Most of how we perceive and describe wine is through analogies and references to sensations we already know. For example would a deep, sweet red have a honey under taste if you had never had honey before? Well think about how most wine is paired, think of the old saying of reds with red meat and white with fish. Well this can leave vegetarians feeling a bit left out in the wine world. Even if you are not a vegetarian, it can pay to know how to pair wine with vegetable dishes.
Root vegetables are the key to vegetarian red wine enjoyment. They have enough body to stand up to a deep red and they mellow the salt in a dish so that the tannins don’t rage around in your mouth. Salt can bring out some very unpleasant aspects of a vintage, but the starch in potatoes and the like can keep that from happening to you. Also a little bit of fat can really aid the flavor of a wine and make everything blend very well taste wise. Because of this remember to use butter or a very good, rich olive oil when cooking the vegetables. So try cooking a vegetarian meal and have a Bacchus wine decanter with what you would normally pair with meat, see how this adds up; you may find that wine tastes have more to do with the seasonings than the red meat you used to pair it with.
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