Top 5 Things You Should (Not) Do with Wine & Food

Imagine: you've spent hours creating a perfect dinner, delighted with a beautiful table setting, and carefully selected bottles of wine. But the first sip of your first course... and you see some uneasy faces.

Shame.

It happens, you are not the first nor the last.

Which one do you encounter most often at the table?

1. Thinking about meat or fish instead of taste

The classic mistake is to focus only on what's on the plate: meat, fish, or vegetarian. When you should really be focusing on the flavor and intensity of the dish first.

Grilled salmon with a creamy sauce, for example, is much more filling than a simple piece of grilled chicken. Yet, people sometimes "automatically" choose red with meat and white with fish, without considering the creaminess, acidity, spices, and preparation.

The question you always want to ask yourself is:
How “heavy” does this dish feel in the mouth, and which wine has approximately the same weight or offers a nice contrast?

2. Forgot the sauce

Another classic: choose the wine based on the piece of meat or fish, while the sauce is the real flavor bomb.

A steak with a light gravy calls for a very different wine than a steak with a creamy pepper sauce. And a piece of cod with lemon butter sauce is quite different from cod with a tomato salsa.

When in doubt, it's better to think "wine with the sauce" than "wine with the chicken." The sauce often determines the interplay of acidity, fat, and intensity.

3. Too much tannin with spicy food

Red wines with high tannins (think full-bodied wines with plenty of structure and bite) can be fantastic with protein-rich dishes, like red meat. But with spicy foods, those same tannins often clash harshly with the dish's sharpness.

The result: the wine seems more bitter, the dish even spicier, and your mouth feels on fire. Not what you want after proudly serving your curry, chili, or spicy Asian dish.

For spicy dishes, a smoother wine with less tannin and often a bit more roundness works much better. Think of a Pinot Noir, for example.

4. Not matching acids and fats

Acids in wine and fat in a dish are each other's best friends, if you use them correctly.

A dish with a creamy sauce, fatty meat, or rich cheese can be beautifully refreshed by a wine with sufficient acidity. The wine effectively "cuts" through the fat, making every bite feel vibrant and fresh.

What often goes wrong is that a very soft, flat wine is paired with a rich dish. Then everything becomes heavy and ponderous, and by the time the main course arrives, everyone is full and tired.

Turn it around: the fattier the dish, the more you want the wine to give it a little fresh boost.

5. Underestimating sweetness in desserts

Dessert wine is surprisingly often mistaken. The most common mistake: serving a dessert that's sweeter than the wine. Then the wine pales in comparison and suddenly tastes sour and thin.

The simple rule that prevents a lot of hassle:
The dessert wine should be at least as sweet as the dessert, preferably a touch sweeter. This makes the dessert a bit fresher and less intense.

Even with savory dishes that have sweet notes, such as those with honey, caramelized onions, or sweet sauces, a completely dry wine can sometimes come across as harsh and austere. A wine with a little residual sweetness can be a much better match.

Ok, okay, now that we're at it, 2 more mistakes:

6. Look only at the wine, not at the guests

Another subtle but important mistake: choosing what is theoretically “perfect” without thinking about who is sitting at the table.

An extremely bold pairing can be technically brilliant, but if half your table doesn't like strong wines or bold dishes, the goal is still missed.

Ultimately it comes down to this:
Do the people at the table enjoy each other's company?

Sometimes a safe, widely accessible combination is smarter than the “most daring” match.

7. No balance between contrast and fusion

A good wine and food pairing can do two things: meld beautifully with the dish or create an exciting contrast. Where it often goes wrong is when something is unconsciously chosen that falls right in the middle.

Example: a creamy dish with a medium-bodied wine that's not quite fresh enough to refresh and not quite rich enough to complement the creaminess. Then it becomes dull.

So always ask yourself:

Do I want the wine to complement the creaminess, spiciness or sweetness of the dish, or do I want the wine to counteract this with freshness, bite or some tension?

That choice suddenly makes everything much clearer.

How do you avoid these wine and food pairing mistakes?

Fortunately, you don't have to be a sommelier with an encyclopedic memory to get this right. If you pay attention to a few things, you can avoid most mistakes.

1. Think in terms of flavour and intensity, not just meat or fish.
   Is the dish light or heavy, fresh or creamy, soft or strongly spiced?

2. Look at the sauce and the preparation method.
   Roasted, grilled, stewed or raw has a huge impact on the texture of the dish.

3. Pay attention to acids, fat and proteins.
   A lot of fat requires a wine with sufficient freshness. A lot of protein can nicely soften some tannins in a wine. Spicy wine, on the other hand, calls for softer, rounder wines.

4. Make a trial combination if possible.
   A small bite followed by a sip tells you more than ten lines from a book. Does it feel logical in your mouth, or do the wine and food clash?

5. Build your menu in a logical order.
   Start lighter and fresher, work your way to fuller and more intense (you can deviate somewhat from this by playing with contrast and palette cleansers, but that's next level). This way, you prevent a heavy wine or dish from drowning out everything that comes after it.
   
   Keep the image below in mind. It's not foolproof, but it certainly addresses half the problems. Go from light to dark, which often corresponds to intensity.

   

And perhaps the most important tip: don't make it so complicated that you stop enjoying it. Wine and food aren't about achieving a theoretically high score, but about relaxed dining without awkward faces at that first sip.