How the cooking method can affect the wine you pick

When meat, chicken, fish and seafood are browned via broiling, grilling, BBQ, and roasting, the juices in these foods are caramelized. Connect these caramel flavors with the caramel, vanilla, toasty flavors of oaked wines.

Oaked whites include:

• Chardonnay
• White Burgandy
• Fume Blanc
• White Bordeaux

Oaked reds include:

• Cabernet
• Merlot
• Pinot Noir
• Shiraz
• Syrah

When foods are eaten raw (e.g. oysters, clams) or when food is steamed or poached in water (shrimp, fish, chicken) no extra flavors are added. That's when you should reach for unoaked wines

Unoaked whites include:

• Sauvignon Blanc
• Sancerre
• Pouilly Fume
• Muscadet
• Chablis
• Pinot Grigio
• Pinot Gris
• Pinot Blanc

Lightly oaked reds include:

• Barbera from Italy
• Shiraz from Australia
• Beaujolais Village or cru Beaujolais
• Chinon
• St Nicholas de Bourgeouil from France.

However, the bottom line in food in wine pairing is that there are no rules, only preferences.

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