A wine on its own can offer great pleasure, but the enjoyment is sorely diminished when it is selected to accompany a particular food and it simply doesn't match.
 It does take some effort to discover harmonious food-and-wine partners, not least because there is virtually an endless number of possible combinations.....and how many do we experience over the course of years of wining and dining?The old rule dictating «red wine with dark meat» and «white wine with light meat» is no longer taken seriously. New, creative ways of cooking that are geared more to light, imaginative cuisine based on natural aromas open the door to all kinds of new food-and-wine combinations, particularly with white wine. Creating harmonious partnerships is most likely to succeed when the wine and food are similar, i.e. when there is a balance between the body and richness, as well as the intensity of the aroma and flavor, of the food and wine. Three basic principles are noteworthy:
The wine should underscore the flavor of the food. The wine could be a bit more forward than the food, but neither partner should seriously overshadow the other. The wines being served (as well as the foods) should be served in an order that shows a progression in terms of aroma and flavor as well as body and richness.
Three things generally clash with wine:
- vinegar (e.g. a salad dressed with too much vinegar)
- the sharp acidity of citrus fruits
- oil (e.g. oily types of fish that usually make red wine taste metallic).
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