Tips to Pair Food with Red Wines for your Wedding- Part 2
Pairing Food with Red wines for your Wedding reception is a great way to offer your guests with a special treat.
Simply put – light wines pair well with light foods and heavy food pair well with heavy wines and we will show you how to pair food with red wines for your wedding.
Although the previous comment seem to offer clear rules, nothing is set in stone as it all boils down to personal taste and for some one or two wines works well for all their foods. For the rest of us who prefer the adventure of pairing wines with specific foods here are the details of some suggested options. While these pairing are based on personal taste you can set your own rules that work best for you.
Cabernet Franc – Light to medium bodied with more unripe fruit giving it a light, subtly flavored and somewhat perfumey taste
- Pairs well with salads / pork, chicken and fish, as well as Mediterranean foods and roasted vegetables.
Cabernet Sauvignon - the KING of Red Wines because of its consistent rich flavor of currant, plum, black cherry and spice which could include herb, olive, mint, tobacco, cedar, anise and ripe jammy notes.
- Pairs well with bitter vegetables like eggplant, arugula or radicchio this include dishes overflowing in protein and fat – popular meats such as steak, ostrich, buffalo, squab, wild pheasant, and duck
Merlot – once used in Bordeaux blend it stands alone as a quite fashionable wine. Merlot quality can range from good to very good most of the time and its aging potentiality ranges from fair to good as the fruity flavor fades and the herbal spices dominate the taste.
- Pairs well with richly sauced dishes such as steak (or even fish) in a red wine sauce or with casseroles, caramelized roast veggies especially those with a touch of sweetness, such as roast squash, red peppers and beets and fried or grilled mushrooms.
Petite Sirah – is a blending grape from France and California which gives more color, intensity , tannin and depth
- Not really a food wine, petite sirah would pair best with pretty intensely flavored foods. They call out for spicy pork and dishes such as barbecued ribs and beef
Pinot Noir – is one of the most inconsistent type of grapes that is the classic black cherry, spice, raspberry, currant flavors and is best embellished with the aroma of earth, wilted roses, tar, herb and cola notes
- Pairs well with shellfish/ chicken/Duck/ Goose/ Mushrooms/ pork / Filet Mignon/ Salmon
Shiraz – is an incredible wine that can age for half a century and some of these come from Penfolds Grange in Austrialia and Cote-Rotie and Hermitage in France. Its grapes are blended with pepper, spices, black cherry, tar, leather, smooth tannins and roasted nut flavors.
- Pairs well with Beef stew / Beef/Meat stock-based soup (like beef barley, vegetable with meat) French Onion with cheese) / Lamb kabobs / Middle Eastern / Pasta/ Pork chops/ spicy bean soups
Zinfandel – is is a red wine and the most common grapes in California many of which gets vinified into a blush-colored slightly sweet wine referred to as White zinfandel.
- Pairs well with BBQ / Grilled Meats / Beef / Pasta in red sauce.
There are other red wines that are either quite rare or are made in specific regions that are not as well known, but none-the-less quite exquisite and a great treat to try at some point in your life……they are:
Barbera
Brunello
Cabernet Franc
Carignan
Dolcetto
Gamay
Grenache
Malbec
Mourvedre
Nebbiolo
Sangiovese
Next series we will discuss the pairing of White Wines with Foods…. Share and Enjoy!
This article came in handy when planning our rehearsal dinner party.