The best wines and worst foods for pairings
This issue was published on May 31, 2023.
Happy Wine Wednesday!
I hope you were all able to enjoy the long weekend!
Today, I’m diving into the why and how of food pairings and chatting with Steph Waters, a sommelier and wine bar tasting consultant in New Jersey.
But! Before we get our wine nerd on, I want to share some exciting news.
Drum roll please…
On Wednesday, July 19th, I’ll be hosting a (free!) virtual, BYOB wine tasting with the fantastic leadership development consultant, Valerie Lynn. We’ll be doing a side-by-side tasting of cabernet sauvignons from Napa and the Willamette Valley, and Valerie will be diving into leadership skills and exercises for attendees.
I’ll be sharing more information as we get closer to the event, but feel free to register to save a spot and get all the details via Eventbrite here!
Now, onto the wine and food.
Pairing Food with Wine
History and Science, Kind Of
Wine and food have been a thing for thousands of years. In fact, for most of Europe’s history, wine was basically food. And water. Aka a truly essential part of life. In fact, they would probably think that the fact that we a.) don’t drink wine with every meal and b.) have to think and talk about how to pair food and wine is completely bonkers!
Before we get into the “rules” of food and wine pairings, it’s important to remember the end goal: joy and comfort. Not every pairing has to be The Best Pairing! Sometimes you have whatever food you have and want to finish that bottle that’s left over. Or you’ve ordered Pizza Hut, you’re ready to have a couch day, and does it really matter if the wine you open pairs well with Pizza Hut? No. But does it make you happy? Or, in the case of a Pizza Hut couch day, provide some comfort? Yes. All of the following should be taken into consideration with that in mind.
Back to the Proper Pairings.
The popularity of food and wine pairings is actually pretty recent in the United States. It wasn’t until the 80s that there was an explosion in food magazines pairing wine with their recipes, restaurants offering food and wine dinners, and American wine labels suggesting dishes for pairings. Of course, while this all started as a new and exciting way to increase the enjoyment you get from your food and wine, it also quickly became confusing and anxiety-inducing.
What also makes it difficult is that you’re rarely eating just one thing. What if you have pork with a side of spicy veggies and rice pilaf with coriander, raisins, and nuts? How is one supposed to pair a perfect wine to go with all of the above?
It’s overwhelming. They didn’t have to think about this thousands of years ago! Although, to be fair, they didn’t have this many options then. An Italian grandmother cooking pasta in Tuscany drank sangiovese not because she knew the acidity in the wine balanced the acidity in her tomato sauce, but because that’s what was around.
So first, let’s go back to basics.
If you can remember from elementary school, the taste buds on your tongue can detect 5 flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Those taste buds have primarily served us by ensuring our survival! Sweet, sour, and salty helped us find nutrients, while bitter warned us of potential poison. On the other hand, humans are able to detect tens of thousands of compounds that, for our purposes, we’ll call flavors/aromas. This comes partly from when you smell through your nose, but also from vapor created from chewing your food that travels up to your olfactory bulb.
Food and wine pairing isn’t about focusing on the flavors - partly because who wants to deal with pairing for tens of thousands of flavors? Pairing is about focusing on the five tastes while the flavors accentuate the pleasure from the taste buds. If you can focus on pairing the wine with that core taste in your dish, you’ll be a pairing pro in no time!
First: Always pair with the protein.
Let’s say you have steak with mashed potatoes and side salad. You’re going to grab a bold red to pair with the beef. Have spicy chicken wings? Grab an off-dry Riesling to balance the spice in the chicken. Instead of trying to pair with every single element of the dish, focusing on pairing with the protein will help you narrow down your options!
Now, let’s pair wines by their acid levels, the sour taste -
Low acid white wine (like chardonnay or viognier): Acidic foods will balance out the wine to make it fruitier. This could be foods with vinegar, like a salad dressing, fruit, or some acidic vegetables
High acid white wine (like sauvignon blanc or dry riesling): A salty and bitter dish will benefit from the high acid which reduces the salty sensation
High acid red wine (like sangiovese/Chianti, pinot noir): Fatty foods will taste amazing when the acidity in the red wine cuts through them
Onto the sweet taste, where it gets interesting.
