by Guy Kugel
Blueprint to Wine and Food Pairing
There are not necessarily set rules for wine and food pairing. Sometimes opposites accent each other: for instance, spicy foods almost always go great with sweet wines because the sweetness mitigates the spiciness and brings out the flavors. It's really on a case-by-case basis whether you go opposite or similar.One trick for pairing food with wine is to think of where the wine comes from and what ingredients and dishes are native to that area. So for instance, if a traditional Piedmontese lamb dish is on your menu and you're trying to think of a good wine to pair with it, you can look at what wines come from that area as well, such as Barolo, Barbaresco, or Barbera. These things are meant to go together because they come from the same soil, are subject to the same climates, and they've been together for centuries.
