3 Tips for Pairing Home Cooking with Wine, Taught by Wine Talent Yui!

“I cooked something special today, so let's buy some wine! ♪”

It's all well and good to head off enthusiastically to the supermarket, but...

Red, white, sparkling...
With rows and rows of wine on the shelves, you have no idea what to buy!!

Have you ever had an experience like this?

At a restaurant, a sommelier will choose recommendations for you, but at home, you have to select for yourself.
You are the sommelier.

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but until I started studying to become a Wine Expert, I never even had the idea of pairing food with wine. So I'd make chirashizushi and pair it with a heavy red wine just based on a whim.
Well, that's not necessarily a bad thing, though.

Looking back now... there are so many times I wish I could give advice to my past self! (laughs)

I want to help lots of people enjoy their mealtimes even more through the power of wine!!
So this time, regarding how to choose wine to pair with home-cooked meals, I'll share 3 key tips with you ♪

My top recommendation is matching the colors of the food and wine!!

Red, white, rosé, orange wine—
there is a rich variety of wines available these days.

In fashion, magazines often say that “subtraction” is important. Subtraction means, for example, if you choose a flashy red top, you pair it with neutral white bottoms. Mixing a modest item with a showy one to create a well-balanced look.

However, in the world of wine, rather than subtraction, it is actually “addition”!!

Addition means pairing food and wine that are in the same color family.

For example, red wine for meat, white wine for fish.
With meat, red meat in particular pairs perfectly with red wine. Conversely, chicken tenderloin is light in color, so white wine works well too. With fish, for white fish tempura, I wouldn't hesitate to choose white wine. For medium-fatty tuna (chu-toro), even a light red wine would pair well.

Earlier I wrote about my experience pairing a heavy red wine with chirashizushi, but the colors of chirashizushi are white and pink. So if it were me today, I would choose a rosé wine.

When you judge by color like this, the success rate of your pairing goes way up.
In fashion terms, it's like mixing pattern with pattern—yes, you can think of it like an Osaka auntie's sense of style.

Wine is made all over the world, and looking at Japan alone right now, wine is produced in 45 prefectures, excluding Nara and Saga prefectures.
If you look closely at wine labels, most wines have the country name written on them. When you go to a convenience store, you'll see affordable and delicious Chilean wines lined up on the shelves.

Once you've decided on the color of the wine, next I recommend choosing by “region of origin”.

For example:
Japanese food → Japanese wine
Hamburgers → California wine
Pizza → Italian wine

To borrow a saying from ancient times, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Wine from the same origin as the food is easy to pair.

When traveling abroad, haven't you ever toasted first with that country's local beer? The sweetness and bitterness vary completely depending on the country, right? It's the same with wine; the characteristics of the country shine through. Japanese wine, for instance, shares traits with Japanese cuisine like delicacy and subtlety. It has the same characteristics as Japanese food.

Simply matching the origin of the food and the wine will increase your pairing success rate.
It's also fun to set a theme and enjoy a travel-abroad feel at home ♪

If you've come this far, you're a fine wine connoisseur.
Choosing by variety (grape variety) is extremely difficult. Even I get confused. That's because you can't memorize them without drinking them, and even with the same variety, the taste can be completely different depending on the region and the producer.

So, the best thing is finding your favorite variety.

For example, if you like Cabernet Sauvignon wine:
For meat seasoned with salt and pepper, choose one from Japan.
For meat stewed in a red wine sauce, choose one from France.

Even with the same variety, the taste is completely different depending on the region of origin. So, knowing your favorite variety and changing the region according to the dish is a recommended method.

If you want to get a little more knowledgeable, try learning about the characteristics of each variety.

For example, the Sauvignon Blanc variety is characterized by a herbal aroma, so it goes very well with dishes seasoned with rosemary.
In this way, knowing the characteristics of each variety will make choosing even more fun.

The shortcut to knowing their characteristics is to drink a lot. That's all there is to it!!

In conclusion

Thank you for reading this far ♪

Pairing wine with food is called a “mariage.” The literal translation is “marriage.”
It brings a happiness that cannot be experienced with wine alone or food alone when the two come together. Truly, it's just like marriage!! (Not that I would know yet, sweat)

Have fun choosing your wine and try pairing it with tonight's meal.

May your home-cooked meals become even happier with wine ♪