Wine and Food

    Maybe many people acknowledging wine believe that white wine matches to white meat and red wine to red meat, and yet their grape understanding still stays in the early period. If talking about wine and food matching in details, this topic can occupy several books. But here, it is enough for us to learn the general theory.   

Wine and food also require balance. It’s suggested that light wine matches to light taste dish, and heavy wine matches to heavy dish. At the beginning, serve light wine, and later heavy taste wine, that is to say, wine taste shall not be stronger than that of dish, and that of dish shall not be stronger than wine flavor. But as for Chinese, we usually take all dishes for one time, different from one course of dish with wine in foreign countries. Then how to select wine? If having more seafood and spicy dishes, then order white wine, if having dishes centralized in beef and mutton, then order red wine.

   For Chinese, most people do not have the habit of drinking wine. It's easy to accept that wine matches to dish. At the beginning, it's easier for white wine to match with dish than that of red wine. For example, the sour in white wine tastes refreshing. Take a mouthful of one dish and drink white wine, then take another dish, the tastes of each dish will not be mixed with the other and the fruit acid in the wine may help to decompose albumen and make you have more food. If you take liquor with high degree alcohol, you will taste numb. And after several cups of liquor, you can’t know the taste of dishes. Whereas, there is too much water in beer, so you will feel not only stuffing, but also the unique bitter in beer conceals the fresh of dishes.
    Generally speaking, if food is spicy and matches to strong red wine, you will feel more and more hot as drinking. Hence, it’s better to drink half-dry wine or sweet wine as eating spicy dishes. If dish is sweet, it's bad to drink heavy red wine, where tannin in wine and sweetness in dishes will make you bitter, so it's better to drink white wine with well taste, and the sour in white wine can also remove the sweet from sweet-taste dish.
    If taking sour and salt dishes, then you will feel warmer after drinking red wine. Oily dishes like roast duck and meat stewing match to red wine is perfect, where wine can get rid of the oil from meat, and meat can make wine more smooth and easy to drink.
    Certainly wine matching to dish also contains a lot of knowledge. The match between Chinese cuisine and wine in different regions is also expected to complete by specialists. Of course, it lies in each one’s taste. What wine matching to what dish is up to you, as mouth is yours.