Wine Pairing Rule 1

Preparation Instructions

The first rule is to match the weight of the wine with the weight of the food. This is a important rule because you don’t want the wine to overwhelm the food. You wouldn’t want to pair a lightly prepared fish with something heavy like a cabernet sauvignon or the wine will over power the food. Try to check out some wine tasting videos at Gourmandia to know more.

We’re going to use the plain grilled chicken, barbeque sauce, and cabernet. Take a small bite of the chicken, then a sip of the cabernet. The wine immediately washes away the flavor of chicken.

Take another piece of chicken and cover it in barbeque sauce, take a bite, and immediately take another sip. The wine stands up to the barbeque sauce and the sauce stands up to the wine. A sauce or side item with your meal can really affect which wine you choose to pair.

For chicken breast by itself I would recommend a lighter white wine or very light red wine like pino noir. If you are having your chicken with a heavy sauce I would recommend a cabernet, shiraz, or zinfandel or something like that.