Many people get nervous when it is time to choose a wine to serve with the meal. They worry about red wine with red sauce or white wine with white meats, and while these are correct, it simply is about balance. The food and wine should complement each other without taking anything away from either taste. You need to make sure the wine doesn't overpower the food and vice versa. The wine and food can either share many similarities in flavor, color, texture and smell or they can be exact opposites, as long as there is balance. Once you get that figured out, you can pair anything together successfully.
Let's say, though, that you have a love for all things American, specifically french fries. I can almost smell them now… the crisp potato strips that are dripping with grease and have a fine layer of salt over the entire surface. When you bite into them and they are crisp on the outside, but with a softer interior. The potatoes themselves don’t have much flavor, but the starch, the salt, the grease and the oily residue left in your mouth… what wine would you choose to go with these? Surprisingly, the answer to this for a lot of people is sparkling wine.
When you open a bottle of sparkling wine to go with your plate of french fries, you may receive a questioning look or two. It is the perfect complement to the fries. The acidity and bubbles are the perfect balance to the saltiness and crunchiness of the fries. The acidity of the wine balances the fat and the bubbles wash away the grease. The simplicity of the sparkling wine and the saltiness of the french fries are the perfect balance to each other, without any overpowering on either side.
Sparkling wine and french fries are the simplest, yet most perfect, combination for pairing wine and food. Try it with other foods and wine that share similar characteristics and balance each other. Remember to take into account the acidity, sweetness, flavor profile and fat, and surprise your taste buds and your palate with different combinations today.