What is food and wine matching? It is the art to harmonize the wine to the dish in order to enhance the pleasures of fine dining and increase the business profitability.
What is its aim? It is to create a balance between both food and wine sensorial characteristics.
Which are the two pairing strategies? Those of complement and contrast.
Complement Wine and food complement each other when they share similar characteristics.
Complement pairings are: 1) Sweetness in food goes withsweetness in wine. 2) Aroma and spiciness in food go with taste olfactory intensity in wine. 3) Persistence in food goes with Persistence in wine. 4) Structure in food goes with body in wine.
Contrast Wine and food contrast each other when their characteristics are balanced and enhanced by the opposite ones without overshadowing each other's unique flavour and peculiarities.
Contrast pairings are: 1) Sapidity, acid tendency and bitter tendency (hardnesses) in food go with sweetness, pseudo-warm sensation and softness (softnesses) in wine. 2) Greasiness in food goes with sapidity and effervescence in wine. 3) Fatness in food goes with tannicity and pseudo-warm sensation in wine. 4) Sweet tendency in food goes with acidity and sapidity in wine. 5) Succulence in food goes with tannicity and pseudo-warm sensation in wine.
(Almost) impossible pairings Pairings with: Vinegar, pickles, raw artichokes, lemon juice, citrus fruit, grapes, ice cream and fruit salads with liqueurs or distillates, biting dishes, very acid or bitter chocolate.