Matching Wine with Food

September 13, 2010

Philippines Wine Shop Clark Wine Center is pleased to share with you articles, news and information about wine, wine events, wine tasting and other topics related to wine and the appreciation of wine.

The human palette is quite discerning – we have taste buds that respond to sweetness, bitterness, sourness, saltiness and the food’s texture and temperature completes our taste experience. Wine is a well loved dinner drink and yet it is easy to overlook the taste of the it and more importantly how it can complement the cuisine. Wine should perhaps be thought of more as a condiment to the food – matching the flavours together to heighten the taste overall. You would not normally put apple sauce with fish and chips and likewise wouldn’t serve tartar sauce with roast pork. So, here’s a few pointers on how the match your food and drink.

Firstly, the time of year makes a difference. In the same way that in summer we serve more salads and lighter meals, this is complimented with lighter wines. Meanwhile in the winter we may crave stodgy hot pots and energy rich puddings, better with heavier, fuller bodied wines.

So firstly for summertime. The weather is hot and as it gets hotter the lighter the wine the better. In France, rosé wine is the preferred choice, or a white Aligoté or Chardonnay, well chilled. These wines go particularly well with a picnic of crusty bread, cold meats and pates. A bit of fizz on a summers day is wonderful so here go for a Crémant de Bourgogne, the close relation of Champagne, but sold at half the price. Add some cassis to the fizz for an apéritif to make a Kir Royale, and relax under a shady tree with friends. Meanwhile for those Sunday afternoon barbecues Beaujolais wines go well with sausages and burgers, or choose a Chablis with delicious grilled lemon prawns.

In the winter, when we naturally go into hibernation mode and tend to eat more hearty dishes and more meat, red wines are generally better compliments. A red Burgundy with bright aromas is great with roast lamb or better still a rich hog roast of suckling pig. Meanwhile something more fishy such as oysters or beluga caviar works with Chablis to draw out the delicate fish flavour. For Burgundy’s famous Epoisses cheese, an Irancy, Côte de Nuits or Savigny-lès-Beaune red is a good accompaniment. After a gourmet meal, offer a fiery marc de Bourgogne to round off the occasion.

So, next time you are looking through the racks of wine, think of what flavours you are eating, whether it’s a suckling pig hog roast, a simple picnic or pre dinner beluga caviar canapés, compliment the flavours on the plate with those in your glass and bon appétit.

Source: http://www.burgundytoday.com/gourmet-traveller/wine-matching-food.htm

Clark Wine Center was built in 2003 by Hong Kong-based Yats International Leisure Philippines to become the largest wine shop in Philippines supplying Asia’s wine lovers with fine vintage wines at attractive prices.  Today, this wine shop in Clark Philippines offers over 2000 selections of fine wines from all major wine regions in the world.  As a leading wine supplier in Philippines, Pampanga’s Clark Wine Center offers an incomparable breadth of vintages, wines from back vintages spanning over 50 years.  Clark Wine Center is located in Pampanga Clark Freeport Zone adjacent to Angeles City, just 25 minutes from Subic and 45 minutes from Manila.

Wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, Loire, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Alsace, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, South Africa, Chile and Argentina etc. are well represented in this Clark Wine Shop.

For more information, email Wine@Yats-International.com or visit http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com