The Impact of Wine Weight on Food Pairing: Insights from Top Sommeliers

Pairing wine with food can seem rather daunting, but it really isn’t complicated. When you analyse a wine’s basic traits, it becomes much simpler to identify the best types of wine to couple with certain foods. You will already be aware that flavour profiles play a crucial role in matching wine and food, yet you may not have contemplated the significance of your wine’s weight in the past. To help clarify how weight impacts wine pairings, we consulted with Doreen Winkler, a natural wine sommelier, orange wine expert, and founder of Orange Glou, the first global orange wine subscription service and wine store, based in New York City. When we refer to weight, we are not suggesting you should weigh the wine.

“Weight is linked to the body of the wine,” Winkler explained to us. While you could describe a wine as lean or heavy and some people might understand, it’s not the norm when discussing a wine’s weight. “We examine wine on a spectrum from light to medium to full-bodied,” she clarified. Therefore, if you hear someone refer to their Cabernet Sauvignon as big-bodied or full-bodied, they are speaking about the wine’s weight. Weight and body relate to the sensation of the wine in your mouth. A light-bodied wine is more acidic, thinner and generally has lower alcohol content. A full-bodied wine has more tannins, reduced acidity, a greater alcohol content and an overall richer mouthfeel.

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Doreen Winkler described weight as one of the most crucial factors in pairing wine. She said, “For orange wine, a lighter-bodied, macerated Sauvignon Blanc from Austria complements fresh seafood wonderfully, due to its crisp, mineral flavour profile.” Fresh seafood has a vibrant saltiness and doesn’t leave you feeling heavy after eaten. As the food is light and refreshing, it makes sense to pair it with a similarly light and refreshing wine.

“Fuller-bodied Georgian wines, such as a Rkatsiteli aged in amphora, are more tannic and earthy,” Winkler went on. “Which makes a great wine pairing for aged cheese and other richer foods.” Foods that are dense, bold, or hearty could be described as being heavy, so we want to pair that heaviness with a full-bodied wine that can compete with those flavors.

If your wine is too light for the dish, you won’t be able to taste it. The big, bold flavors of the food are going to drown out what makes that wine special. The opposite is also true. If you pair a full-bodied wine with a light dish, then that wine is going to outplay the food’s flavors, leaving you with the impression that the food is somehow lacking when it really isn’t. This is why medium-bodied wines are so versatile in food pairings because they occupy an easy middle ground.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.

About the Author: Chris Lehoux

Meet Chris Lehoux, an experienced wine connoisseur and dedicated blogger with a deep passion for all things wine-related. With years of expertise in the industry, Chris shares insightful wine reviews, valuable wine tasting tips, expert pairing advice, and captivating tales of vineyard visits. Join Chris on a journey through the world of wine, where every sip is an adventure waiting to be savored!