enhanced by the softness of wine, such as that we find in some very structured white wines or in some red wines obtained from specific vines and long aging;
- La succulence needs to be compensated with a slight astringency effect, which dries gums and palate, like that of some great reds obtained from vines characterized by a marked tannicity;
- Finally, the structure of the food must be combined with the structure of the wine on equal levels. A food intense and structured with can be accompanied with a wine light and delicate, and vice versa.
In the following sections we will see in detail numerous examples of pairing dishes and wines.
