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Some
people live all their life with rules or truths which seem obvious
to them without really knowing the reason why
they work. And why should they bother? 
When I asked the question “what
do you drink with red meat and why?” to my friends,
they were caught by surprise a bit as thought they knew the
answer very well: red wine they (most of them…)
said, but then they became quite uncomfortable when they had
to explain why. They started rambling about the body of the
red wine....
Body is usually
the usual suspect when it comes to explaining
food and wine relationships. And to a certain degree my friends
were right. The body of most red meat needs similar weighted
red wines. Otherwise a light bodied wine would get crushed with
the heavy meat. But why not using a medium to full bodied
white then?
Because
of 2 main reasons: Tannins and Flavours.
1) Tannins
react with proteins
Tannins are found in red
wines mostly. (white wines contain nearly no tannins
at all). They are molecules coming from the skins pips
and even stems of grapes. There can also be added tannins
from the oak barrels in which some wine will age.
Tannins react with proteins
and produce a compound. That is why when you drink
a tannic red wine, you mouth becomes drier.
Tannins react with the proteins in your saliva to produce the
compound which will stick to your teeth. Result is you have
less saliva after drinking this glass of red
and so your mouth is drier. This feeling of roughness
is called astringency.
Tannins interact the same
with proteins in meat. As tannins have transformed
after the reaction with proteins, the wine will feel
smoother on the palate and less astringent.
2) Meat Flavours underlines fruit flavours in red wines.
Centuries of cooking and wine
tasting experience in Europe have enabled chefs and wine experts
to understand that some flavours in the food make some
aromas in wine stand out. For instance, it is the case
of morels (a type of wild mushroom) making the nutty flavours
of some whites stand out, or lemon makes the floral aromas in
some Rhone whites stand out as well. The meat flavour
will also make the nice black or red berries of the red wines
stand out completely.
Since tannins tend to decay over time, there
is no real downside in using a rather young tannic red
wine with red meat since tannins will be softened by the proteins.
And so do not look for the oldest vintage which will also be
more expensive next time you are in your favourite restaurant.
Check out my blog "Winter Wines" from
January for a list of tannic red wines.
Want
to know more? Check
out our "Exceptional Wine and Food combination" theme
here.
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