Wine And Food Flavor Balancing

There are four basic flavors that we taste.

Sweet, salt, bitter, sour.

How do the four tastes interact with wine and food?

The different taste qualities either inhibit-suppress one another, or balance-compliment one another.

Food and Wine Pairing Examples

Sweet Complements Salt
Sweet wines such as Port or Sauternes compliment Stilton cheese because sweet and salt balance one another.

Sweet Suppresses Bitter
Sweetness suppresses bitterness, which is why sugar is added to grapefruit and espresso, and why bitter greens go well with a sweet vinaigrette dressing. Winemakers will retain some residual sugar to inhibit bitterness in a wine.

Higher Sweet Suppresses Sour / Higher Sour Suppresses Sweet
Sour (acidity) and sweet also suppress one another. Adding sugar to lemon juice reduces the tartness, and although the sourness is the same, our perception of it has changed. In comparing wines, if we taste two Rieslings with identical residual sugar, one may taste less sweet because it is higher in acidity. Higher acidity reduces the perception of sweetness, higher residual sugar lowers the perception of acidity.