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WHAT IS WINE PAIRING?

When we talk about pairing a wine, what we mean is matching food with a certain type of wine to get the perfect combination. In this article, we look at what wine pairing is and how to do it easily.

If you know how to combine different flavours with the right wine, the whole experience on the palate will be enhanced. And you don’t need to be a sommelier to do it. In this article, we want to give you a couple of tips on how to get the perfect pairing without even leaving the house. We should mention that any food works when practising pairing. Here are a few simple recommendations to do it correctly. Keep on reading!

maridar-vino-con-carne

SELECT THE WINES WHEN YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE MENU

Now we know what wine pairing is, let’s put it into practice! You should keep in mind that there must always be a balance, and that the same rules used to choose the menu also apply to the drink that goes with it. For example, avoid serving wine with a fuller body before a lighter one. If you do this, the second wine you serve will go unnoticed.

You should use the same formula you used to choose the order of the dishes you are going to serve. In other words, we normally serve dishes according to the intensity of their flavours and nutrients in ascending order. The same should be done with wines. When choosing them, you should consider the weight of both the wine and the food.

What does this mean? This means that some foods have an intense flavour and a higher specific fat content, just as there are stronger, more aromatic and intense wines, as well as smoother lighter wines. When pairing a dish with wine, we must aim for both to have a similar weight. Always look at the tasting notes of the wine you have bought. Its aromas, nuances, flavours and vintage will give you an idea of which dishes it will combine best with. In our case, our website also includes the pairing that we recommend for each of our wines. You can find them in the Wines section!

Do you want to discover the pairings for Coto de Imaz Reserva, one of our award-winning wines?
Paella maridada con vino blanco El Coto Blanco

PAIRING BY CONTRAST OR ASSOCIATION

This means that if the food you wish to serve is spicy, for example, you should ideally combine it with a wine with a certain freshness. This is known as pairing by contrast as you are creating a balance through contrasting sensations.

On the other hand, when we pair by association, we are looking for the wine and the dish to complement each other. For example, you can associate sweeter wines with your favourite dessert, or white wines with fish.

Keep in mind that it is all about taste. Your own experience in combining flavours, textures and sensations. Remember that wine already has a lot of personality, and we still need to discover how to combine it with our favourite dishes.

We have a lot of articles on our blog where we talk about specific tips for pairing different dishes or foods. We have a guide for pairing cheeses, another for pairing desserts and for pairing your favourite pizzas. Although, to begin, we recommend that you read the following article with a few basic tips on pairing for red wines.

Simple tips for pairing red winesYou can buy all our wines here!