Wine Blog

August 28, 2008

Red Wine with Fish: Food & Wine Blasphemy? 

Yes, there are people out there who drink red wine with fish. "Isn't that wine and food pairing blasphemy?", you might ask. Actually, not at all. It all depends on what the wine is and what the dish is. And more importantly, who the wine drinker is.

The first and most important tip for wine and food pairing is to drink what you like. While Mike and I are both what you might call wine color agnostic (red, white, rose - we enjoy them all), some wine drinkers only drink one type. So if you're only a red wine drinker, what do you do when you're faced with fish? Drink white wine even though you don't want to? Now that would be wine and food pairing blasphemy.

The second and also critical tip for wine and food pairing is to keep an open mind. Any hard and fast food and wine matching guide that recommends a single wine type for a given food is going to be pretty limiting, although it may be helpful as a starting point. Such a guide might tell you to only drink white wine with fish, but it would be a shame to never try salmon and pinot noir, or a hearty tuna steak and a full-bodied Syrah. We recommend two white wines for our Swordfish Puttanesca Recipe, but the meaty filet and tomato-based sauce could also be finely paired with a sunny Mediterranean red wine.

We would be perfectly happy for you, our readers, to take our pairing recommendations as just a starting point toward creating your own pairings, personalized for your palate.
 
 
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