KEY POINTS:
If you want to drink a shiraz with your sea bass, then go ahead - the first and last rule of food and wine matching should be to select something that you like. However, applying a bit of common sense to your choices can spark some great synergies that bring out the best in both dish and drink.
Despite the tomes written on the subject, food and wine matching is a subjective business, with the variation inherent in dishes and wines meaning that it can never be an exact science.
It's an area that's also rife with myths. One which US researchers recently thought they'd busted was that classic combo of wine and cheese. Last year, studies at the University of California showed that nibbling cheese actually dulled the wine drinker's palate, something put down to either proteins in the cheese binding to a wine's flavour molecules or to fat from the cheese coating the mouth and deadening the taster's perception of a wine's flavours.
These findings caused something of an uproar among lovers of cheese and wine, some of whom maintained that not all combinations were so mutually deleterious. They may not be such perfect companions as once perceived, but give me goat's cheese and sauvignon blanc or a slice of strong munster with gewurztraminer and my palate parries the science. One thing I would steer clear of though is most cheese and dry red wines whose tannins vie with all but mild hard cheeses.
Another axiom that's been unceremoniously overturned is the idea that you should drink only red wine with meat and white wine with fish. Rather than stick to this prescriptive protocol, the main thing you need to consider when making your match is the weight of the dish and pair like with like. This means that meatier fishes like salmon and tuna are suitable partners to lighter, soft reds like pinot noir. It's also why a big shiraz will overpower a delicate fish like sea bass, which - like most seafood - would find a better companion in a light white.
Intensity of flavour is another important thing to think about. Something like Thai food can be quite light but is often highly flavoured and needs a wine that is feisty but not overly heavy. Riesling often rises to this challenge in being at once light-bodied but full of flavour.
A further element to take into account is the acidity of a dish. Sharp salad dressings, tomatoes or a squeeze of lemon can make many wines taste dull and flat. These beg for varieties like riesling or sauvignon blanc, which have the acidity to meet them head-on. And don't forget the sauce. If it's the dominant part of the dish, you should pay more attention to this than what lies beneath it.
Desserts are the most difficult. I often opt out at this point, preferring just a dessert or a glass of dessert wine on its own rather than embarking on the near impossible endeavour of sussing out the equal sweetness required for true harmony.
Throw away that rule book. Experimenting with food and wine combinations can be a lot of fun. There are a few matches made in heaven, which can be quite sublime. Perhaps more important, there are few clashes made in hell. And if you do choose a wine that jars, just open another bottle!
