Wine Pairing Tips

Years ago, it was considered to be a social “faux pas” to break the golden rule of wine: Red wine with red meat, white wine with fish and white meats. But rules are meant to be broken! In recent years we’ve gotten bold and have said it’s okay to have Pinot Noir (a light red wine), or even Merlot with salmon.

The good news is that it’s impossible to ruin a good meal if you select a wine that you enjoy regardless of what the “wine experts” say. Remember, the wine experts are not eating your dinner. Of course, there are some combinations where the wine and the food work incredibly well together, each bringing out delightbul flavours in the other.

We invite you to use these wine and food pairing guidelines to get the most out of your Okanagan wine adventure.

Balance flavour intensity. Full-bodied wines to go with heartier, more flavourful dishes, white light-bodied wines should be paired with lighter food.

Pinot Noir works beautifully with salmon because you are matching a light wine to a light dish. Otherwise a full-bodied, heavier wine will overpower a light, delicate dish, and similarly, a lighter style wine will not be able to compete with the flavour of something like a hearty roast.

Consider how the food is prepared. Is it grilled, roasted or fried? What type of sauce or spice is used? For example, chicken with a lemon butter sauce will call for a different more delicate wine to play off the sauce than chicken cacciatore with all of the tomato and Italian spices, or a grilled chicken breast.

For every food action, there is a wine reaction. When you drink wine by itself it tastes one way, but when you take a bite of food, the wine tastes different. This is because wine is like a spice. Elements in the wine interact with the food to provide a different taste sensation like these basic reactions:
Sweet Foods like Italian tomato sauce, Japanese teriyaki, and honey-mustard glazes make your wine seem drier than it really is. We recommend an off-dry (slightly sweet) wine to balance the flavour (Chenin Blanc, White Zinfandel, Riesling).

High Acid Foods like salads with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, soy sauce, or fish served with a squeeze of lemon go well with wines higher in acid such as Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Noir. White Zinfandel, although not as high in acid, can provide a nice contrast to high acid foods.

Bitter and Astringent Foods like a mixed green salad of bitter greens, Greek kalamata olives and charbroiled meats accentuate a wine’s bitterness so complement it with a full-flavoured forward fruity wine (Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot). Big  tannic red wines (like many red Zinfandels, and Shiraz or Syrah wines) will go best with your classic grilled steak or lamb chops, as the fat in the meat will tone down the tannin (bitterness) in the wine. Vernon and the surrounding Okanagan area is filled with award-winning wineries. You can explore each oasis and visit tiny family-run wineries where each vintage is bottled by hand.