The passion of Louisiana is food. In this section of our web site, we plan to cultivate a dialogue concerning the dynamics of food and wine interaction. Building from a base of information exploring the basic elements of tastes in wine, we will seek to help define different styles of wines. We will then look at some of the dynamics of how different taste elements in wine, particularly as they are manifested in different wine types, interact with food.

Louisiana foods present a special challenge to the wine aficionado. The cuisine is quite varied and can be, and in fact, is often, very complex. Unlike many of the great cuisines of the world, neither Creole nor Cajun ( the two main cuisines of the area) cooking seems to have evolved in the presence of wine. Wine has been more or less, particularly in the modern era, superimposed on Louisiana food. It is clear that the French Creoles had access to and incorporated fine wines from France as part of their table. But wine and food didn't evolve together in the sense of say, pinot noir in Burgundy with coq au vin. With the emergence of Pontchartrain Vineyards as a serious wine producer committed to making wines through the "filter", so to speak, of Louisiana's great culinary traditions, a wonderful and exciting journey into developing wines and wine styles particularly appropriate to and compatible with Louisiana cooking is poised to begin. Part of this exciting journey will involve challenging both professionals and amateurs (from the Latin: to love) in the kitchen to experiment with their cooking to respond particularly to wines, especially wines produced here, to come up with recipes and cooking techniques which perfectly complement a particular wine or wine style. To energize this process, some form of competition in finding and altering a particular dish, to fine tune it, so to speak, seems warranted. The objective would be to discover and give recognition to wine and food pairings which not only make the wine involved taste its very best, but also bring out the full depth, harmony and distinctive properties of the dish.

With the gracious permission of Tim Hanni, MW, formerly with Berringer Wine Estates, and now with his own company, WineQuest, we present below one of the more intelligent and provocative presentations of the basic dynamics of food and wine interactions. This summary does presume some understanding of what is meant by milder or stronger tastes in wine, and we begin our discussion of the basic elements of taste in wine below.

"The basic principles of Matching Wine & Food allow you to enjoy any wine you like with any dish that you choose," explains Tim Hanni, Master of Wine.

Consumers are often confused by suggestions that certain wines can only be enjoyed with specific dishes. In reality, everyone has their own preferences about which wines and foods are complementary. We encourage you to discover your own preferences.

Sour foods with high amounts of acidity will decrease our perception of sourness in the wine, making the wine taste richer and more mellow.

Sweetness in food will increase the perception of sourness, bitterness and astringency in the wine, making the wine seem less sweet (drier), less fruity and stronger.

Savory (unami) taste in food will increase our perception of bitterness in wine.

A note about Spicy seasonings: Spicy food will exaggerate the tannin and bitterness of a wine. Salt and sour additions to the food will counteract this effect on the wine. For instance, squeezing lime over hot enchiladas makes for a more wine friendly dish.

As foods become more salty, their own flavors tend to increase and neutralize bitter and sour tastes of the wine tasted after salty foods. Saltiness in the food creates an impression of less bitterness in the wine.

Some people make a habit of putting a little salt on Granny Smith and other "tart" apples. This is done to soften the sourness and bitterness, making the apple seem more mild in taste. Proper seasoning of meat-based sauces is important to negate the savory compounds produced in the cooking process which can unfavorably impact the taste of the accompanying wine.

Natural acids impart tartness or sourness of food or wine. Most wines that have sweetness, such as White Zinfandel and many Rieslings, also have a very high acidity to keep the wine from tasting flat or cloying. If a food reacts in a way that suppresses the sourness of such wines, they will taste very sweet in comparison.

Dry wines tend to taste more acidic because they do not have the sweetness balancing and covering the sour taste. White wines tend to be higher in acidity than red wines.

Sweetness is found in many foods and wines. Sometimes we do not really think of certain types of sauces or foods as "sweet" when in actuality they are, such as teriyaki, cocktail sauce and other tomato sauces. Often vegetables and certainly fruits can add a degree of sweetness to a dish and must be considered when making a wine selection.

There is a wide range of sweetness levels in many beverages and foods. Our individual expectations will dictate the desirability of levels of sweetness. This is expressed in many ways: how we take our coffee or tea, what kind of chocolates we like, the balance of a wine, etc.

The desirability of a wine and food combination that effects the sweetness of the wine depends entirely on the preference of the individual experiencing the combination. A combination that raises the sweetness of a wine may be delicious to someone who appreciates a sweeter wine, while the same combination is considered unsatisfactory for someone who prefers a drier wine. When food is sweet it will suppress the sweetness of the wine served with it through sensory adaptation. Savory, or umami in Japanese, has gained acceptance by food scientists as a fifth taste, separate from the tastes sweet, sour (acid), salty and bitter. The prototype for savory taste is found naturally occurring in almost all food to some degree.

