The wine connoisseur aspires to find the "right" combination of food and wine, that is, to harmonize the taste of a food with that of a wine so that each brings out the best in the other.
       "The flavor of a food almost always reveals the quality of a wine and exalts it. In turn, the quality of a wine complements the pleasure of a food and spiritualizes it."- Luigi Veronelli, 1974.

       Combining a wine with a food in the most appropriate way is a matter of technique. The only way of determining the characteristics of a food and a wine to determine how well they complement one another is to carry out a series of sensory analyses through tasting and codify the results obtained.

THE INSTRUMENT OF AN ART

       While tasting can be considered a discipline insofar as it involves the application of specific procedures and techniques, it can also be regarded as the principal instrument of an art.

       In the hands of an artist, tasting can provide not just one but many solutions to the problem of determining which combinations are best, all of them valid. The proposals can be highly imaginative and often unusual. It is then up to the diner to decide which is the most appealing in conformity with personal attitudes and preferences.
       There are only a few principles of harmony to be observed in matching the flavors of a food with those of a wine. They are:

• Unity of sensory quality

       In every combination, the qualitative rapport must always be respected. For example, a rustic and heavy cuisine requires a thirst-quenching wine of the same characteristic. A delicate specialty of haute cuisine, on the other hand, requires a refined wine.

• Association

       The effect sought is completeness. For example, the structural components of a food can be complemented by the structural elements of a wine and its softness. A sweet-sour preparation, like duck in orange sauce or with cherries, can be matched only by a fortified wine.

• Analogy

       This is the reinforcement of a characteristic. For example, it is traditional to combine wines and foods of a given region. The combination emphasizes the typical characteristics of the cuisine, even if the result is not always well balanced. A complex dish should be matched by an aged wine, an elementary food with a young and fresh beverage and a panettone with a Moscato d'Asti.

• Contrast

       The effect is the attenuation or leveling out of differences. For example, the full flavor, tending toward the sweet, of a boiled gray mullet, can be matched by the fresh and lively flavor of Trebbiano. The succulent and unctuous taste of a stracotto can be complemented by a tannic Barolo with a substantial alcohol content.

       In addition to the combination of flavors, the matching of odors of wines and foods must be taken into consideration. The combination should be judged on the basis of:

• Sensory type and quality in conditions of analogy, association and unity of quality (in the best of cases) or of contrast and dissonance (in the worst of cases).

• The degree of intensity and persistence when there is equilibrium or equivalence (in the best of cases) or disequilibrium or predominance (in the worst of cases).

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