Food and wine pairing, as a conscious act, is something relatively new in society. Food and wine pairing refers to the effort, and in fact the refined skill, in matching foods and wines and wine brands in a way that results in a pleasurable dining experience.

The whole idea of food and wine pairing is somewhat amusing if you

remember that wine was at one time was not considered something special like it is today. In older, classic societies wine was just what people drank. Nobody knows how it would compare to today’s wines. Certainly some of it was better than others.

But still……. It’s what people drank before there were such commercial beverages as Coke, iced-tea, energy drinks and homogenized milk.

The pairing of wine with food probably is something new because people in these older cultures didn’t have the variety of diet that many people have today. They didn’t have the luxury or option of choosing one wine or one food over another.

But we do so………. Here we are.

Today’s idea of wine and food pairing focuses on one particular aspect of foods and wines….. The ‘weight’. This ‘weight’ factor is further divided into ‘texture’ and ‘flavor’. Certain foods and certain wines are considered to be either light or heavy in weight. There’s a ‘medium’ in there somewhere too.

‘Matching’ prescribes that light wines go with light foods and heavy wines go with heavy foods. Pretty simple really. However the reality of the matter is that there’s a substantial degree of subjectivity involved in one’s preference for one wine brand over other wine brands.

What might be considered ‘a perfect match’ by one taster might not be considered so by another. But at least it makes jobs for some people in very fancy restaurants.

Here are some examples of these food and wine characteristics as commonly accepted:

Cabernet Sauvignon is generally considered to be a heavy or robust wine. As such, one would generally not take it with something like quiche which is generally considered a ‘light’ food. Similarly a food dish as heavy and robust as stew could not be properly served with a light bodied wine like Pinot Grigio.

Connoisseurs of this subject also like to discuss such things as the acid, alcohol, tannin and sugar concentrations in wine and how they relate enhance, or not, certain types of foods.

One of the most common occasions when people get together to practice their wine pairing and wine tasting skills is in cheese and wine tastings. And sometimes they’ll just forget the cheese and go for the wine tasting. Cheese is for mice anyway, right? 🙂

It’s an interesting subject if you’ve got the time and money. But the bottom line as always is personal preference. There are actually wine paring clubs where people get together for wine tastings and to discuss the finer points of their preferences and opinions.

There are many factors which make New Zealand red wine so good including the fact that the wine regions are those that are mostly located at free draining valleys. Valleys such as Martinborough, Wairau and Hawke’s Bay, with a few exceptions such as Kawarau Gorge.

The most predominant deposits of alluvial are sandstone also called grey wacke. This material can be found in most parts of New Zealand. This alluvial nature of soil is imperative and wine growers have noticed this which is whey this often mentioned on labels such as Gimblett Gravels. This area was once a river bed teaming with all sorts of marine life which a very stone filled soil. Today the stones act a as a way to lower the fertility of the area as to lower the water table it also is a heat source for the cool wind that blows though the area. This combined with other factors creates what is called a meso climate. 

In addition to growing conditions there is also a diversity of the growing methods used to produce New Zealand red wine. There is the one concept of traditional growing where there is a vineyard and grapes are grown in the land surrounding the place where wine is produced usually owned by a family which has it own wine making culture and equipment along with their own storage methods. The other is what is called the European model. This is where AOC village wine making is done at a production facility which is centralized. Also fruit is often grown on contract for wine makes and its nothing new when it comes to New Zealand wine making industry. Both of these wine making cultures have been in existence since the late 1960s. 

Many wine makers originally started out as contract growers. Also many of today’s small producers started out using fruit grown on contract for them. Many of the good wine producers often use contract fruit so some how supplement the variety of fruit as well as the wine they market, many use fruits from various geographical regions. So its not uncommon to see a wine producer in Auckland who is marketing a “Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc” or you see a Marlborough wine producer who is marketing a Gisborne Chardonnay. 

New Zealand Red wine is made from a bled of a varietals Merlot, Cabernet Franc, etc or even Hawkes Bay. There are also many wines which are made from Syrah now this is either done solely or it’s a blend. Even Mostepulciano, Sangiovese and Tempranillo is used. 

New Zealand red wine is considered one of the best in the world. This is owing to the fact that many wine producers are using a variety of methods to produce wine so you get a taste of various manufacturing and growing methods. Contract growing in combination with various fledgling wine production businesses mean that wine is cheaper than other types of wine as well as of a high quality.