Umami was identified by the Japanese researcher Ikeda in 1908 as the taste in laminaria Japonica seaweed, used as a component of soup stocks in Japanese cuisine, and was associated with glutamate (monosodium L-glutamic acid). Later, ribonucleotides were discovered as having umami taste and also having a synergistic effect with glutamates that greatly enhance the perception of the umami taste.

Umami is more prevalent and often found in higher concentrations in Asian cuisines. Western palates do not as easily recognize umami because we have never been taught to identify it. As with other tastes, the umami taste is many times hidden behind stronger tastes like saltiness. The umami taste in food can have an effect on taste elements of a wine that is served with it, bringing out bitter and often metallic tastes. The reaction between umami and wine can be negated by salty tastes in food.

Bitterness is often confused with astringency and is similar to astringency in its interaction with food. A bitter taste is commonly found in some green vegetables (endive, arugula, radicchio) and herbs, many spices, some fruits, or food charred during the cooking process. Bitterness is extracted from many foods during cooking, especially at high temperatures. This also occurs when you boil tea instead of gently steeping it.

Food with bitter components seems to increase the bitterness of a wine served with it. Make sure that the herbal-smelling Sauvignon Blanc chosen to serve with the dish with lots of fresh herbs does not push the bitterness of the wine over the top.

There are tactile sensations, such as astringency, imparted by wine and food, which can react in combination. Astringency (mostly from tannins in wine, fruit such as a persimmon, and vegetables) is the most prevalent of these sensations. These sensations of touch are important along with taste in determining the basic reaction potential between different wine and food combinations and were once thought to actually be a sensation of taste.

The "tannic" taste of a wine is actually a sense of touch and not of taste. Tannins coagulate proteins in your mouth and create a puckering or drying sensation known as astringency. Consumers who think that this sensation is what is meant by a "dry wine" very often misinterpret this sensation. A "dry" wine is simply not sweet.

Astringency in wine is accentuated by food that is sweet or "hot" (spicy) and is suppressed by foods that are acidic, salty, fatty.

The most dramatic example of this can be demonstrated by eating a bit of soft-ripened bleu cheese followed by a taste of tannic red wine. A small percentage of people will find a strong reaction to bitterness with this combination due to a high sensitivity to this taste.

In wine, we basically experience three of the elements of taste: sweet (derived from sugar and alcohol and perceived on the front tip of the tongue, sour or acid (generally picked up on the sides of the tongue) and bitter (generally perceived in the middle of the tongue towards the rear and often picked up in the "finish" of a wine. A well balanced wine and one that might be described as supple, balances the normally pleasant taste sensation of sweet against the normally unpleasant taste sensations of sour or acid and bitter. Our perceptions of these basic taste elements are greatly affected by the overall balance of all of the elements in the wine, even its tactile impressions. This concept of balance enables us to perceive an extremely dry (i.e. virtually no unfermented sugars) to taste of clean, ripe fruit with no sharp edges or tartness, even though possessing a substantial level of acidity. Conversely, a low alcohol wine with a trace of residual sugar and modest acidity can still taste quite tart and thin . It's the relationship of everything together which determines our overall impression of taste.

Although there does not seem to be a universal standard for determining or attributing a clear understanding of what is meant buy milder or lighter, versus stronger or heavier tastes in wines, it seems fairly easy to more or less rank wines in a fashion going from milder to stronger. Thus on progressive wine lists ( Mr. Hanni, above, has done a lot of work in this area) the wines that are slightly sweet and quite fruity may be listed at the top of a section as the milder or lighter wines. As you move down in the section, the wines become progressively drier, less fruity, and more complex with tastes of wood or other non fruit derivatives, some of which may seem somewhat bitter or to have stronger tastes to many. The weight or body or mouth feel of the wine may come into play here with the higher alcohol, more dense and perhaps bigger tasting wines falling towards the heavier or stronger end of the spectrum. Thus in a white wine section, you might "progress" from a fruity, off dry (slightly sweet) wine from the Loire Valley of France produced from the Chenin Blanc grape, to a high alcohol, oakey and buttery wine from the Napa Valley of California made from Chardonnay. In a red section, you might start with a very fruity, bright, low or no tannin wine from the Beaujolais district of France, perhaps a Nouveau Beaujolais, produced from the Gamay grape and progress to a deep, full bodied, tannic , young red wine from Bordeaux based predominately on the Cabernet Sauvignon grape. This concept of lighter or milder to heavier or stronger plays a very important role in understanding how wines come together with different types of foods.