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Which foods will enhance your wine-tasting experience?

Our catering service was created to make things easier for you, so you can avoid disappointment. Like, “If I had known!” 🤷🏽‍♂️. To allow you to have the ultimate experience without having to cook or hire another person for your big day. In short, get an all-inclusive at a lower cost.

Either way, if you're still considering providing your own food, keep in mind that wine pairings are different from other foods you're likely to prepare.

Wine is also a condiment to enhance the food we eat. Therefore, the food you cook should lack some flavouring, on purpose, to give a chance to your wine to do its job. 

Here are a few tips:

• Never use lemon, lime, vinegar, balsamic or any other acidic ingredients. Serve them separately if you must.
• Avoid spicy foods and keep neutral flavours that are not too pronounced. Make sure the intensity of your flavours is the same as the wine.
  • For our wine tastings, always choose moderate-intensity food. 
• Don't use any sweetness to go with dry wines. 
• The taste of your food needs to last more than 5 seconds in your mouth. Any dish with a sauce, cream, drippings, or cooking juice helps. Avoid dry food. 
• Have plenty of choices to experiment with the different types of wines. 
• Serve food that you are used to eating. That way, you will know what types of wines go best with your favourite dishes. 

Here are some suggestions for food:

• Creamy salads (potato, poultry, pasta, etc.)
• Seafood, fish, shrimp, salmon, etc.
• Cheeses of all textures with moderate-intensity tastes
• Juicy sausages
• White meat like chicken, duck, pork
• Meatloaf, beef, veal
• Terrines, pâtés, rillettes and mousses

Each wine should have at least 2 to 4 foods to pair with it. In the case of our popular Grande Tasting, there will be 7 wines. Which will be served in crescendo: from light to intense. 

• The first wine we will serve doesn't need food. It's an apéritif wine. 
• Wines 2 & and 3; need light fish/seafood and white meat.
• Wine 4; cheeses and pâtés
• Wine 5 and 6; red meat, sausages, pork a bit more intense in flavouring. 

A good variety of dishes will allow you to compare what works and what doesn't work.

Placing all the dishes in the centre of the table from the start will allow you to come back later and try again with other wines. For example, “Does the salmon that benefited from the acidity and minerality of white wine #2 work just as well with the light fruity red wine #5?”

Cheese and Wine tasting is a myth

Wine and cheese tastings are nice if you have mostly semi-sweet, sweet, or sweet wines to discover. Dry wines do not have enough creaminess to make cheeses more digestible and pleasant to the palate. Having cheeses in your selection is therefore an excellent way to demonstrate this phenomenon, especially if you have an astringent wine compared to a soft, creamy one.

Variety of food is the key. I'm sure some or most of your guests would also appreciate some red and white dry wines to taste as well. 

The context is just as important

Full meal or finger food? Standing up or sitting around a table?

As the organizer, you must liven up the evening. If you spend your time in the kitchen preparing dishes, it's an unpleasant wait for your guests. 

The formula we recommend is to go to the market, pick up the food, unpack it and place it on trays in the centre of the table. It’s easy and straightforward. This also proves that we don't need to spend hours at the stove to enjoy good bottles of wine.

Make sure your guests leave with lots of ideas that you will bring to life for them. Perhaps a first which we hope will become a habit. A family and friends meal around your dining table, with great food and perfect wine pairing, is our most popular setting. A live example of how easy it's possible to transform an ordinary evening into a memorable event. 

With all of that in mind, the evening as to be fluid and enjoyable, as if it was meant to be.

With over 1000 wine tasting and events under our belt, we know what works and what doesn't. That's why we like to have a chat with you before your event, or better still, visit your place for larger audiences.

That it is you who provides the food, or Vin and Wine Catering service, let's work together to make sure your event will be the best they ever had. 😊