by Margaux Sky

Created on: January 04, 2011

A THING to keep in mind when pairing food and wine is the occasion. An occasion helps to determine:

a) What price wine to serve - expensive versus not so expensive

b) How many wines to serve - appetizer, two entrees, side dishes, dessert

c) What kinds of wine to serve - chardonnay, burgundy, rosé, port, champagne, moscato, and the list goes on.

THE WINE, naturally, will be determined by the food and the food determined by the occasion. If the occasion is casual, perhaps a birthday party with family and a few friends, then the meal will most likely be casual, too. For example, if appetizers, burgers, chips, vegetables, and a dessert of cake will be offered, the wine choice will probably be casual in price. Perhaps springing on expensive wines might be protocol for some people, but most people tend to offer wines at casual prices when hosting a casual meal.

THE OTHER SIDE of the coin is not casual but highly remarkable. Perhaps the occasion is a formal affair with any number of people attending. The food will be of very high quality, so people will be expecting the quality of the wine to match the quality of the affair. The fact that they’d dressed up for the occasion is another reason they may expect being pampered a bit more than usual, and that pampering includes not just good but great wines with great food.

CASUAL COST WINE is great for a simple affair but casual cost wine will spoil a feast fit for royalty. It’d be like serving well water in paper cups at a $100.00 a plate dinner. The guests would probably complain, and rightly so.

THERE ARE MANY FACTORS to examine when pairing food with wine regardless of the size of or occasion for the party. One very important consideration is ethnicity, your guests, and what culture the guest list entails. The culture of a person could dictate the wine they prefer. A woman from France with a cleaner palate might appreciate the dry citrus flavor of a Chardonnay white wine and consider it subtle with sweet overtones. To a man from Germany that swills with gusto and has a heavy palate, he might find the Chardonnay bland and not sweet under any circumstance and desire a wine with a palpable sweetness like Moscato. Someone from India that is used to curry and spice might consider the Chardonnay too powerful a wine to match with Indian food and might find the sweetness an interruption to the meal. They might prefer a rather bland, nondescript white table wine like Trebbiano.

NATURALLY, IN THIS DAY and age

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>