Sugar is hard to pair with. It tends to dull flavors, leading to a boring pairing. This is why you often simply pair desserts with dessert wines, which also tend to be sweet. On the other hand, sweet or off-dry wines (like rieslings) go perfectly with spicy foods.
When you talk about fruit-forward dishes (a combination of sweet and sour), you’ll want to look for wines that are also fruit-forward with fruit-heavy aromas. This could be a pork chop with baked apples or a chicken with apricot glaze, and your go-to wines would be Gewürztraminer, muscat, viognier, and riesling.
We talked about how bitter dishes (like one with kale or lots of black pepper) will benefit from high acidity. Red wines that have a lot of bitterness (meaning a high level of tannins) will be elevated by high-protein dishes (like beef). The tannins in the wine bind with the proteins to smooth them out, making that bitterness taste delicious! These are your typical steakhouse wines, like cabernet sauvignon and syrahs (or shiraz, in Australia).
And a final rule-ish of thumb:
When in doubt, go with high acid, or high fruit and low tannin wines. Wines with high acidity (sauvignon blanc, a dry riesling, Chianti, pinot noir) make you want to have some food and, after biting into said food, you’ll want to have another sip of wine. A beautiful step and repeat!
Zinfandel and Châteauneuf-du-Pape are examples of red wines with high fruit and low tannins which are also easy to pair with both simple and complex dishes, whether a grilled chicken or intricate pasta sauce.
Finally, here’s what will probably be the most useful (at least less confusing) part of this issue.
While wine pairing rules can get overwhelming or confusing, it’s really easy to understand wine pairings that are absolutely terrible.
Here’s your list of Do Not Pairs -
Asparagus: A sulfur compound called mercaptan makes wine pairings metallic and also smells like a wine fault
Cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, etc.): These also contain sulfur compounds and, when cooked, can contribute to unpleasant tastes in wines
Eggs: Ditto
Artichoke: Bad news for grilled artichoke season. A compound in artichokes called cynarin inhibits our receptors for salt, acid, and bitterness resulting in a wine that’s unpleasantly sweet
High-iron fish like tuna, haddock, sardines: The iron in the fish makes the wine pairing, well, fishy
Vinegar: Foods high in vinegar (like pickles) can take away the fruit flavors of wine and leave it tasting bitter
Spicy: The capsaicin can make wines high in alcohol taste very hot, and can also exacerbate the bitterness in high tannin red wines. That’s why you’ll want to pair these with a sweeter wine
Wine and food can truly be a beautiful pairing, but only because they are both delicious and can be enjoyed together, not because it’s a cause of stress and anxiety (or because your snobby date said that’s not the right wine to pair with your meal.)
Like I said at the beginning: if you like the wine, you like the food, and you like them together, that’s a perfectly good pairing to me!
Steph Waters
Sommelier and Wine Bar Tasting Consultant
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Merobebe
What first interested you in wine and pursuing a career (and multiple certifications!) in wine?
Steph Waters
I’ve worked in the Employee Benefits industry for 20+ years, coached and umpire women/girls’ lacrosse, and have always been a wine enthusiast. I would visit wine regions throughout the United States and never came across someone that looked like me – a Black Woman in the wine industry. After seeing the movie Uncorked that featured a Black male pursuing his dream of becoming a Master Sommelier, I had an “aha moment” of exploring formal tasting classes.
I attended the Wine School of Philadelphia and took over 25 tasting classes. While attending classes, I became a student of the wine industry and found myself wanting “MORE.” The “MORE” for me was pursuing wine certifications to support my goal of changing the narrative from the wine industry being exclusive to inclusive. Education is the key to opening doors for the BIPOC community and to assist with my long-term goal of opening a wine bar that includes wine tasting, sake tasting, wine education & events, and offering wine merchandise.
Currently, I hold Levels 1 - 3 of Sommelier Certification from the National Wine School, the Wine Educator Certification from the National Wine School, Levels 1 - 2 from WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) in Wine with goals of completing WSET Level 3 and becoming a WSET Wine Educator for Levels 1 - 2. I’m also looking to pursue my WSET Sake Level 1 in 2024!
Merobebe
What does it mean to be a wine bar tasting consultant?
Steph Waters
Being a wine bar tasting consultant means providing guests with “a wine experience.”
Unfortunately, when I traveled for wine tastings before pursuing an education and a career within the wine industry, there was an assumption when I visited wineries that I only drank sweet wines and did not have a [developed] palate. This still is the misperception the wine industry has for Black women.
