Unlike at home, the choice of wine and food is not planned in advance. So you’ll have to think hard to find the right match if you want to make the most of your meal. It’s a complicated thought, all the more so when the wine list is so extensive. What to do?

Call the sommelier, that’s what he’s there for.

On a more serious note, today we’d like to offer you a few tips to help you choose the right wine and food pairings for your restaurant!

Watch out for the wine service order

Traditionally, white wines are tasted before reds, and young wines before old. However, this service order needs to be put into perspective. In fact, cheeses go perfectly with white wines, thanks to their acidity and low tannin content. Also, a wine with explosive, dense fruitiness will be poorly matched by a wine that may be older, but is soft and subtle.

In short, it’s best to choose wines according to their strength: fresh wines to start the meal (for example, dry white wines like Pinot Gris or Sauvignon Blanc), a more powerful wine for the main course (a fine Syrah or Merlot will do the trick with red meat) and finally a sweet wine for dessert (a Coteaux du Layon or Sauternes will be perfect).

Which wine to choose with meat?

Meat generally goes well with red wine. Game pairs perfectly with wines from the southern Rhône Valley, while lamb will find supple tannins in a Pauillac aged a few years that will marry perfectly with its flesh, and a fine piece of beef is best accompanied by a fine Syrah.

However, with other meats such as poultry, a pairing with white Burgundy wines is highly desirable. On the other hand, structured white wines with a little too much maturity are too powerful for fish, and need flesh like that of white meats or veal to flourish.

Which wine to choose with fish?

If the previous rule can be broken, so can the one advocating the white wine/fish pairing. For example, tuna and certain firm-fleshed fish such as monkfish go perfectly with supple, gourmet red wines.

Wines from the Loire Valley, Beaujolais or the Rhône are ideal. A steamed pollock is a perfect match for a 2011 Soula, a Côtes Catalanes wine. However, for shellfish products, white wine is generally preferred: lobster goes perfectly with a Château d’Yquem…

Which wine to choose with cheese?

You hear it everywhere: red wine and cheese is the French cliché. And yet, this agreement is almost always disastrous! A red wine contains far too much tannin to match the acidity of the cheese.

Great matches are often made between white wine and cheese, and even more so between wines and cheeses from the same region whenever possible. Examples include the perfect marriage of a Gewurtz and a Munster, an Arbois and a Comté, or a Sauternes and a Fourme d’Ambert.

Which wine to choose with dessert?

Three types of wine go well with desserts:

First, the sweet wines of Bordeaux, Loire or Alsace, which sublimate preparations based on yellow and white fruits.

On the other hand, fruity wines like Port can accompany chocolate, praline or mocha-based desserts.

Finally, rosé champagnes, or fruity sparkling wines, go very well with red fruit desserts, or can be offered as demi-sec to accompany desserts such as pear and almond sponge cake.

Photo by Big Dodzy / Unsplash