Can wines help you to digest your Thanksgiving feast?

Every dish has a certain amount of fat in it, and when pairing wine you should always take that fat into consideration. There are two ways to neutralize the fat in a dish and bring out more of the food’s flavor using wine pairing; acid and tannins. When pairing wine and food, you must always take into account the quality of the wine and the quality of the dish. A complex dish made for special occasions deserves a complex and special wine. On the other hand, simple, everyday dishes match best with simple and easy to drink wines. Putting a simple wine with a special dish would be as unsuccessful as squeezing ketchup onto filet mignon. In fact to make wines taste better, pair them with food that have a salty or sour flavor. To make food taste better with wines pair them with those that are high in acidity, bitter and have a sour flavor.  Therefore, it is not the alcohol but the bitter substances the drink contains that stimulate the mucous membranes of the stomach to release acid. That can actually facilitate the pre-digestion of foods.

How many different ways can turkey be prepared? How many recipes could you find for fish? When pairing food and wine, you need to see the big picture. Pair the wine not only to the protein, but also to the sauce, vegetables, and starch in a dish. By taking the entire dish into account, you will select a wine that pairs much more successfully with the whole plate.

For instance, a lighter dish with high levels of fat, such as turkey, chicken, salmon, cream sauce and pork are best paired with wines high in acidity like: Sauvignon Blanc, Italian Pinot Grigio, French Rose’, Alsatian Riesling, California Pinot Noir, etc. The acid in these wines will act like a knife that cuts through the fattiness in a dish, revealing more of its flavor. At the same time the fat in the dish will neutralize much more of the acidity in the wine, dulling the knife and making the wine less tart.

Also, heavier dishes with high level of fat need heavier wines, and typically, the heavier the wine the lower the acidity. Therefore, a different way to contrast fat is needed. This type of dish are best paired to wines high in tannins, such as Red Bordeaux and Burgundy, Italian Merlot, Barbaresco, Barolo, Amarone Valpolicella, California Cabernet Sauvignon, Argentine Malbec, French Syrah. The tannins in the wine acts like a brick wall that stands up to fat. As tannins settle on the surface of the tongue, they physically block fat. While this is occurring, the fat also helps to lessen the presence of the tannins, so the wines will soften.

Many studies concluded, “The alcoholic beverage constituents that stimulate gastric acid output and release of gastrin are most probably produced during the process of fermentation and removed during distillation,” Therefore no matter how you prepare your Thanksgiving dishes, it always helps to serve the right glass of wine to help the digestion of fatness in those dishes and better enjoy the flavor of the dishes.  The whole point of wine pairing is to make both the food and wine taste better, and obviously if that pairing helps us to enjoy the food more and stay more healthy then every meal can be a Thanksgiving!!!

In summary, food and wine have a natural affinity for one another. Through a basic understanding of the senses of taste, the benefits of digestion, and the application of some commonsense guidelines, it is easy to match wines and foods.