Five perfect wine pairings with vegan dishes
Learning about wine the finest way is by drinking it! There is always the right moment to enjoy wine. Be it Sunday brunches, or weekend get-togethers and back-yard barbeques, good wine, and the excellent company go hand-in-hand. These are moments having variations in taste. So, experience it to the fullest.
Being vegan is a way of life. And if you are a vegan and want to enjoy your meal, you should be aware of the perfect wine pairings with your vegan cuisine. Stir your taste-buds and give them a ‘re-awakening shake,’ with these five perfect wine pairings associated with the vegan dishes. It is all about the perfection that you should keep in mind while catering for the right pair. Your plant-based vegan meal will taste par excellence with the right wine. Analyze your ways of consuming vegan food, and break it beyond the fixed plant-dominated food and ordinary wine. Twist your daily diet in taste and dive in by reading the details provided below.
All-about wine pairing
Wine has in total five different components. While pairing the same with your vegan food, keep these components in mind. Be well-known for how they interact with the various distinctions of the vegan delicacies. Wine pairing’s lone motive is to strike a balance between the quality of food and wine. It is the icing on the cake portraying each other’s prominence.
The vegan diet and wine pairing are all about searching for the perfect duo that complements each other’s variances. The most satisfying part of learning about wine pairing is developing your taste to take a stoic decision over what tastes better to you.
Two main theories dominate the wine pairings – complementary and congruent. Complementary pairings consist of a handful of flavored compounds present in-between the wine and food. While the congruent pairing is a reliable and heady mix of food and wine, it intensifies with the overlapping qualities. You will be enjoying a perfect contrast and balance between the pairings. Also, while doing so, keep a note that the wines and food that comes from similar climates pair well.
Basic Wine Characteristics
Read below the five simplified characteristics of wine –
- Sweet quotient: The sweetness quotient of wine depending on the acidity level of each wine. The one having a lower acidity level is sweet-smelling and tasting, as compared to the one with a high level of acid content. Mainly the residual sugar from the fermentation process turns the wine sweeter.
- Acidic quotient: A good wine’s acidic taste comes from the combination of citric acid, malic, and tartaric acid derived from grapes. All these components are equally responsible for the wine’s crispness or bitterness.
- Tannin amount: Grape skins consist of polyphenol found in large quantities in grape seeds and skins. The entire fermentation process of red wine is with its skin. So, it consists of tannins, while the white wine has less of the same. The tannins give a dryness in your mouth that in due course aids in palate-cleansing.
- Alcohol content: The alcohol content in wine is the conversion of grape-sugar into ethanol. It is the yeast, resulting from this conversion. The significance of alcohol lies in adding volume to wine and gives a burning sensation in the consumer’s throat.
- Body: Lighter-bodied wine varieties are more acidic, have low alcohol content, less amount of tannins, and sweetness. While the full-bodied wine variations are the opposite of those as mentioned above.
Having a notion about the basic dialect about wine, read below the qualities interplaying with your vegan food.
Perfect wine pairings with vegan dishes tips
- Acidic natured cuisine: The food of high acidic nature matches well with light-bodied wines. Never pair a low acid wine with food, or else it will get a smooth taste. Like the tomato-flavored sauce, citrus vinaigrette, or any balsamic accompaniment.
- Rich vegan food variations: The nut-based add-ons, cheese or pasta, vegan-cheesecake, and vegan red curry matches well with red wines with a high amount of tannins or acidic whites. It cleanses your palate thoroughly with its fat content.
- Spicy-flavored food: Combine the spicy-flavored food variety with sweet-flavored wines having low alcohol content. It helps in reducing the burning sensation in the mouth caused due to the spices present in food like salsa sauce, chili-flavored vegan curries, and wasabi-based sauces.
- Bitter-sweet delicacies: Bitter-sweet food like dark-chocolates, arugula, grapefruit, and goes well with no-tannin or less-sweet wine varieties. Wines with tannins increase the bitter flavor.
- Sweet-flavored gastronomy: Sweet-flavored food turns most of the dry wine bitter in taste. So, match the same with your sweet-flavored vegan food, like vegan cakes, fudges, and cookies.
- Salty ones: Punch your salty vegan mixed nuts, pop-corn, or tortilla-chips with fruit-flavored and acid-based wines.
