Best match

If you wish to highlight your best wine bottles, nothing beats a good meal! Although there are many options for pairing food and wine, some are more famous than others.

Complementarity or Contrast? To achieve the best food and wine pairing, there are two main principles: complementarity and contrast.

Complementary Pairings If you aim to offer a classic pairing and balance the flavors of the dish and the wine, it is best to focus on complementarity. This involves choosing a wine with aromatic notes that are similar to those of the dish. With a light dish, choose a light wine. With a fairly rich dish, opt for a powerful wine, and with a very rich dish, choose a very powerful wine. With an acidic dish, also choose an acidic wine...

With light dishes, such as seafood or fish, white wine is a quality choice. A Muscadet or Riesling will enhance the delicate flavors of the dish without overpowering them.

With rich dishes, such as lamb stew, serving a powerful wine like a Cabernet Franc offers an excellent pairing. Regarding meat, "color pairings" often work well. With red meat, tannic red wines are generally recommended to balance the rich protein flavors. With white meat, drier than red meat, white wines are often preferred to avoid enhancing the sensation of astringency in the mouth. Fish also pairs better with white wine.

With dishes containing lemon, choosing a wine with good acidity is a good idea. Thus, Sauvignon Blanc, a very aromatic wine with citrus notes, pairs perfectly with lemon sauce fish or chicken tagine with preserved lemons. Pinot Gris, Chenin, or even Chablis are also appellations that work very well with this type of citrus dish.

Finally, with sweet dishes like desserts, you can create a perfect pairing by offering your guests sweet wines, such as Gewürztraminer or fortified wines like Port or Banyuls.

Contrast Pairings Contrast pairings create alliances between dishes and wines that would initially seem to clash in taste but actually complement each other very well. It is possible to play with contrasts in texture and flavor.

For example, with a dish rich in cream, you can choose an acidic wine to counterbalance the creamy texture. There is also another famous example of contrasting food and wine pairing: sweet/salty. With blue cheese, such as Roquefort or Fourme d'Ambert, sweet and liqueur-like wines offer wonderful gustatory experiences! The richness of the cheese ultimately pairs very well with the smoothness of this type of wine.