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As a Sommelier, Here Is Everything (Else) We Wish People Knew About Wine
A decade of wine knowledge condensed into (another) 7-minute read
Last year I sat on my sofa and punched out an 11-minute article about everything I wish people knew about wine from my decade in the wine trade.
It went viral.
It turns out it could have been an 18-minute read because I forgot a load of super important winey-based things that will make the enjoyment of your evening glass all the better.
You don’t need expert-level wine knowledge, you don’t need a ton of money and you don’t need to study to elevate your wine experience.
All you need is your friendly Medium-based Sommelier (that’s me) to drop some knowledge into your noggin. Knowledge that few people outside the wine trade know.
But they should.
Matching food and wine isn’t about flavors, it’s about structure
TV wine personalities with their ridiculous food and wine pairings have got a lot to answer for. You’ve probably seen them trying to match some tiny little flavor from a dish with some “flavour note” in a $7 liquor store wine.
They don’t tell you what’s truly important in food and wine matching. Most of it is not about flavor.
It’s about the structure.
Here’s what you need to know:
Acid and salt in food = good for wine
Sweetness and bitterness in food = bad for wine
This is how it plays out IRL:
Acid in food reduces bitterness and dryness in wine. That’s why Italian foods — which are often high in acid (think tomatoes or lemons) — work so well with Italian wines which, with the reds at least, tend to be high in tannin.
Salt acts in a similar way. Season your food properly and it’s going to taste banging with most wines.
Sweetness in food increases bitterness in wine. That’s why you’ve gotta pair a sweet wine with a sweet dish. Your fresh dry white just ain’t going to cut it with a sticky toffee pudding.
