The Perfect Pairings For National Drink Wine Day

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Pop a cork and raise your glass, because today is National Drink Wine Day. Whether you’re clinking glasses with us at 1 Hotel South Beach, Central Park, or Brooklyn Bridge, here are 7 tips to help you find the perfect food and wine pairings.

#1: Sweet with heat

Pair spicy foods with wines that have some residual sugar, like a German Riesling. Residual sugar actually cools down spice and creates balance between the food and the wine. Alternatively, avoid pairing spicy food with highly alcoholic wine, like an Italian Barolo. Believe it or not, the heat of the food will intensify the alcohol in the wine, which will make the dish seem even spicier as a result.

#2: Smoak with oak

Pair grilled or charred foods with wines that have been aged in oak, like a California Chardonnay. Oaked wines are often more intense, so they can overwhelm the flavors in a dish. Therefore, they need to be paired with foods that match that intensity. Grilled or charred foods tend to tame that oaky intensity and bring out the fruit flavors of the wine instead.

#3: Match flavors and textures

Pair foods with wines that have similar flavors and textures. An easy way to do this is to match mildly flavored wines with mildly flavored foods, and big, flavorful foods with big, flavorful wines. Similarly, rich foods should be paired with rich wines. When food and wine have similar qualities, they complement each other and enhance each other’s textures and flavors.

#4: Acid with fat

Pair fried or fatty foods with wines that are high in acid, like a French Sauvignon Blanc or California Cabernet Sauvignon. Acid cuts through richness in food and acts as a palate cleanser, which helps create balance between rich and oily foods and wine.

#5: Sweet with salt

Pair sweet wines with salty foods. The combination makes sweet wine taste less sweet and more fruity, and salty food taste less salty and more savory. In effect, the sweet counteracts the salt and vice versa, so that both elements shine through.

#6: Sweet with sweet

Pair dessert with wine with sweet tasting wine. Sweet wines complement the sweet flavors in food. But beware: if the food is sweeter than the wine, the wine will just taste flabby.

#7: What grows together goes together

Pair foods of a particular ethnicity or region with wines from the same place, like Italian wine with Italian food, for instance. Ethnic, regional pairings are typically a match made in heaven because the agriculture and grapevines share the same environment, so they naturally have flavors that complement each other.

Wherever we are, let’s all toast to our 1 community, our 1 beautiful planet, and to many more celebrations to come. Cheers from all of us at 1 Hotels to you!

photo credit: @wine_in_hand
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