Continuing from article Red Wine Facts: Part one (A-C)

DOLCETTO
Red wine grape in Italy
Important grape in Piedmont (Northern Italy). Ripens early, fatlagres extremely rare, and provide reasonable and clear everyday drinking wines with fruity and firm structure.

Food Pairing: Pasta and pizza dishes, Italian food.

GAMAY
Red Wine Grape
Beaujolais’ grape, which gives the best wines from the granite hills of Beujolais. Provides light, juicy, aromatic wines, best drunk young. Provides even lighter wines of the Loire, Central France, Savoy and Switzerland. Can also provide exceptionally dark wines that can be stored for a few years.

Food Pairing: Corned beef, spicy ham, BBQ Poultry, creamy beef, camembert cheese

GRENACHE, GARNACHA EL. CANNONAU
Red Wine Grape
Useful grape, usually fruity, light in color. Good rosé wine doux naturel, especially in southern France, Spain and California, the cornerstone of fleshy Priorato. Certainly in combination with other grapes, as in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Is the only grape to Tavel – the best rosé wines from the Rhone. Grenache is also a white variety.

Food Pairing: Wild mushroom risotto dishes, grilled entrees, barbecue and Asian fare.

GRIGNOLINO
Red Wine Grape
Used in Piedmont. Makes simple everyday wine, but also an increasing number of great wines. The best are fresh, firm, fruity and floral with saving potential.
Food pairing: Pizza, tomato sauce based pasta, spicy and tasty food

This is the first of a series of wine facts that I will be publishing on the site. I have put together a list of the most common wines which will show some facts about the wine and it’s most common food pairing. The first series will be about red wine and part one will have red wines that starts on A,B and C.

The most common pre-dinner wine has usually been Champagne or Sparkling Wine. However, Sherry (in Britain), Port (in France), and Vermouth (in Italy) have been mainstay for centuries.

Today we have started to expand these old traditions and a glass of light white or red wine is currently in vogue. Examples of a good choice might be a light Riesling, Chenin Blanc, or Zinfindel. Avoid Chardonnay due to the tendency of the wine to be acidic.

Before dinner avoid serving peanuts, walnuts, or as these can destroy the wonderful flavor of the wine. Olives, almonds, or pistachios should also be avoided. Cheese is a much better choice.

When choosing a wine for dinner, use the “guides” as just that, a guide. Try to purchase the wine and perform your own personal taste test for the best food and wine match. This will ensure a perfect dinner with the perfect wine.

There are so many grape varieties used to make wine. Here is a list from A to C of the most common red wines.

AGIORGITIKO
Versatile Greek red wine grape.
Versatile black Greek (Nemea), with juicy plum embossed fruit, soft tannins. Has the structure for storage.

Food Pairing: Goes very well with lightly seasoned red meat dishes and white, fatty cheeses.

BAGA
Portuguese red wine grape
Dark, tanninrik, great potential, difficult to cultivate. Are most of the Bairrada

Food Pairing:  Pork and duck

BARBERA
Italian red wine grape
Very widespread in Italy, most notably in the Piedmont. Gives a dark, fruity and fresh wine with low tannins. Drink mostly young. Some grown in California and Australia, promising in Argentina.

Food Pairing:  Goes well with most meals including fatty fish and rich chicken dishes, however remember the thumb rule is that red wine goes best with red meat

BEAUJOLAIS

Definition: A very young wine grown from the Gamay grape in the Beaujolais region (part of Burgundy) of France. This wine is released annually on the third Thursday of November.

Flavor Profile:This is a light, fruity wine that is virtually free of tannins. Flavors of strawberry and raspberry dominate along with a grapey appeal. Beaujolais Nouveau is meant to be served chilled, around 55 degrees Farenheit.

Food Pairing: As far as complementary food pairings, this wine is a terrific accompaniment for a traditional Thanksgiving meal, working well with both light and dark meats, herbs and many other flavors that are a part of the festivities. Due to its food-friendliness, this wine will also pair well with grilled or roasted meats, a variety of pastas, salads and cheeses.

BLAUFRÄNKISCH
Red Wine Grape
Are most of Austria, can be light and juicy, at best a substantial red wine (eg. In Burgenland). Called Limberger in Germany, Kekfrankos in Hungary.

Food Pairing:  Goes well with sausages, hamburgers, tomato and basil dishes, pizza and

Feta cheese

BRUNELLO
Italian red wine grape

See Sangiovese.

BUAL
Dark grape for fortified wine
Delivers sweet Madeira Wines of top quality, a little less rich than Malmsey. Madeiraer can be stored for several hundred years.

Food Pairing: Goes well with cakes, desserts, milk chocolate, fruits.

BOUCHET
Grape red wine and rosé wine
See Cabernet Franc

CABERNET FRANC (BOUCHET)
Second best of the two cabernetsortene used in Bordeaux
Dominant (like “Bouchet”) in Saint-Emilion. Known as the grape behind Chinon, Saumur and others, and in the Loire rosé. Used with Cabernet Sauvignon, etc., or increasingly alone in California and Australia.

Food Pairing:  Goes well with poultry, lasagna, couscous with meat, Middle Eastern fare, veggie pizza, and Greek cuisine.

CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Red Wine Grape
Black Grape with great character: Spices and herbs dominated, tanninrik with characteristic black currant aroma. Cabernet is the most common grape in the Medoc in Bordeaux. It also provides most of the best red in California, South America and Eastern Europe. Rival to Shiraz in Australia. Almost always requires storage – and wins at the relatively long storage in both barrel and bottle. Widely used in combination with eg. Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Tempranillo, Sangiovese. It also provides aromatic rosé wines.

Food Pairing:  Goes well with red meats, flavorful and heartier (red) pastas, lamb, strong-flavored cheese, and chocolates (especially dark).

CANNONAU (GRENACHE)
Red Wine Grape
Can be very nice and powerful at Sardinia. See the rest Grenache.

CARIGNAN
Red Wine Grape
The most common grape in France, but on the decline. Gives a little boring wines but is often used in mixtures. Must have a low return, preferably from old vines. Best of Corbieres. Common in North Africa, Spain, California.

Food Pairing: Grilled meat, Poultry and Sausage.

CARMENÉRE
Red Wine Grape
Old black and burgundy, now very widespread in France. Widely used in Chile, where until recently it was often mistaken for Merlot.

Food Pairing: Give it a go with steak, pork loin, poultry, pastas with meat-based sauce, game, grilled meat and food with spice.
CATAWBA
Red Wine Grape – for sparkling wines
Genuine (native) American grape. Used extensively in the area around New York for the production of sparkling wine.

Food pairing: A nice wine after dinner,  goes well with nutty Cakes and spice cakes

CINSAULT, CINSAUT
Red Wine Grape
Record for mass-produced wines in southern France. In South Africa, crossed with Pinot Noir to Pinotage. Provides moderate red, can sometimes make quality wines.

Food pairing:  Sausage, salads, grilled meat, barbecue, cheese, fondue and raclette

Source: Vinmonopolet, www.frenchscout.com www.sani-impex.be , www.hellovino.com , www.butlersguild.com , http://wine.about.com, http://www.wine-food-matcher.com, http://www.hellovino.com, http://www.gayot.com

When you plan to have a lovely dinner nothing will make the dinner more complete than having the perfect wine for your meal.  However finding the perfect harmonized taste combination is no easy task.  I have one guideline that I always like to follow when picking the right wine with food which is to choose a wine which will be in balance with the food. However you may also try a wine which is the complete opposite to this, but that is a lot harder to find, however if you do so it will give you a really wow experience! There are a lot of rules that you may follow, but your own taste palate is also important, not everyone enjoys the same taste, and no rules without exception so the only way to work around this is to experiment.

Here are 10 basic rules for the combination of wine and food.

Nr. 1
The food should not overpower the wine, and vice versa. None of the ingredients should outdo one another in taste to get the perfect harmonized taste pairing. For example, a very powerful and tangy rich red wine will completely overpower the mild flavor of chicken.

Nr. 2
Wine and food should complement each other. If the food and wine has characteristics that are in the same taste direction, we obtain a harmonious result. Mild and full bodied wine is suitable for mild and full bodied foods, simple wine with simple food and very rich wine with tasty foods eg. such as casserole dishes. It is also possible to create contrast between the food and wine, but this is a difficult balancing act. A successful example is the contrast that occurs when the sweet Sauternes served to salt Roquefort cheese.

Nr. 3
The wine must contain at least just as much roundness (full bodied) and sweetness as the meal. The taste experience of wine may change in relation to the meal. A half-dry wine can be too sweet to  mussels damped in white wine, however it may taste great if it’s served with a cream sauce, because the butter and cream in this gives roundness and sweetness which is just what the wine also offers.

Nr. 4
Bitter substances in food and wine reinforce each other. Bitter substances, such as raw vegetables which have a bitterness that may stay for a long while in the mouth should avoid pairing with tangy rich wines since the total experience of them can be unpleasantly bitter.

Nr. 5
Food with a lot of acid should be combined with the full bodied and often sweet wines. Acid in food and wine will also reinforce each other. If the food contains a lot of acid it can quickly become too acidy with a fresh wine. Sweetness will dampen the experience of acid, and half dry wine can thus complement an acidy dish.

Nr. 6
Salty food needs refreshing and sweet wines. The acid seems refreshing, and sweetness will curb some of the salt affected (however beer can also be a nice drink with these types of food).

Nr. 7
Food with a lot of fat needs tangy and acidy wines. Beef and other powerful meat may leave a fatty aftertaste in your mouth. A wine with a lot of tang and acid will cleanse the palate for these types of food and will therefore complement each other.

Nr. 8
Hot and spicy food need sweetness. The burning heat of hot spices seems overpowering on the palate and a dry wine will neutralized this.  To reduce the spiciness of the food we will need a sweet and half dry white wine to pair with the meal.

Nr. 9
Food and wine should have an aroma that combines well together. Dishes with lots of mushrooms can be combined with wine that has the same aromas, such as a mature Barolo or a vintage champagne.

Nr. 10
Looking at the whole picture is very important. Beef may go well with tangy and acidy wines, but what if we serve a beef salad? What with a chicken served with mashed potatoes and rich gravy? We will always need to look at the whole picture to find the wine that may pair with the food we are serving/eating.