WINE WITH DINNER W
e came up with a few quick wine pairing tips for you to consider as you contemplate your dinner destination. We’re sure you’ll find the perfect restaurant and hopefully these tips will make your meal a little more enjoyable.
The Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse has several location throughout the Cleveland area and each one regularly features excellent wines and vineyards to help you expand your palette. Cru Uncorked is well known for their extensive and approachable wine list. They have been developing one of the best wine programs in the country and are often recognized for this alone. Fine dining at Pier W in Lakewood, Blue Point Grill downtown and Crop Bistro in Ohio City can all be accentuated with exceptional wine selections and knowledgeable service. They all take their wine as seriously as they do their excellent menus. Morton’s, The Steakhouse and Delmonico’s also feature wine lists that compliment their menu. The overall goal is to balance your wine with the food you’re eating. Give some thought as to whether your meal will be creamy, acidic, fatty, lean, mild or flavorful. Mild wines do well with mild food, big flavorful meals match well with big flavorful wines and acidic foods do best when paired with acidic wines. Acidic wines and creamy dishes do not mix well and spicy dishes can completely overpower some wines. Many times wines and foods go best together that grew up together. If you’re eating an Italian dinner you may consider an Italian wine, for example. Wine tannins are an important factor as well and originate in grape skins, seeds and the barrels the wines are aged in. Their astringent flavor strips the taste of fat off of your tongue leading to a refreshing meal. Some studies suggest that tannins
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may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. White wines typically have less tannins than red wines as red wines are aged with the grape skins and pips while white wines are not. We’ve identified five categories of wine pairing to introduce you to the concept if you’re not yet familiar. Have fun and Bon Appetit!! Body This is a delicate balance of the “weight” of your wine and your desired dish. The body of each should match. Pair a rich, oaky California chardonnay with a rich buttery pasta and a lighter French Chablis with pasta cooked in a light wine based sauce. The wines and pasta complement each other rather than one overpowering the other. Acidity Tangy foods can make wine taste flat. When eating dishes with vinegar and/or citrus based sauces try to pair with a wine of equal acidity. White wines made from grapes grown in California, northern Italy or France will usually do the trick. Texture Tannic wines go much better with fatty dishes as the tannins and the fat contrast with each other. The buttery texture of fats act as a tannin nullifier, alleviating the drying sensation of tannic wines while the tannins break down the richness of the fat. Tannic red wines pair well with any fatty meat, not exclusively red meats. They will also go better with a ribeye than a filet, due to the fat content of the ribeye. Sweet & Spicy A sweeter wine can take away some of the heat of a spicy dish. Sweeter wines are sometimes lower in alcohol which also helps offset spicy flavors. A high alcohol wine will enhance the spicy flavors instead of balancing them out.
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