Everyone seems to have different ideas about pairing wine with food. But there are four rules that are consistent among most wine experts. Here are the four rules of pairing wine with food in order of importance.1. Match the weight of the wine to the weight of the food. If you're serving a heavy, winter-weather meal, serve a heavy winter-weather wine. If you've made something light and summery, serve a light, summery wine. This is where the old adage 'white wine with white meat, red wine with red meat' really holds up. It is the quickest and easiest way to pair your food with wine. But, say you want to make a more sophisticated pairing. That's when you go to rule #2.2. Match the elements of the wine with the elements of the food. The three elements of wine that you want to consider when pairing are acidity, sweetness and tannins. The elements of food that you want to consider are spiciness, saltiness, bitterness, umami, sweetness, and fats. Acidic wines work well with spicy, salty, fatty and umami foods. Tannic wines work well with fatty and salty foods, and clash with spicy foods. Off-dry wines work well with spicy and bitter foods. And sweet wines can work with sweet foods as long as the wine is sweeter than the food. The elemental pairing is depicted in short form below.Sweet Wine: Sweeter foodOff-Dry Wine: Spicy or Bitter foodAcidic Wine: Spicy, Fatty, Salty, UmamiTannic Wine: Fatty and Salty (no spicy)But say you want to create a really special pairing, not just a pairing that enhances the elements of both the food and wine, but a pairing that seems to be greater than the sum of the whole. That takes us to the third step.3. Match the flavors of the wine with the flavors of the food. We've all done it at some point. We're sipping a wine, perhaps a new one we've never experienced before and we notice a flavor or aroma that we've never perceived in any other wine. Maybe it's ginger, maybe it's almond, maybe we pick up on anise or bell pepper in a way that is certain and stunning. Remember that wine. The next time you serve it, pair it with a dish that uses one or a few of its aromas in the ingredients. It's really incredible when a wine matches up elementally with the food and also echoes the flavors of the meal.4. Serve the wine with which you cook. If you're cooking with wine, make sure you have enough to serve with the meal. The longer the dish cooks with the wine, the more heavenly the experience that glass of wine will be.
