Red wine pairings

Eva Pizarro

Sommelier at Fierro restaurant and trainer at Tandem Gastronómico.

Today, I’m introducing a small exercise so you can create your own pairings.

When faced with the question, ‘Which dish pairs best with this wine?’ Here’s a useful tip that will significantly enhance your wine-pairing skills.

Let's say we've gone to our local shop to buy a wine and want to prepare a dish that pairs perfectly with it. Well, it's simple, let's taste the wine and identify its key characteristics. We can help ourselves with a table like this:

Using this table, we’ll identify the wine’s characteristics and the ingredients or preparations that complement it best. This will provide a set of guidelines to help you create the ideal recipe for the chosen wine.

Let's dive in:

-    We have a red wine, we know that red wines can go well with meat, from white to red, but also with blue fish and some vegetables.

-    The wine features notes of black fruit in liqueur, and we know that these aromas will pair well with sauces or compotes made from red or black fruits. They also complement meat sauces or red wine reductions.

Well, we have some ingredients to start thinking about our recipe, but let’s delve a bit deeper…

-    It’s a Reserva meaning it has spent over 24 months in a barrel, imparting notes of wood, spices and toasty flavours. These characteristics pair perfectly with dishes featuring butter-based sauces, nuts, grilled or smoked touches, and rich, hearty pastas.

Our recipe is already taking shape! But let's continue

-    This extended ageing also imparts a wealth of spice notes, including cinnamon, black pepper, and liquorice, which will pair wonderfully with spiced sauces, braised meats or hearty legume stews.

We could continue breaking down all the characteristics we find in the wine and complete our ingredient list. Not sure how to taste or distinguish all these aromas? Don’t worry — Supermercados Consum offers tasting notes for all the wines they sell through their online store. It couldn't be easier!
 

Well, with all these ingredients, I’m thinking of making a tuna stew with a nut and pepper sauce, complemented by some fresh mint leaves. What about you?