I make guests feel at home by welcoming them with warm arms – finding out what their interest is with wine and outside of wine, providing background about the estate winery, walking through the wine offerings, and assisting and/or guiding their wine selections. Wine can be overwhelming at times and it’s important to keep it simple, relatable, and fun.
Merobebe
What are some of the most common questions you get as a sommelier?
Steph Waters
Some of the most common questions I get include what my favorite wine is, what’s the difference between a master sommelier and master of wine, how long wine should be stored after opening, and questions about wine glass types.
Merobebe
What challenges have you faced as a woman in the white male-dominated field of sommeliers, and how have you overcome them?
Steph Waters
When I first started working in the industry, if there was a white male colleague working with me, guests would request that the colleague provide their wine tasting experience, since they assumed he had a broader wine knowledge even though that was not the case.
The wine journey has been amazing due to the network I have developed. I have mentors within the wine industry that support and encourage me – a special shoutout to Arden (Sharrott Winery), Melissa (Bâtonnage), and Matt (The Roots Fund). I also have been blessed to be a part of organizations that are doing the work to create opportunities for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging within the wine industry.
These organizations include The Roots Fund, The Hue Society, Bâtonnage, Association of African American Vintners, and Women in Wine New Jersey. My sister in wine Stephanie Love of Epicurious One was recently named the 2023-2024 Dream It Live It Partner with Demeine Estates and stated, “Building your own table on the road to inclusion is not easy and you can’t do it alone, but having partners providing support is invaluable and will make you feel seen.”
I couldn't agree more!
Merobebe
Tell us a little bit about the wine scene in New Jersey! What are the 3-5 things newbies should know?
Steph Waters
French American hybrid grapes Chambourcin, Vidal Blanc, Vignoles are well-known in New Jersey where we have over fifty wineries across four American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). These AVAs are
Outer Coastal Plain
Cape May Peninsula
Warren Hills
Central Delaware Valley (shared with portions of eastern Pennsylvania)
In addition, there are 5 wineries in the United States that can legally call their sparkling wines “Champagne” and two of them are in New Jersey: Renault Winery and Balic Winery.
When you do visit wineries in New Jersey, download the Garden State Wine Growers Association (GSWGA) app that includes a passport to New Jersey wine country regions and counties. Be sure to “check-in” on the app and if you visit all the wineries within a year, you will be entered to win a grand prize. Past winners won a trip to the wine regions of Virginia, Chile, Napa Valley, and Willamette Valley.
Merobebe
What are some of the wineries you'd recommend visiting in the area?
Steph Waters
I love all the wineries in the Garden State, but if you’re in the South Jersey area please come visit me at Sharrott Winery, and also visit my wine family neighbors at Kennedy Cellars Winery, Plagido’s Winery, Autumn Lake Winery, Amalthea Cellars, Valenzano Winery, and Bellview Winery.
Merobebe
Lastly, what tips do you have to improve wine-tasting skills and develop your palate?
Steph Waters
Tasting, tasting, tasting is the key to honing your wine-tasting skills. Try to put descriptors (aroma and flavors) when tasting both on the nose (sniffing) and palate (sipping).
I also encourage side-by-side tastings. For example, I love pinot noir and try side-by-side tastings of Pinot Noir from Burgundy (France), Sonoma (California), and Willamette Valley (Oregon). Even though it’s the same grape varietal, it can taste vastly different from region to region.
Get a wine-related movie or book pairing for your weekend.
Today’s pairing is Uncorked, a 2020 drama on Netflix written, directed, and produced by Prentice Penny (showrunner for HBO’s Insecure)
The film follows Elijah, a young Black man who works at a wine store and at his family’s barbeque restaurant in Memphis, TN. His father, played by Courtney B. Vance, expects Elijah to take over the restaurant someday, although Elijah is more interested in pursuing his dream of becoming a master sommelier. Original and lighthearted, the movie explores the world of wine and of family dynamics.
You’ll definitely want to grab a glass and some snacks before you sit down to watch this movie with a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Cheers to a short week!
Keep an eye out for more details about the upcoming virtual wine tasting event, and don’t forget to follow along on Instagram for more wine tips and fun.
Have a wine-derful week and see you next Wednesday!
Cheers,
Megumi