| Advanced Appreciation of Red Wine |
| Red Wines with Food!! Last time, experts from a century ago used to advise that �red wines go best with meat and white wines go best with fish�. Now they say that the only way to know which wine goes best with each food is to forget all the rules and try experimenting them on your own!! This is indeed true as the food we eat now is now getting more complex with a great variety of sauces and spices added to them. It is now even more difficult to combine the perfect food for the perfect wine. There are, however, many known combinations between red wines and food that have been around for centuries which people have no disagreements over their perfect match. Here are some of these traditional combinations that have been recommended by many wine drinkers. The following also contains some extracts from the book Eating and Drinking by Fiona Beckett (2000), which I quote as well. They are represented by 'Fiona's recommendations' in the following below. Meat Red Wines still are a perfect combination with Meat. Be it beef steak, mutton or venison, a touch of red wine with meat is still a superb combo that no one would disagree. This is due to the tannin in wine which tends to react with the protein in meat and hence enhance both of their flavors. With wine and meat, each tastes better than one on its own. Hence tannic red wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz goes well with beef steaks or other dishes containing exotic meats (such as venison). It is also perfect to drink red wines when conducting a BBQ with various roast meats on the grill. Fiona advises that BBQ sauces go particularly well with Zinfandel, Shiraz, Cabs and Merlot. For mutton, drinking Cabs, Chianti and Rioja will be a good choice. For chicken, it depends on how you cook it in the first place. Fiona suggests that a simple roast chicken is perfect for showing off a good red wine, such as a French Burgundy or a Pinot Noir from the �New World�. If the chicken is BBQ or char-grilled, eating it with a glass of Shiraz would be a good choice. For pork, Fiona suggests white wine would be a better choice than red, but a Beaujolais or a Chilean Merlot would be very nice to go with roast pork. For fish, Fiona takes note that it is a safe bet to eat fish with white wines. But when the fish is seared or BBQ, then eating it with red wine would be a good experience. Any fish cooked in red wine should be drunk with reds too. It is worthy to take note that salmon is one of the exception in fish that goes well with red wines. Chinese Food and SEA Dishes Experts advise that most of the Chinese and South East Asian dishes are relatively hot with considerable amount of chilli added in them and hence do not go well with red wines. Instead, white wines with a tinge of freshness and vigor in them should be the preferred choice. For example, delicately flavored dishes such as dim sum and noodles goes well with Californian Sauvignon Blanc, Champagne or sparkling wines. Sweet and sour dishes also go well with the Australian Semillon Chardonnay and white Zinfandel. Experts have also commented that fiery Asian dishes that contain a lot of chilli go particularly well with just a glass of cold beer! However, there are some good combinations with red wines too if the food is not loaded with too much chilli. For example, Fiona suggests that Chinese food with a degree of sweetness goes well with similarly sweet wines such as the youthful Beaujolais and the Merlot. Meaty and slightly spicy dishes combine well with fruity red wines such as the Zinfandel, the Australian Shiraz Cabernet and the Chilean Merlot. Crispy Peking ducks also go especially well with the Pinot Noir. C�mon, go try them and see! I have yet to try these combinations too! Heng�s comment: Actually it is a blessing that we can enjoy so many Asian food in our region. And I'm learning more about white wines too so I am keen to try out all sorts of wine with various Asian food... I will make a review of various food and wines in the future! :-) |