"good wine is a good familiar creature" -Shakespeare
This is a tutorial designed to aid anyone who wants to overcome their fear of ordering wine at a restaurant or just wants to know more about the ritual etiquette that takes place when ordering wine. The learner will develop a knowledge of wine ordering etiquette, be able to use the correct pronunciation of different wines and common terms, and come to an understanding of what wine to choose. You may proceed in a linear fashion or jump to the section you are interested in. Cheers!
Pairing Wine and Food.
So,
by now you should feel more comfortable with the wine part of the
restaurant experience, but now we need to throw some food into
the mix. Wine and food have always been a part of each other, and
historically when wine was removed from the dining experience, in
America for example, it changed for the worst. What I refer to is
the rise of California wine in the 1970's. This was a society,
unlike most of the world, that tended to separate food and
alcoholic beverages, call it the collective psychic residual
effects of prohibition if you will. What we ended up with were
huge flabby wines that lacked acidity and were very alcoholic.
Much of the reason for this was that the wines were just
"tasted" and evaluated in a vacuum. This separation
made it difficult to enjoy wine and food together, since the wine
would tend to overpower all but the richest of cuisine's.
Fortunately winemakers, have favored the table in recent years over the tasting room. The result is a wide variety of balanced wines that work well with food. The object of wine and food pairing is to create a combination that actually enhances the other. The old rule of "red wine with red meat" can still be used with great success, but now the wine market is so diverse that you can enjoy experimenting with less traditional combinations.
Don't be afraid
to experiment. Everyone has a sort of mental list of likes,
dislikes and combinations they enjoy so why not apply that to
your restaurant experience? Chances are you have tried chicken,
salmon-- what ever is on the menu and you can mentally taste the
combination that the chef has listed. If you are interested in
say, Crayfish Stew. Well, you know what crayfish, onions, garlic,
and tomatoes, taste like so you can get a notion of whether or
not you would like the dish, even if you had never tried it
before. You can do the same thing with wine, and wine and food
pairing. Give it a try.
Here are a few tested combinations you might like to try:
Smoked Salmon and Pinot Gris or a dry Riesling
Spicy rich foods (Cajun, some Chinese, etc) and Gewürztraminer
A rich Pâté and most any young red with good acidity (Cabernets, Chianti, even Pinot Noir)
Dark Chocolate with Asti Spumante or Pinot Noir
In general, just try to use your mental list and match rich foods with rich wines. Cheers!