Wine Myth: Food Pairings

Conventional thinking says white wine goes with fish and red wine with meat.

Not true. The beauty of wine and food pairing is not knowing the rules, but knowing how to break them. And if you know the true secret to matching, then creating magic is easy.

Here it is: what matters most is not whether the dish is meat or fish, but the dominant flavour of the dish. For example, a firm tuna steak with a Provençal sauce of olives, garlic, capers, tomatoes, etc, can easily take a lightly tannic red, such as a Pinot Noir, young Chianti (Sangiovese) or Merlot.

Conversely, a rib-eye steak smothered in a blue cheese, mushroom and cream sauce would go a treat with an oaked, mature white Burgundy or New World Chardonnay. But if ever in doubt, Champagne goes with everything!

Linda Johnson-Bell is the author of Pairing Wine and Food: A Handbook for All Cuisines. For more information, visit her website: www.thewinelady.com

Originally published in the October-November 2013 issue of France Today