Sommelier of the Year advises: How to pair food with wine

Enjoying good, quality food in combination with a delicious wine is currently something that is sought after not only by gastronomy lovers. Pairing wine with food is professionally done by sommeliers, who will fine-tune your taste experience to perfection. In collaboration with the Sommelier of the Year 2019, Slavomíra Raškovič, we have prepared a few tips for you on how to pair wine with food even if you don't have a skilled sommelier at hand. First of all, it is important to know that there are supporting and contrasting combinations. Each one offers you a completely different experience.

The basic rules include – pair sour food with sour wine. If you choose otherwise, you would feel like you are drinking a tasteless wine. Likewise, combine sweet food with sweet wine, the flavors will support each other. Conversely, also have sweet wine with salty food, this creates a very pleasant contrast.

The old familiar combinations – white meat + white wine and red meat + red wine – are, of course, still valid. But the combinations can also be made more creative and detailed.

"It is also very important to pay attention to the side dishes. At home, pairing is easier because we usually cook meat with a side dish, or the dish does not have many ingredients. In experiential gastronomy, the side dishes are more diverse. Something is more sour, something sweeter, so we really have to take into account not only the main ingredient, but also the side dishes. The "basic" pairing of white wine with fish and red wine with steak does not always work there." "We look at the food as a whole, and what the structures are," describes the Sommelier of the Year. So in short - start from the main ingredient, but also take into account the side dish and whether there is anything distinctive in the dish. Let's say you have duck with dumplings and sauerkraut for lunch. It is quite distinctive, more sour, but flavored with sweetness, the duck is fattier, here the sommelier would recommend a red wine that would go well with the cabbage, i.e. something more sour, for example Slovak Frankovka. It is equally important to consider the aromatic nature of the food . If there is something aromatic in the food, pair it with an aromatic wine so that the flavors complement each other.

Here are some tips from the sommelier:

A fattier, protein-rich meal, such as steak or pork neck - I recommend a red wine with a higher tannin content - tannins are what create that "astringent" feeling in the mouth, so they pair nicely with fattier food or meat. Feathered game, characterized by firm, sinewy meat, such as duck - tends to go well with softer red wines. However, I personally like the combination of duck breast with rosé wine, dry or semi-dry. Fish – if the fish is fattier, I recommend combining it with white wines that have spent some time in an oak barrel or matured on fine yeast lees - they then have a creamy texture and a fuller flavor. Spinach and other green foods – many green foods have a typical “irony” taste that goes beautifully with rosé wines, especially dry or semi-dry ones with higher acidity. Pasta – they are more or less neutral in taste, what matters is whether they are combined with meat and what the sauce is made of. I would choose rosé wine for tomato sauce, since tomatoes also have an "iron" taste, I would serve a softer white wine for a creamy cream sauce with chicken. I would complement a cream sauce with salmon with a white, but heavier wine. Chicken – I would pair roasted chicken with white wine – pair lean breasts with a light white wine, enhance the flavor of thighs with a fuller white wine that has spent some time in an oak barrel. Desserts – if the dessert is extremely sweet, I choose sweet wines, such as Tokaj or ice, straw, etc. If the dessert is fresher, I choose a semi-sweet wine that does not have as much residual sugar, or Tokaj wine, which is characterized by a high acid content. So-called fortified wines, such as port, sherry, madeira or red wines from the south of France, also go well with chocolate desserts.

Extra tips for unconventional combinations:

- You can achieve a delicious taste by combining blue cheese, such as Roquefort, with Tokaj sweet wine - the more it ferments, the better. - If the food contains small, spherical textures , such as mustard seeds, add sparkling wine to it, creating a truly fun combination. - They say that wine doesn't pair well with bryndza - but try pouring semi-sweet Pálava with salty bryndza soup, which, like bryndza, is very aromatic and you will definitely be satisfied. Can a meal that is typically paired with white wine also be paired with red wine? That's a question Slávka often receives from guests at the Gašperov mlyn restaurant, where she also works as a manager and sommelier. "Of course, we can accommodate such preferences. We can always find a specific wine that goes well with the ingredients in the meal." Gašperov Mlyn offers Central European wines, mainly Slovak, but also Hungarian, Austrian and a few Czech. Slávka says: "I like all good wines. I don't have a preferred category - I like everything from white to rosé, red to orange wines, and also wines with different residual sugar content. I also like low-impact wines and basically all wines that are interesting in some way, when you can feel that the winemaker has taken care of it."

Sommelier of the Year 2019

She won 3rd place at the Slovak Sommelier Championship in 2016. In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, she received the title of TREND TOP sommelier from TREND magazine. In 2019, she received the Sommelier of the Year award, which is awarded by the Slovak Sommelier Association and the gourmet guide Gurmán na Slovensko. This award takes into account the active work of a sommelier, his publishing activities, educational activities, activity in the association and other activities related to wine culture and its transmission to the wider public.