food-and-wine-pairing-a-sensory-experience-robert-harrington

The Food-and-Wine Taste Pyramid presented in Chapter 1 illustrates that food-and-wine elements can be thought
of in terms of a hierarchy of taste, from components to texture to flavors. A synthesis of the literature and my
own research indicate that the primary sensory components (sweetness, saltiness, sourness, and bitterness) will
have a big impact on food-and-wine relationships.
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To begin the task of developing skills in identifying the key element(s) in food or wine that will directly impact
matching, whether based on contrasts or similarities, Part B focuses on the primary taste components of wine
and food. The following two sections of this book (Parts C and D) address the other two categories of foodand-wine
elements: texture and flavor. This step-by-step format allows you to study each of the direct effects
of components, texture, and flavor in a hierarchical fashion.
This process will provide you with a foundation of knowledge that can be used to sort out the direct effects of
elements from their interaction with other elements of a food or wine. After completing the next two chapters,
you should be able to identify the direct impact of wine acidity and the interaction of acidity, sweetness, and
bitterness in wine. For food-and-wine pairing, you will be able to predict the interaction of wine sweetness,
acidity, and effervescence with food sweetness, acidity, bitterness, and saltiness. This type of knowledge will
greatly improve your ability to predict exceptional food-and-wine pairings.
Primary Taste Components
Primary taste components are defined as basic elements that correspond to the tongue’s basic sensory ability.
Food-and-wine components are foundational elements that have a strong influence on the pleasant feeling of
complementary or contrasting characteristics that a positive gastronomic experience provides.
Wine has three primary sensory components: sweetness, acidity (sometimes called crispness), and effervescence.
These form the foundation of a match with the primary sensory components in food: sweetness, sourness,
saltiness, and bitterness.
This book includes two sensory anchor scales, one for wine and one for food. They use a 0-to-10 scale and
include sample wines and foods for component and texture and descriptions for flavor elements.
The Food Sensory Anchor Scale (Figure B.1) is divided into three main sections (components, texture, and
flavor) with a total of nine elements (sweetness, acidity, saltiness, bitterness, fattiness, overall body, spiciness,
flavor intensity, and flavor persistency).
The Wine Sensory Anchor Scale (Figure B.2) is also divided into three main sections, but with a slightly
different set of nine elements (dryness to sweetness, acidity, effervescence, tannin, alcohol level, overall body,
spiciness, flavor intensity, and flavor persistency).
These references will be incorporated into the exercises throughout the following chapters.
The next two chapters focus on the components of food and wine, with exercises incorporating the wine and
food examples shown in the anchor scales. Once these references are developed in your sensory memory bank,
they will be valuable tools to increase the consistency of your wine and food rating across product and across
time.
A word of caution: the reference items listed in the Sensory Anchor Scales are intended to provide relatively
accurate examples of levels for each of the components, texture, and flavor elements. Many of these items are
very consistent. For example, the sweetness references for food use prepackaged food items that vary little if