Food and wine pairing: the basic rules
Matching the right wine to the right dish is no small affair: harmony on the palate is the ultimate goal, which can only be achieved through a perfect fusion of the elements. The choice of the right wine, in fact, can become the secret ingredient able to make the dish tasted overwhelmingly delicious.
There are some fundamental principles in the technique of pairing food and wine, which cannot simply be summarized in the dichotomy "white for fish, red for meat". Let's discover them together.
Method of Contraposition
For salty foods the method of Contraposition is used: this means that, starting from the dominant elements of the food, you will choose an accompanying wine with opposite characteristics. This means that in case of fatty and soft sensations of food it will be necessary to find a wine with acidity, effervescence and flavor, that is all those characteristics that define its hardness.
If the food shows characteristics of hardness, such as acidity, bitterness and sapidity, it will be ideal to match a wine with strong characteristics of softness. If, on the other hand, we are eating a tasty fried fish, which has a characteristic of greasiness, we should match a wine with characteristics of dehydration: a white wine is ideal.
Method of Concordance
As far as pairing with desserts is concerned, the criterion of Concordance wins out, which cancels out that of Contraposition: desserts only want to be paired with sweet wines, able to travel on the same soft and delicate notes.
There are also other criteria for the choice of wine, ranging from the enhancement of a specific food of the dish to the consistency with the tradition of local dishes and wines. Psychological and seasonal factors must also be considered.
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