WINE & FOOD
Story by John Fischer Member and past president, International Wine & Food Society, Omaha Branch
Think Ethnic
when matching wine with foods
One
of the easiest concepts to understand in matching wine with food is ethnicity. Foods tend to develop around wines that are indigenous to their own country. Ethnic dishes will have qualities that harmonize with wines from the same region. Therefore, it seems logical to couple wines with foods of the same ethnicity. Although this is a simple-enough concept, it is one that is often neglected. Keep in mind that the eye sees the label. This connection creates a subtle linkage of wine to food. If you are eating Italian food, your aesthetic brain tells you to serve it with an Italian wine. Although a California Cabernet Sauvignon may match quite satisfactorily with the dish, something doesn’t quite seem right. That something is the disparity between the ethnicity of wine and food. In countries like Spain, Italy, France, and the United States, there is a wide variety of wine styles to choose from, and you can always find a satisfactory wine-food match to just about any dish. There is no reason to look elsewhere. However, many other
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countries do not have this luxury. Take Germany, for example. There is a wide assortment of white wines to choose from, but German red wines are very limited, and many are somewhat lacking in quality. The characteristics of foods that usually call for a red wine are often altered to fit a white wine. The dish “sauerbraten” is a case in point. This is pickled beef that is braised and served with tart gravy sweetened with crushed ginger snaps. The sweet-tart character of this dish makes it a great match with a Riesling Kabinett (a sweet-tart white wine). However, if your German menu includes a simple grilled steak, your are forced to look for a big red from some other country, as good hearty reds are difficult to come by in Germany. There are many facets to take into account in the process of matching wine with food, such as tartness, sweetness, richness, and complementing flavors. However, you will find that many of the qualities involved in matching wine with food will often fall into place if you simply match the ethnicity of the dish to that of the food.
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