Balance your food and wine pairings, with perfection. The lighter dishes go well with light wines and vice versa. According to the author of the classic book The Wine Bible, Karen McNeil claims that you do not have to get hold of an expensive or fancy wine bottle to make your vegan food taste better. You should have the basic wine pairing idea to make the same a success!
Read below the five perfect wine pairings with the vegan cuisine to get a gastronomic delight.
Straight Line Wine Tempranillo with Vegan Pizza
One of the tried-and-tested perfect wine pairing with the vegan dish is thin-crust Pizza and Straight Line Wine Tempranillo. This pairing ought to turn your weekend-night into a more entertaining one! The well-defined sturdiness of Tempranillo, along with its reddish-blue fruitiness and dash of spiciness, makes this graphite hued wine cater to a rustic feel. Plan for a special dinner, with your loved one, to commemorate the occasion of a ‘not-soon-to-be-forgotten’ one!
Turley Juvenile with Beyond Burger
Vegan burgers and Turley Juvenile Zinfandel rocks as a perfect pair. It comes second in the wine pairing list after the ideal combination of like the pairing of pizza and Tempranillo. This particular wine, Zinfandel, is made out of young varieties of vines, giving out a more matured and fruity flavor of the red-fruits. Spicy components dominate the entire fruity taste. Enjoy a glass of Turley Juvenile Zinfandel with Vegan Burger (preferably a grilled one), to complement well of an al-fresco Sunday brunch. The vegan burger also pairs well with Goldschläger. This Swiss cinnamon schnapps is a liqueur with thin, yet visible gold-flakes floating in it. Make your special Sunday brunch extra-special with various accompaniments of melted Chao cheese, avocado, lettuce, pickled tomatoes along with Dijon mustard sauce. Enjoy the afternoon filled with good times of togetherness.
Vegan La Saison roasted almond along with Straight Line Wine Syrah –
The roasted and toasted flavor of La Saison roasted cauliflower salad with raisins and almonds clubs well with Straight Line Wine’s Syrah’s baked essence. It comes wrapped inside a pin-wheel, made of black, blue, and purple fruits. The main ingredient – almonds are well-covered with Herbes de Provence. It connects with perfection with the herbed essence of the wine. The textured ingredients, the almonds’ crunchiness, and the saturated fats from olive oil, pairs with excellence along with the most elegant tannins of Straight Line Wine Syrah.
Vegan sushi and Roederer Brut Rosé
Vegan sushi and the Anderson Valley Roederer Brut Rosé the perfect wine pairings one can ask. It stands to be a best-valued pack for most of the domestic vegan sparkling. Japanese cuisine is visually tempting, with the right amount of bitter, salt, sweet, sour, and umami essences. This wine-vegan sushi combo makes the entire dish an ultimate choice when you are in the mood for any celebration. Roederer Brut Rosé’s sparkly clean bubbles come in a refreshing acidic taste, laced with delicate aromas. Start pairing the same in your vegan check-list for a revitalizing good time!
Smoked salted lox bagels with Sandlands’ Chenin Blanc wine
A deliciously complete and complex-flavored Sandlands’ Chenin Blanc wine carries a fruity flavor, with a dash of floral scent. It is more enhanced with its stony-hued texture. It pairs well with Vegan Smoky-grilled half-Salmon, nachos, and spicy red-hued onion rings along with Kite Hill whipped cheese. The white-creamy textured cheese strikes a perfect balance between the acidic and citrus-fruit essence of Sandlands’ Chenin Blanc wine. Add-on the smoked salt lox bagels to complete this lovely delectable pairing.
Cheers!!
So, here you go! Get your sleeves up and brace your taste-buds to savor the perfect pairing of wine and the vegan delicacies or standards like a vegan burger. Most of the dishes have the innate qualities to do justice to the non-vegan food-lovers as well. Stir your soul, and give go-in for a gastronomical roll-over with these perfect combinations. Veganism is never sacrificing, and it is a sheer pleasure for the palate!
With nearly 5 years of experience in wine marketing,
Harold Camaya is considered a thought leader in digital marketing of luxury wines.
From writing, event planning and public relations to videography and digital media,
He continues to diversify his skills with changing trends and technologies. On his off days,
He likes to spend his time at the nearest animal shelter, lift weights or be nose deep in a novel.