Biltmore Estate Wine Training
Recommending Wine with Confidence
I. Types and Styles of Wine
II. Taste - Basic Human Physiology
III. How Wine and Food Interact
Recommending Wine with Confidence
I. Types and Styles of Wine
Just as the winemaker has numerous styles of wine to choose from when deciding what
type of wine to make, so does the wine sales person in choosing a wine recommendation.
The appreciation of wine is further complicated, or more positively, enhanced by the
realization that enjoyment of wine is a subjective process. Wine is like art - your favorite
is what you enjoy most. Everyone’s opinion is valid. There are some basic physiological
realities that are constant when certain styles of wines are paired with certain types of
food. For the sake of discussion we will establish some basic wine categories that will
help in making consistent consumer recommendations.
SPARKLING WINE
Asti Spumante- usually sweet
Charmat Bulk – a bulk process that produces inexpensive wine
Méthode Champenoise – Second fermentation in the bottle
Natural – very dry
Brut – Dry
Extra Dry – Less dry
Sec or Sekt – Sweeter
STILL WINES
Semi-Dry, Light Body, Fruity
Blush and White Wines: White Zinfandel, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Chenin
Blanc
Dry, Light to Medium Body and Fruity
White Wines: Dry Rieslings, Chablis, Loire, Bordeaux, Pinot Grigio some
Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blanc
Dry, Medium to Full Body, Oak-Aged
White Wines: Barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay, Burgundy
whites and Rhone-style whites
Dry, Light to Medium Body, Fruity
Red Wines: Gamay Beaujolais, Lighter Pinot Noirs, and Sangiovese
Dry, Medium to Full Body, Tannic
Red Wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Red Zinfandel, and Cabernet
Franc
These categories are not inclusive, but they give us an idea about how wines compare in
style from light to heavy and from sweet to dry. The wines also progress from noncomplex to complex, which is a very important distinction when pairing wine with food.
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WINE STYLES & COMPLEXITY BY VARIETAL TYPES
Non – Complex
Off dry, Light
(Blush and White)
Complex
Dry, Light/Medium
(White Wine)
Dry, Medium/Full
(White Wine)
Dry, Light/Medium,
Fruity
(Red)
Chardonnay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Sauvignon Blanc/Fume Blanc
White Zinfandel
Dry, Medium/Full, Tannic
(Red Wine)
Merlot
Viognier
Red
Pinot Gris /Grigio
Zinfandel
Syrah
Riesling
Cabernet Franc
Gewurztraminer
Pinot Noir
Gamay
Semillon
Chenin Blanc
Sangiovese
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Recommending Wine with Confidence
II. Taste - Basic Human Physiology
The appreciation of good wine and good food is the result of a combination of
factors: attitude, ambiance, companionship, and quality all play a role in the
experience. The second part of this course will focus on how to enhance the
dining and wine-consuming experience for your guests and yourselves by
minimizing the possibility of an unpleasant interaction between wine and food.
We will discover some simple and predictable situations that can help build
confidence in recommending wine and food combinations and make the dining
experience a seamless gustatory pleasure from beginning to end (assuming all
other factors are enjoyable).
To begin, it helps to understand how food and/or wine are perceived. Flavor,
as we have said, is a combination of taste, smell and touch that occurs inside
the mouth and nasal passage. Aroma plays a large role in determining flavor.
Remember the old biology 101 classes on taste? A blindfolded sucker is told to
hold an orange under his nose while the teacher feeds him an onion. The
initial “flavor” is that of an orange. Taste happening in the mouth is where
we will concentrate on food and wine pairings because the reactivity of wine
and food, for better or worse, occurs in the mouth.
Traditionally, we have broken taste into four categories: sweet, sour, salt and
bitter. The tongue is really not quite that efficient, but over time we have
learned to categorize what we put into our mouths in relation to one of these
sensations. It may go back to the early evolution of man when taste was a
survival instinct. Sweet might have indicated carbohydrate intake, a source
of energy. Sour could have been a warning of food deterioration or acid
necessary for metabolism. Salt or mineral intake was necessary for chemical
balance and survival, and bitter was a warning of the possibility of poison.
Bitter is usually an acquired taste. (Notice that babies very seldom will eat
bitter food. If they tried strained broccoli, they probably wouldn’t like it.) In
the early 1900s a Japanese scientist isolated a substance he called Umami,
which is now a recognized fifth taste. Umami roughly translates to savory.
Umami may be the signal for protein intake and stimulation of digestion.
Saliva also plays a role in taste. Saliva is composed of, among other things,
sodium chloride, potassium chloride and protein. Saliva plays a buffering role
in the mouth that is important to our taste receptivity; the more saliva, the
greater the insulation. Have you ever noticed before a big speech how your
mouth dries out and you have very little saliva? If you could stand to eat at
that time, things would taste stronger than they ordinarily do. However, food
and our mouths must be wet to taste. Taste buds cannot pick up signals from
totally dry food. This will be important to our understanding of the reactivity of
wine and food.
