The key point to make about wine pairing is that you can feel free to ignore everything we say below. If you like it, it's a great pairing. We might not recommend it, but if you like Shiraz with spicy food, it's a great pairing! You love Moscato with beef bourguignon? Great pairing!
Taste can be subjective, sometimes to extreme levels, so there is no one size fits all guide. That said, there are some generalisations based on the science of taste, which many people find helpful.
The tips here, mostly based on the very helpful WSET guidelines, are designed to do two things: improve your experience of a food dish and improve your experience of a wine. That said, it tends to be the case that the greater impact of a pairing is on the wine. The goal is to find a pairing where 1 + 1 > 2.
Sweet and Umami foods match sweeter wines
These foods (think desserts or aged cheese) tend to make a wine seem less sweet and fruity, and more acidic and bitter. That's the reason dessert wines are often so sweet, they can match the sugar in the food and maintain a freshness and fruitiness that a dry wine would struggle to do. From our range, the Moscato d'Asti is a winner, but we also have a very special late harvest Pinot Gris on the way from Alsace.
Acidic and salty foods match high acid wines with strong fruit flavours
Acid in food can enhance the fruit in a wine, but only if the acid levels in the wine can balance the food. If the acid level in the wine is low, it can result in a dulling of the flavours. Did you know you can tell how acidic a wine is by how much it makes your mouth water? The classic example here is Margherita pizza and a young Italian red. Margherita pizzas have buckets of salt in the base, and high acid from the tomatoes. Italian reds like Sangiovese and Nebbiolo are famous for their high levels of acid, and have pronounced fruit flavours in their youth, making them a perfect combo. Our pizza pack has some great examples.
Fatty and oily foods match high acid wines
You've probably heard of pairing a wine to "cut" the fat of a dish? That's a great guide because an acidic wine will not only help you to finish a meal without a mounting oily feeling, but will also hold up to the dish better. A low acid wine can taste watery or "flabby" if drunk with a dish that is high in fat. Porchetta with Barbaresco is sounding great right about now (see photo below - from one of our favourite pairings over winter). For a fish dish with a buttery sauce you could go for a high acid white like Riesling or Chablis (both coming to our range soon!)
Big flavours match big bodies
Highly flavoured, rich dishes can overwhelm a wine without a body to match it. This is where full bodied wines (where the tannins, alcohol, and flavours combine for a "big" wine) come to the fore. A red that has spent time in oak, like a Chianti Classico Riserva, or a Brunello di Montalcino will stand up to any meaty dish with a rich sauce that you can throw at them.
Spicy heat is tricky!
Wine will often increase this kind of heat, so it's heat lovers and ex-smokers who tend to enjoy that Shiraz / spice pairing we mentioned above. For the rest of us, whites are safest, with Gewurztraminer the classic pairing (the Grand Cru from Kuentz-Bas is a special version). In the Vino Cammino house, we have tended to go with a lighter style McLaren Vale or Barossa Grenache if we wanted a red, but watch the alcohol and tannin levels which tend to become more noticeable with spice. (We don't have any SA wine in our range, at this stage anyway.)