What Do You Know About Red Wine?

Wine has a long history of as a safe alternative to drinking water, an antiseptic for treating wounds, a digestive aid, and a cure for a wide range of ailments including lethargy, diarrhea, and pain from child birth. I probably don't need to convince you to drink more, so let's go ahead and continue our education to learn more about red wine.

Two well-known French red wines are Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot noir.

Cabernet Sauvignons are typically full-bodied, high-tannin (tannins are the cause of the dry feeling in your mouth after you drink some wines), acidic wines. Cabernet Sauvignon wines have flavor combinations like blackcurrant and green bell pepper, blackcurrant and black cherry, blackcurrant and black olives, mint and ceda, eucalyptus, and menthol. Some Cabernet Sauvignons can taste very sweet, almost jam-like. 

I wouldn't recommend drinking Cabernet Sauvignons with high alcohol levels with spicy foods like chili peppers because the heat would accentuate the bitterness of the tannins. Milder spices, such as black pepper, pair better: they can minimize the tannins. That's why you see such classic pairings of Cabernet Sauvignon with steak au poivre (pepper steak) and pepper-crusted ahi tuna. Cabernet Sauvignon also complements dishes with a heavy butter cream sauce well.

Pinot noir is widely considered as one of the finest wines in the world. Joel Fleischman of Vanity Fair describes it as "the most romantic of wines, with so voluptuous a perfume, so sweet an edge, and so powerful a punch that, like falling in love, they make the blood run hot and the soul wax embarrassingly poetic."

Pinot noir comes in a broad range of bouquets, flavors, textures and impressions. Generally speaking, it has a light to medium body. You will find it can have an aroma reminiscent of black cherry, red cherry, raspberry, currant, and other small red and black berry fruits. Pinots also come with favors of tomato leaf, beet root, pale cherry, blackberry, cola, and plum.

You should drink fruity Pinot noirs with fatty fish like salmon, roasted chicken, and pasta dishes. Pinots with higher tannins go well with game birds like duck, casseroles, and stews like beef bourguignon (beef Burgundy, a stew prepared with beef braised in red wine and beef broth, generally with garlic, onions and a bundle of herbs, with pearl onions and mushrooms).

Stay tuned for a list of wine and food pairings!