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Recommending Wine with Confidence
III. How Wine and Food Interact
Wine and food interact in very predictable ways. It is important to recognize
what these potential reactions are, but it should be duly noted that there is
no attempt to categorize the reactions between food and wine as good or
bad; they just are. Wine and food pairings are like art: they are totally
subjective and the appreciation is up to individual taste. Having said that,
knowledge of the potential interactions between wine and food will greatly
help in steering people away from unpleasant possibilities and toward
pleasant experiences. Tim Hanni, Master of Wine, and a leading industry
consultant on the subject, largely defined the new approach to wine and food
pairing. Years ago, Tim was searching for a direct simple way to categorize
food and wine interactions and then instruct the hospitality industry on these
principles to improve food and wine service. At the time, everyone was still
having very complicated discussions involving the U.C. Davis flavor wheel;
they had all sorts of opinions on what complimented what. Of course the
opinions were and still are valid, but they are certainly not consistent and
they are not predictable. Tim was looking for a better way. The reactivity of
food and wine takes place in the mouth and is governed by the basic taste
perceptions just discussed, plus a couple of more we will also discuss. The
new way pares down the discussion from literally hundreds of opinions to a
few basic, predictable possibilities.
SWEETNESS
Sweetness is found in a wide variety of foods and in some foods we don’t
consider sweet such as many tomato sauces. Sweetness is also found in
many wines. Some people prefer sweet wines and some don’t. The
reactivity of sweet food on wine is very predictable.
“Sweetness in food will increase the perception of sourness,
bitterness and astringency of the wine while making the wine
appear less sweet (more dry), stronger and less fruity.”
SOUR / ACIDITY
Sourness in food is quite common. Lemons, salad dressings, etc. all are
tart because of the natural acids that are part of their make-up. Dry
wines tend to taste acidic because they do not contain a lot of sugar to
balance the taste.
“Foods with high amounts of acidity will decrease our perception
of sourness in the wine and make the wine taste richer and more
mellow. If the wine is sweet to begin with it will appear to taste
sweeter.”
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BITTERNESS / UMAMI
Bitterness is sometimes confused with astringency. Some common bitter
foods are broccoli as well as some fruits and foods charred during the
cooking process. Foods high in bitter components tend to increase the
bitterness of wine served with it.
Umami, that savory flavor so sought after by chefs, is prevalent in lobster,
some cooked vegetables, aged or well-cooked beef, caviar, tomato sauce
and smoked salmon. Food high in Umami can increase the bitterness in
wine and possibly leave a metallic after taste.
“Bitter, sweet and umami flavors in food will increase the
perception of bitter elements in wine. Sourness and salt in food
suppress bitter taste in the wine.”
SALT
Foods with higher levels of salt will increase their own flavors and
decrease the bitter and sour flavors in wine. The sodium in sodium
chloride (salt) will dampen bitter receptors on the tongue and lessen their
ability to detect bitterness.
“The judicious use of salt to food, especially to sauces and other
foods high in umami can be useful in some cases to tone down
bitterness and astringency in some wines. You may find that
salty foods make sweet wines taste sweeter.”
ASTRINGENCY
Tannin (the natural preservative we discussed) present in food will make
wines that are high in tannin seem even more tannic/astringent. Foods
with high levels of tannins are some vegetables, some fruits and nuts.
Tannin present in the mouth is actually a touch sensation and not taste.
Tannin molecules bond with protein molecules in saliva and reduce the
buffering effect of saliva and make the mouth feel dry (preserved?).
Tannin perception is greatly influenced by the physical state of the taster.
A high level of saliva in the mouth will lessen the impact of tannin. If the
saliva level is already reduced by having to give that big speech (dry
mouth) the tannin effect is magnified. The effect of tannin (drying) in the
mouth can be reduced by the introduction of uncoagulated protein (rare
meat, softened cheese), fats, acidity or saltiness into the mouth.
“Astringency in wine is accentuated by food that is sweet or “hot”
(spicy) and is suppressed by foods that are acidic, salty, fatty, or
have uncoagulated proteins (rare steak) for the tannin molecules
to combine with. The umami taste in food seems to accentuate
the astringency in wine that follows.”
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CHEMESTHESIS
Chemesthesis is a stimulation of the mouth caused by certain compounds
found in certain foods such as hot peppers. The effect is cumulative.
Simply put, foods that contain these compounds will heighten the
perception of astringency and bitterness in wine. There is a reason that
highly spiced foods go well with wines of low complexity such as sangria.
COMPLEXITY
This is where it all comes together. Wines that are on the right side of
the complexity chart have a much higher possibility of reacting with food.
The reason is quite simple: complex wines contain more pronounced
levels of the compounds that are affected by components in the food.
Complex wines are generally more acidic and higher in tannin because of
the way they were made. These higher levels make them more
potentially reactive to all of the elements in food and to chemical reactions
in the mouth. Does this mean if you are a server you suggest wines only
on the non-complex side of the chart? Absolutely not. Remember there a
lot of people that prefer those big flavors and big reactions. Now we can
concentrate on how to balance the food and wine experience with
practical application of our knowledge. This is the fun part!!
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Notes