More often than not, it’s the herbs and spices in a dish that makes a wine pairing taste so good. Pairing with herbs and spices is easy to do when you know how to pick out individual flavors in wine. For example, one of the dominant aromas in Barbera (a medium-bodied red wine) is anise. And, when you pair Barbera with a star anise and soy-glazed chicken you find it to be surprisingly delicious!
The magic behind pairing wines with herbs and spices starts with aroma compounds found in both spices and wine. Not surprisingly, many herbs and spices share the same aroma compounds as wine. A real-world example is matching a black pepper with Syrah; both wine and spice contain the spicy-but-floral compound called rotundone. When you match like flavors together they magnify each other. This type of pairing is called a congruent pairing and it’s the theory behind matching wine with spices and herbs.
Without further ado, here is a detailed look into many different spice and herb pairings with wine from winefolly…
