Category: Wine

Red Wine and Fish

Red Wine and Fish – Hot or Not?

Not everyone knows that it can be tricky to pair red wine and fish together – not even the experienced waiter at your local restaurant, or the supplier of online wine with the help of professional wine reviews. Often, you only find out after it’s too late that maybe that delicate fish would have been better with a Riesling instead.

However, while there are more instances where red wine and fish don’t work than there are situations when they do, you may find this information below helpful. In fact, these tips may be something you can keep in the back of your mind the next time you order fish at your local restaurant.

Chilled for Grilled

If you are going to be eating grilled fish, or fish that has been barbecued, seared, or features an intense marinade or sauce, then chilled red wine is going to pair beautifully. If it’s light enough and it can cut through even the oiliest of fish and intense flavors to gel beautifully in the mouth. Read the descriptions on the bottles when you’re buying from an online wine provider to make sure it’s not going to be too rich.

Served with Meat

There is nothing better than a delicious Surf ‘n’ Turf at your local restaurant. But, it soon calls for a beverage with which to wash it down. Believe it or not, when you pair seafood and fish with meat, red wine seems to work quite well. In fact, in Spanish cuisine, it’s not uncommon for chilled wine to accompany fish and chorizo dishes.

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Wine and Cheese

Wine and Cheese – What Works Best?

It seems to be a classic combination – wine and cheese. It appears on many restaurant menus, and even online wine shops sell cheeseboard utensils so you can make a real event of it. However, did you know not all cheese will work with all wine, and vice versa?

Because of the cheese varieties on offer, as well as the various wine options, it’s fair to say not all are going to be matches made in heaven. If you’re planning a wine and cheese night with the girls and you’re not sure what works and what doesn’t, consider these pairs below.

Aged with Bold

A common rule to follow when trying to match cheese with wine is to think about their intensity. Is the wine or cheese strong in flavour? Or, is one stronger than the other? If you were to select an oaky red and pair it with a mild Gruyere, for example, you would find the wine overpowers the cheese.

Therefore, always match intensity levels. Aged cheese with bold red wine is a good example. As cheese ages, the flavours become more intense. As a result, the high tannin level in the wine begins to complement the fat content and richness of the cheese. Most combinations you see on any restaurant menu will work well, but if you’re not sure, think of the number one rule: equal intensity.

Tip: If you have purchased a rich red wine from your local bottle store or an online wine shop, select Gouda, Parmesan, and Provolone cheese to accompany it.

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A Beginner’s Guide To Wine

a-beginners-guide-to-wine

Getting off the comfort zone and trying new things can be both scary and exciting all at the same time. Same idea applies on getting yourself signed up in the wine society. And that’s where the challenge comes up—you have no idea, or at least at the start.

When buying wine, from the infinite selection of wine producers to the list of favorites you want to keep a record on, not to mention the fact that you don’t know how to open a wine bottle or the right temperature to keep the wine in its most desirable taste, the list of factors to consider can be very tricky—and surely you don’t want to mess it all up.

Mistakes are inevitable—we learn from them—but in order to lessen the hassles and save money from trying the wrong ones and doing the most obvious mistake all over again, we summed up the beginner’s guide to wine.

Wine, its variety and your taste

First things first, know what you’re dealing with—and that’s wine. It is simply a beverage made up of fermented grapes or other fruits. There are different types of wine you must be aware of—white, red, rosé, sparkling, fortified wine—which comes from different kinds of grapes or fruits.

Developing your taste on choosing your favorite from these types can be very confusing. So you start from the level of sweetness that is categorized to three—dry, semi-sweet and sweet. Dry wines have their sugars fermented to alcohol; semi-sweet wines are touched with sweetness for balance in acidity; and sweet wines leave more sugars un-fermented to alcohol, making it less alcoholic.

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