Food and Wine pairing: as Magic and Subtle as the harmony of a couple!

Introduction to the world of food and wine pairing

There is a lot of similitudes between food and wine harmony and the harmony of a couple. But for those who are looking for their soul mate, don't conclude too quickly that a wine specialist is automatically a perfect partner (and I have contradictory examples and names)!

Food and wine pairing is a question of harmony reached through combinations of aromas, taste and texture sensations. The result of this harmony is that the wine makes the meal more succulent and the meal, the wine more delicious!

An example of combination: Oysters and Chablis. They have both a dominant mineral aromas (mineral is a family of aromas including: iodine than can be find in oysters and flint than can be find in Chablis…).The oyster gives a salty tasting sensation which is well balanced by the acidity of the Chablis. And the crispness of the Chablis is a good combination with the pulpy aspect of the oyster.

As pointed out in the example, 2 types of combinations are possible:

- combinations by similarity which conducts to a redundancy and tend to make the food and the wine more tasty (i.e. the combination of aromas in the example)
- Combinations where characteristics complement each other in order to create a new balance or harmony (i.e. the combination of tasting sensation in the example).

Before going further, notice that generally combinations of tasting and texture sensations are based on complementing aspects whereas combination of aromas can be obtained through association of similar aromas or complementing aromas. An other example: the same Chablis with mineral aromas can be pleasantly paired with a truffle which develops forest floor aromas which is an opposite family of aromas (mineral complementing earthy, what a program!).

What about a couple? St Exupery said « Aimer ce n'est pas se regarder l'un et l'autre mais c'est regarder dans la même direction ». It could be translated like this « To love is not to look at each other but to look at in the same direction ». It is a great quote but what happens if one of couple member is short sighted and the other is longsighted?

Anyway, the harmony of a couple is also based on 3 major elements:
• the personality of each person
• their preferences
• their vision of life and values.

As for food and wine, the harmony of a couple is a delicate combination of similarities and complementarities. But if complementarities and similarities are welcome in term of personalities and preferences, it seems important to share the same vision of life and to have the same values.I will come back more deeply to the comparison in the conclusion.I hope it make it more clear now for everybody!

Notions of aromas, tasting and texture sensationsAn aroma is an olfactory sensation perceived by receptors situated in the back of the nose (and not the palate or the tongue) when we put an aliment or a drink in mouth. This explains why we are totally unable to recognize any beverage or food when we have a serious caught.Main aromas families are:
• fruity: lemon, grapefruit, strawberry, blackberries…
• floral: rose, lime, acacia, violet…
• vegetal: grass, hay, mint, tobacco…
• forest floor: mushroom, truffle, dead lives…
• balm like: resin, pine, cedar, thyme…
• spicy: pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, anise…
• empyreumatic: grilled toast, chocolate, coffee, roasting
• pastry: toffee, honey, liquorice, yeast
• mineral: iodine, flint, stone…
• animal: leather, fur, gamey…

Tasting sensations are perceived by the tongue. There are 4 of them
• sourness that you feel on the back sides of the tongue,
• bitterness at the very back of the tongue,
• sweetness at the very front of the tongue,
• saltiness on the front sides of the tongue.

They are easy to recognize individually but it becomes more complicate when they are mixed together. If you know where you feel them, it becomes much easier.

Texture sensations are link to the texture of food and beverage. Among them:
• fat
• smooth
• crisp

There is another sensation which is very important for wine that we call astringency. It is the result of a chemical reaction between tannins and saliva, as tannins enclose the saliva which gives you an impression of dryness in the mouth and more particularly in the palate.The Alcohol is also an element to consider in win e and food pairing.
The excess of alcohol is easily perceived by a warm sensation in the throat when you drink.

Keys and tricks for food and wine pairingIn general: For a light dish, a light wine.For a simple meal, a simple wine → for a fine meal, fine wines.
The intensity of flavours in the meal and the wine must be equivalent.Wines produced in a region tend to combine vey well with specialities of the same regions (but not any wine with any specialities). It is a very good trick to combine wine and cheese which is quite a difficult topic!

In term of Aromas:The most simple is to combine food and wine having a dominant of aromas from the same family. Example a fish with a lemony sauce can easily be combined with Sauvignon (at least those with lemon flavours). But in this type of combination, be careful not to have too much redundancy which can result in a very heavy combination.
The second solution is to combine close families of aromas:
• floral and fruity
• floral and vegetal
• spicy, empyreumatic and pastry
• forest floor and animal.
But between close families of aromas, not all the aromas can be combine to each other.
Finally, you can pair aromas which are from opposite families of aromas:
• forest floor and fruity
• mineral and forest floor or vegetal
• empyreumatic and fruity or floral
• balm like and fruity
• fruity and spicy…But these types of combinations are not easy. They more seem like bets, so it is better to check or try before.

In Term of tasting sensations and Texture sensationsCombining tasting sensations is generally easier than aromas because there is a limited number of possibilities due to a limited number of sensations but also we have a more precise knowledge of the result of the associations (food industry made a lot of research in this field these 20 latest years to create their products). Most of the time, we have to combine tasting sensations with texture sensation to reach a nice harmony.
The main association rules are the following:
• sourness compensates sweetness or saltiness: a wine with a dominant impression of sourness can be combined with a sweet or salty meal (example: Chablis and seafood
Champagne or Cremant de Bourgogne and Foie Gras)
• sweetness can be combined with saltiness or sweetness (ex: Sauterne with sweet desert but be careful of too much sweetness)
• sweetness moderates strong aromas: a sweet wine can be combine with a strong cheese (ex: Port and Stilton or Roquefort)
• a fat meal reduce the impression of astringency (ex: confit de canard and Bordeaux Médoc• high alcohol wines are necessary for very hot meal (ex: Chateauneuf du Pape and Mexican cooking)
• Pulpy and crispy is generally a good association (ex: escargots and Bourgogne aligoté)
The main combinations to avoid are
• wine with strong vanilla aromas and cheese
• saltiness and bitterness
• high alcohol wines and sweetness.

Conclusion: I hope you are still alive after that. Now it is time to wake up! Every harmony of a couple is based on 3 elements, each of the 2 members and the relation they create together. A perfect harmony would be a fusion of these 3 elements but total fusion does not exist in our planet, at least at the moment, and total fusion would mean that 2 elements would disappear, so there could not be anymore couple or harmony. This suggests that perfect harmony does not exist!
To illustrate this for wine and food, the best harmony is created when the wine sublimes the meal and the meal sublimes the wine but we can still distinguish one from the other. It is the same for a couple, if one of the member vanish in the meander of the relation, the couple does not exist anymore.
It is a question of subtle balance which is going to challenge the main mathematics laws as the magic of the harmony is that 1+1 is more than 2.There is anyway a major difference between the harmony in food and wine and in a couple:the Time factor. In a couple the main difficulty is not to reach a certain harmony but to preserve it through the time. We all face this type of exciting challenge or exiting challenge unfortunatly!Please do not ask me the recipe of the harmony in a couple, I do not have it!And anyway the recipe can be very different from a couple to an other.

For those who would be interested to make some nice experiences around the subject: food and wine pairing, we organize regular events in UK. For more information, visit our website:http://www.winelistuk.biz/