Straight from the sommelier's toolkit, this handy overview will help you to demystify the sometimes-complicated task of matching food to wine.
The words you need to know
• Taste: the basics – salty, sweet, acidity, bitter and savoury/umami.• Texture: the tactile parts of food and wine such as ‘chewy’ (tannin) and ‘crisp’ (acidity).
• Body: the sum ‘weight’ of a wine or dish’s key parts. Graded in light-bodied, medium-bodied or full-bodied.
• Savoury: food without sweetness or wine with higher levels of astringency.
Prime pairs
• Acid and salt: Think riesling with oysters – a classic.
• Fat and acid: Try hot chips with Champagne. Seriously.
• Protein and tannin: Match your meat to the right pitch of tannin – where weight meets weight.
• Fat and tannin: Not just power – delicate oils (fat) of pink fish suit soft tannins of light red wines.
• Sweet and heat: Just a touch of residual sugar in wine can muffle the burn of chilli.
• Savoury and umami: Look to fried chicken – high in fat and salt – paired with skin-contact whites.
This is an edited extract from the article 'Back to basics' in the latest issue of Halliday magazine. To get the full story, pick up your copy today.
