CELLART's tips & tricks: how to choose a wine (1/6)
- Kieran Ferragu
- 17 nov. 2021
- 2 min de lecture
Tip 1/6: Make parallels between food and wine
Choosing a wine can sometimes be tricky when you are facing a shelf of dozens and dozens of bottles with different labels from all over France (or even from abroad).
Luckily, CELLART is here to help you. In this series dedicated to the choice of wine, we will give you some expert advice on how to choose your next bottle!
Food and wine are two related worlds that involve the same senses. It is no coincidence that when you describe a wine, you often associate it with food aromas. While many red wines, for example, will display red fruit characteristics, some white wines will show white fruit, citrus or nutty aromas. Some of these aromas come from the grape varieties and some from the winemaking methods. Maturing in oak barrels can bring out aromas of butter, toast and brioche.
When choosing a wine, it is therefore important to think about your food preferences, the tastes and flavours you enjoy. But also the gustatory sensations that you are looking for in food. Acidity, bitterness, sweetness or minerality are often good indicators of your sensitivity to a particular type of food.
If you like acidic, fresh and crisp dishes (a citrus-based dessert or a Céviche for instance), you are likely to be sensitive to these same indicators in a wine such as Muscadet, a Chenin from the Loire or a Riesling from Alsace. On the other hand, if you like sauce based dishes, the smoothness of cream or the comforting delicacy of a velouté, richer wines with more substance and maturity should attract you, such as a barrel-aged white Burgundy or a white wine from the Rhône Valley.
Establishing parallels with gastronomy will allow you to better target your tastes and your wine preferences. Finally, if you like everything, the hard part will be to choose, so be curious and let yourself be surprised!