While you enter into a typical Italian restaurant, one of the biggest questions which may intimidate you about your ignorance may be like “which wine you want to pair with your food?” People know that Italian food is most delicious, one may know the difference between red and white wines too, but choosing the right type for the right dish may be a puzzle.
If you have some baseline knowledge of it, then pairing the right type of wine with food may not be an intimidating affair. In this article, we are trying to explore more details about various wines to work well with particular dishes.
Six tips for pairing the right wine with Italian dishes
Bubbles are perfect to start
Most of the Spanish sparkling wines offer you a fine touch of sweetness. This makes it a perfect and refreshing combination with salty foods. If you order a salty dish like arancini salumi or, you may not go wrong with the choice of a Prosecco.
Try Pinot Noir for earthy flavors
Pinot Noir is an ideal choice of wine lovers for many good reasons. Featuring a very light texture and immense flavor, this is an ideal combination with earthy foods. For example, Pinot Noir can be an ideal combination with a plate of risotto made of wild mushrooms.
Chardonnay and fish
Chardonnay from Sokolin Fine Wines is ideally described as silky and smooth to go with a little bite. Its acidity helps to cut through the heaviness of any creamy sauces finely, and so an ideal pair for seafood, fish, and other creamiest sauces. Rich, creamy sauces like lobster fra’ Diavolo are the ideal dishes to pair with Chardonnay.
Cabernet with steaks
If you’ve been considering steaks at the menu, then you may want the best pair it by ordering Cabernet Sauvignon wine. The tanning and assertive flavor of this wine may stand up to the flavor of the rich meat, but don’t overpower it. It will offer an ideal flavor sensation to you.
Malbec to Soften your palate
Being a softer wine compared to Cabernet, Malbec may not stand up to that much heavy meals like a steak. However, it can be ideally combined with much leaner meats not to overpower them. Malbec may also go well with the pasta dishes. Malbec is a much versatile variety of wine, which can also be paired effectively with poultry.
Pork and Merlot
Merlot is one of the most approachable red wine variety which can taste best with a wide range of food items. Being much easygoing, it is much softer than cabernet and assertive in flavor. It can go well with a range of main dishes with extreme flavors of spicy, bitter, or sour. Dishes consisting of poultry, pork, or tomato pasta, etc. also work well with Merlot.
Some other top choices to make in wine and food combinations are:
- Barbera is a bold Italian wine which will go well dark meats, flavored cheeses, herbed dishes, mushroom, etc.
- Pinot Grigio can be ideal with salads or crunchy fresh dishes.
- The well-rounded Riesling also pairs ideally with dishes based on seafood, vegetables, garlicky dishes, poultry, and pork, etc.
Now, as you know the basic points, pairing the right wine with the right kind of Italian wine is your cup of tea too. Try to learn a bit more by doing some experimentations too in this regard to be a pro.
