The Art of Pairing Wines for New Year's

New Year's festivities offer the perfect opportunity for restaurant owners to create a memorable dining experience for their customers. This includes featuring excellent holiday wine selections that pair well with your dishes.

Below, we’ll discuss the science and art of wine pairing with examples, focusing on factors that are particularly relevant for holiday pairing.

Why Is Wine and Food Pairing Important? 

Well-matched wine and food pairings lead to a richer dining experience.

Good wine pairings can amplify the flavors in a dish, lending a greater depth to customers’ culinary adventure. They can also harmonize with or balance out a dish’s character, cleansing the palate between bites.

The key is to enhance and heighten flavors for an unforgettable gastronomic journey. 

The Science Behind Pairing

There’s a science and an art to memorable wine pairings. Food science can teach us a lot about why some pairings work better than others.

The first step in choosing holiday wine for your menu is to understand the character of each dish. It's important to identify the primary flavors, textures, and qualities. Consider aspects like acid levels, sugary notes, and tannins.

From there, you can choose wine pairings to either harmonize with or contrast the food. Congruent pairings amplify shared qualities. Pairings of this type can help highlight and intensify specific aspects of the culinary experience. Complementary pairings create a balance by countering certain attributes. These pairings refresh your taste buds so that the characteristics of a dish are experienced anew with each bite.

For some elements, you’ll always want to choose sameness. For example, always match the weight of the food and wine so that one doesn’t overtake the other.

Other elements to consider are explained below. This isn’t a comprehensive list – it’s largely focused on elements relevant to champagne pairing. New Year’s Eve wine pairings are special since it’s one of the few holidays where the beverage is the star of the show, not the dish.

Saltiness

Salty dishes pair well with acidic and sparkling wines. This is why classic champagne pairings include savory dishes or salty snacks. If you’re featuring dryer sparkling wine, you’ll want to ensure you offer dishes that balance out the acidity of the sparkling wine.

Sweetness

Champagne pairings are fun because sparkling wine can run from dry to sweet. As a result, it’s important to take this element into account when selecting New Year’s holiday wine and food pairings.

Semi-dry sparkling wine pairs beautifully with dishes that are buttery or creamy. Sweet or doux champagnes can be used to enhance the sweetness of holiday desserts or to offset a spicy dish.

The Tannin Tangle 

There’s a reason that tannins, found in red wines, are considered a classic pairing for meat like beef or lamb.

Tannins bind to and modify certain proteins with mutually beneficial results.  Tannins soften the fat in richer meat, releasing its flavor. Meanwhile, fat lessens the astringency and bitterness of the wine, making it feel smoother.

As we focus on champagne pairings, why does this rule matter? Blanc de Noirs champagnes are made from red grapes and thus pair well with steak, lamb, and dark chocolate.

The Artistic Instincts Behind Wine Pairing

While the science of wine pairing gives us a set of reliable frameworks, the soul of a memorable wine and food combination will often spring from more artistic instincts. There are intangible elements, emotional connections, and gut feelings that allow for truly inspired pairings. 

Local Pairs 

A classic rule that often holds true is 'what grows together, goes together. ' A French dish, for instance, might pair beautifully with a French wine. This isn’t just about nationality; even within regions, certain local foods and wines are developed together over time and harmonize naturally.

The Adventure of New Flavors 

While it's tempting to stick to tried-and-true pairings, New Year’s Eve is the time for some magic. Trust your taste buds and embrace experimentation! 

Listen to the Guest 

The best pairing is the one the guest loves. While guidance on wine pairing is helpful, flexibility ensures a memorable experience that is enjoyable from every angle. 

New Year's Eve Menu Ideas 

Now that you understand the science and art behind pairing wines, let's put it into action! Here are some ideas for your New Year's Eve Menu from start to finish. We offered many champagne pairing examples above, so these suggestions will largely focus on still wines for variety.

Starters 

Oysters: Best with a crisp sparkling wine or champagne. The sparkle complements the salty freshness of the oysters.

Cheese Platter: A diverse board offers a chance to play. Soft cheeses like Brie pair well with Chardonnay, while blue cheese might call for a sweet Sauternes. 

Main Course 

Roast Lamb: A red Bordeaux or a robust Australian Shiraz brings out the best in lamb.

Seafood Pasta: A zesty Pinot Grigio or even a Prosecco will complement the seafood and cut through any creaminess.

Desserts 

Chocolate Mousse: A vintage Port or even a rich Zinfandel can be surprisingly harmonious with the deep flavors of chocolate.

Fruit Tart: A Moscato d’Asti, with its light sweetness and bubbles, highlights the freshness of the fruits. 

Providing a Safe New Year’s Experience

Flavor compatibility is an important consideration when serving New Year’s Eve wine, but those of us in the food business also have a duty to public safety and responsible alcohol service. It’s not a theoretical one, either – civil and criminal consequences can follow irresponsible service.

New Year’s is one of the deadliest holidays for drunk driving crashes in the U.S. – the occurrence of fatal crashes involving alcohol use more than triples during the holiday.

There are many ways to promote a safe New Year’s experience, and serving alcohol with food is a common suggestion because it slows the rise of guests’ blood alcohol content (BAC).

It’s also important that staff are well-trained and prepared to handle the increased drinking that comes with the holiday. You should review signs of intoxication, the truth behind BAC myths, your business’s overserving policies, and local liquor laws with your staff ahead of time.

In fact, the holiday season is a great time of year to refresh your employees’ responsible alcohol training through a widely accepted skills-based program like TIPS. Our TIPS Pre-Paid Passports make bulk-order state-accepted alcohol safety training easy and cost-effective for your entire staff. Purchase yours today!