Food and wine: which foods are strictly prohibited for tasting

Paradoxical combinations and obvious discrepancies – the experts told which products can be served during the tasting, and which are categorically not recommended

Combination # 1: simple and complex

Complex, delicate flavors and aromas require, paradoxically, a simple meal. At the same time, sophisticated dishes with complex flavors require simple wines to promote digestibility and avoid the feeling of fullness in the stomach. But only!

Combination # 2: classic harmony

The harmony of wine and cheese is recognized as classic. The cheeses have their own bouquet with a very wide range of flavors: delicacy, spicy, strong, aged, etc. The rule of pairing wine and cheese is as follows: light wines – with cheeses that are delicate in taste and smell, stronger wines – with spicy ones.

Combination # 3: young and salty

Excess salt (in pickles, smoked meats, salted fish) should not violate the integrity of the complex bouquet of old aged wines, no matter red or white. Therefore, for dishes with a predominance of salty taste, it is better to serve young sour wine with a fruity aroma, well quenching thirst.

Combination number 4: fruit to the prefix “floor”

Many sweet dishes made with added fruits (peaches, cherries, prunes, figs, pineapple, coconut) roughen the taste of dry wine. Dry red wine in such a neighborhood acquires an unpleasant astringent taste, and dry white wine seems sour to acridity. Therefore, semi-sweet wines with a pronounced fruit flavor, powerful aromatic bouquet and high alcohol content are more suitable for such dishes.

Combination # 5: tannins do not tolerate acidity

The sour taste of a dish can completely kill the pleasure of aged tart wine. If the proposed dish is not sour, but only slightly sour, young white or rosé wine, even a very modest one, will suit it. Just do not under any circumstances serve red wine with such a dish, especially long-term wine with a high content of tannins. Otherwise, you will commit two crimes at once: against the dish and against the wine!

Combination 6: only chocolate from bitter

Wines do not go well with the bitterness contained in certain products, since they acquire, against its background, a rough harshness. There are several exceptions to this rule, mainly for expensive wines. As for chocolate, natural dessert wines seem to be specially created to be washed down with it.

What to say a decisive “no”

Vinegar. A salad flavored with vinegar dulls the sensitivity of the tongue, which does not contribute to the perception of the fullness of the taste and aroma of the wine.

Citrus fruits, vanilla, mocha, cinnamon – not the best companions of wine, although in the aromas of some drinks we distinguish their tones.

Fatty fish, smoked products interrupt the strongest aroma of the wine.