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Matching Food and Wine

There are two basic approaches to food and wine matching – like-with-like and contrasts. The like-with-like approach is all about striking harmony between flavours and textures of the food and wine. A useful trick is to think of food and wine combinations in terms of “weight”. Classify a dish as light, medium or full bodied, then team it with its wine counterpart. A lemon tart with a Riesling or Semillon Chardonnay will deliver tangy citrus flavours to the palate, while a full bodied Australian Shiraz would team beautifully with roasted lamb or beef. Making the ideal partnership also depends not just on the food itself, but how it’s prepared. When matching like with like light lemony sauces on fish or chicken calls for the gentle citrus flavours of Riesling, Semillon Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay, while spicy, peppery Grenache Shiraz would be perfect to accompany a subtly curried dish or peppery stew.

The contrasts approach is about combining wine and food that are quite different and striking a balance of flavour intensity and texture through their interaction. An example of this is to match a zesty young Riesling with pan roasted sea scallops in a rich butter sauce.

There is a lot of sense to the “rule” that red wines go with red meats and cheeses and that white wines go with fish and white meats such as chicken, but don’t get hung up on colour. Sometimes it can be great fun and rewarding to break the rules and get away with it. The diverse array of wine on offer beckons you to break free of convention and experiment. Each wine is unique, regardless of variety and region, and each vintage has its own character plus subtle shifts in wine style can make big differences in the way wines interact with food

An important thing to remember is there are no real rules. Australian cuisine is highly multicultural with influences from European, Asian and indigenous cultures. This allows an experimental and adventurous approach in matching food and wine. The close relationship between food and wine may, in part, closely parallel the evolution of great cooking and great wine making. Not surprisingly some of the best cuisine in the world occurs in some of the finest wine-growing regions, where wine is often used in the cooking process as well as an accompaniment. Australia is fortunate in terms of availability of excellent fresh, clean, green produce and has developed wines to match food from all around the world.

It is important to recognise the basic sweet, bitter and sour tastes of wine. Much of what we perceive as taste is actually aroma, including floral, fruit, spice and alcohol aromas. Apart from the basic taste of wine, the weight and intensity, or texture, of a wine is an important factor in food and wine pairing.

Matching food and wine is a simple statement but difficult to define because there are so many variables influencing the final results. The outcome is subject to individual likes, and preferences so it may be that a particular combination of wine and food that you find inspiring will not be liked by everyone.

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Ian Love is director of Perth Restaurants group West Valley, which runs Coco's Perth restaurant, Raffles Hotel Perth & Bellhouse Seafood restaurant.

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