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Henrie's Recipes
Which wine for what food?
Posted Mon, 21 Nov 2005
There are no hard and fast rules about which wine we should drink with what food, but centuries of experience have resulted in a few tried-and-tested guidelines.
According to an age-old code, sherry is drunk before a meal as an aperitif to stimulate the tastebuds for the food to follow - especially the dry or off-dry sherries. Sweet sherry is best enjoyed with dessert or fruit at the end of the meal.
Vermouth - herbal wine - is also served as an appetiser.
White wine usually accompanies the more delicate dishes, such as fish, and heavy red wines the heavier food such as beef, venison and composite dishes.
Drier wines are drunk before the sweeter ones and white before red when there is more than one kind of wine served with the meal.
Rose wine is halfway between white and red and can be regarded as a multi-purpose wine.
Sweet wine is drunk with dessert or fruit.
In South Africa port is mostly served at the end of a meal, and can be interchanged with liqueur or liqueur brandy.
Sparkling wine can be enjoyed at any stage of the meal - apart from traditionally being served on festive occasions.
There are also well-tried recommendations about the temperature for serving wine. Rose and whites are cooled, but never served icy cold. Sudden raising or lowering of the temperature of wine can be detrimental to the taste.
Red table wine ought to be served at room temperature - although this rule applies mostly to European room temperatures of 20-30 degrees C. In the hot South African climate it might be necessary to cool red wines slightly.
Sparkling wine is cooled in an ice bucket and served from it, and vermouth is usually served with crushed ice. Port and white dessert wine are served at room temperature and sherry and dessert wine can be cooled in summer.
Here are a few recommendations about which wine-food combinations:
Here are some recommendations (remember they are not hard and fast rules!) for which wines complement which foods:
Aperitifs before the meal
Sherry (dry or semi-sweet), room temperature or cooled OR
Vermouth (dry or off-dry), cooled with ice.
Soup
Sherry (dry or semi-sweet), room temperature or cooled.
Seafood, white meat and light entrees
White or rose table wine, cooled.
Red meat, grilled dishes, venison, stews and casseroles
Red table wine, room temperature.
Dessert, Fruit, Nuts, Cheese
Sweet dessert wine OR Port, room temperature.
To round off the meal (with coffee)
Liqueurs, at room temperature or with ice, OR Brandy, room temperature.
Before, during or after the meal
Sparkling wine, chilled.
