Do you feel overwhelmed when standing in the wine aisle trying to decide which one will go best with your meal? You’re in good company there. Choosing the right bottle to pair with a meal depends on the budget, the occasion, the food, and the company, according to experts.
Since many of us will be deciding on a wine to serve with our turkey dinners on Thanksgiving, sommelier [[suh-muhl-YAY]] Elyse Lovenworth shares her tips for food and wine pairings and why some foods go best with certain wines. She says her “golden rule” and one that’s big in the wine industry is “what grows together goes together.” The idea is that if a food or ingredient grows in the same soil, climate, and region as a specific wine varietal, it will naturally go well together.
As for specific pairings, Lovenworth recommends:
- Best wine to go with Thanksgiving turkey - This wine pro says her favorite pairing for Thanksgiving dinner is a red wine and her favorite is pinot noir. She explains that it’s high in acidity and that it works with both light or dark meat.
- For red meat - Cabernet sauvignon is a classic for red meat eaters, but Lovenworth is a fan of another red for steak dinners: syrah, especially one from Washington state.
- For seafood - White wine is the go-to, but it’s not the only option. She recommends pinot noir with salmon, as well as a grenache, a lighter-bodied red.
- For vegetables and vegetarian dishes - Lovenworth likes old world wines with vegetables and says Barbaresco, an Italian red, is one of her favorites with roasted veggies. With mushrooms, she likes a Barbera, another red wine from Italy.
- For dessert - With the last course of a meal, this expert prefers bubbly. “I love sparkline wine with dessert,” she says. “It also helps kind of cleanse the palate and that carbonation can be nice after you’re full.” But if you want to serve a true dessert wine, she says it’s best to do it with a cheese course.
- And no matter what kind of wine you’re drinking, Lovenworth says you want to drink at least one glass of water for every glass of wine.
Source: Good Morning America
Photo: Getty Images