Pairing Wine with Mexican Food

Pairing wine with Mexican food can be a tricky endeavor, which is why most people will simply reach of a beer or a margarita as their beverage of choice. But, by keeping in mind a few key tips, you can find that perfect bottle to pop for your fiesta dinner.

Pairing Wine With Mexican Food: Consider the Wine

Alcohol

Alcohol intensifies heat, and heat intensifies alcohol. This means that a beverage with a high alcohol content will make your dish taste even spicier, and the spice from the dish with make your alcohol taste sharper. This is one of the reasons that beer is such a great choice with spicy, Mexican food, because the typical ABV (Alcohol By Volume) for beer is 4-7%. Most wines fall in the 11-16% range, but lighter wines like Italian Moscato and German Reisling tend to have an alcohol content closer to that of beer, making them a great choice for Mexican food.

Tannin

Tannin contributes to the dryness of the wine. If you notice that your mouth feels bone dry after taking a sip of wine, that’s the effect of the tannin. That drying effect of the tannin will also intensify the heat of your dish. This means that you want to stay away from dryer wines that are high in tannin, like big, dry reds. Oak barrel aging produces a similar, dry and earthy effect, so try to steer clear of oaked white wines as well.

Acidity

While tannin makes your mouth go dry, acidity in wine makes you salivate. And, while we’re staying away from high tannin wines with Mexican food, high acidity is a great way to balance out the heat and intense flavors of Mexican food. Look for whites that have notes of citrus or are described as ‘crisp,’ these are good indicators that they will have some acidity to them.

Then, Consider the Dish

Mexican food can be divided into two (incredibly general) categories of ingredients and preparation. We’ll call them red and green. Tomatoes, cumin, coriander and chili pepper would contribute to a red dish. These flavors are bold and need more of a bold and flavorful wine, like a juicy red or slightly dry rosé to balance them out.

Jalapenos, lime and cilantro would contribute to a green dish. And, since these flavors are more light and refreshing, they work better with a light and acidic white. Many Sauvignon Blanc wines already have a bit of jalapeno and/or lime flavors, making them excellent choices.

Pairing Wine With Carnitas

As an example, today we’re pairing our wine with a classic Mexican meat preparation: Pork Carnitas.

For the wine, we decided to go out on a bit of a limb for us and go the rosé route. We don’t drink rosé wines much, and I think it’s because when we see a pink wine we automatically think about the super sweet wines that we drank in college. After doing some research, we were hearing a lot about pairing Mexican dishes with a semi-dry rosé, particularly ones from the Rhone region in France. And, so, we went out searching.

We decided on a 2014 Chateau de Campuget Rosé Wine. The wine was acidic, fruity, and slightly dry. For us, the dryness was surprising, and I’ll have to say, it opened a whole new realm of rosé wines to us.

How can you go wrong with fall-apart tender meat with hinds of orange and warm spices that has been almost caramelized by the long cooking process?

I don’t think you can. But, it was made even better by the fruitiness of the rosé  that pull out the flavors of the orange in the meat. And, following each juicy, flavorful bite with a sip of the bright and refreshing wine was the perfect way to round out the flavors.

More great wine pairings for Mexican food! 

If you’re looking for more wine pairings for Mexican food, have a look at these pairings from the Wine Pairing Weekend crew!

• Dry-Rubbed Tri Tip Roast with Halter Ranch ‘s 2011 Cotes de Paso from Culinary Adventures with Cam
• Matanegra Vendimia Seleccionada 2010 and Queso Fundido from Grape Experiences
• Spanish Wine for Pork Tacos from Cooking Chat
• Mexican meets Italian: Fish Tacos with Stemmari Sparkling Grillo from Vino Travels
• Chicken Pipian Verde, Mexican Quinoa and the Devil’s Collection White from Enofylz Wine Blog
• Veggie Quesadillas with and old vine Nisia from Spain from A Day in the Life on a Farm
• Wines from Baja from Confessions of a Culinary Diva

David of Cooking Chat started this event in June of 2014, and every month since then this group of wine and food lovers have had a great time! For more background, check out the original post announcing Wine Pairing Weekend. You can see the full list of past and upcoming #winePW events here.

Sarah - Curious Cuisiniere

Sarah founded Curious in 2010 as a way to save her recipe creations and share culinary experiences. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from over 10 years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.

www.curiouscuisiniere.com/about/