Wine Pairing in Restaurants | How to Combine Wine and Food

Enjoying a delicious meal in good company can be even better with a glass of wine. Pairing wine with food is how many people across the US get a delightful dining experience. Although food and wine pairing is often associated with fine-dining establishments from the restaurant industry, other food service businesses can also offer such pairings. In this post, we’ll share important tips about pairing different dishes with wine. We’ll also share how BlueCart and BinWise can help you achieve restaurant success. Make sure to also read our resources on pricing wine by the glass and using beverage inventory software to manage your bar inventory.

Key takeaway: Thanks to food and wine pairing, restaurants can elevate their guests’ dining experience while simultaneously increasing their revenue and profit. In addition to popular wine pairings, food service establishments can experiment with unorthodox combinations or less popular wine types.

Food and Wine Pairing Tips

Thanks to offering suitable wine and food pairings, hospitality businesses can elevate the dining experience for their guests and increase the average check size. Here are some tips on how to do meal and wine pairing properly.

1. Match the intensity of the dish with the proper wine. For example, light meals like salads or fish dishes should be paired with light-bodied wines like Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc. On the other hand, steaks or other bold and rich dishes go well with reds like Syrah or Merlot.
2. Offer regional pairings. Italian cuisine can be complemented with Italian wines, while French dishes can be paired with French wines. In addition to being a good combination, this elevates the dining experience and helps with menu storytelling.
3. Use contrasting flavors. Although it’s common to pair wine with dishes with similar characteristics, contrast combinations also work well. For example, tart wines with high acidity levels can be paired with fatty food. Contrast pairing can also be used to add additional texture and refresh the palate.
4. Don’t underestimate sparkling wines. Champagne (or Prosecco) can be a great pairing for a variety of dishes. Their texture makes them great in combination with seafood, fried dishes, or salty food. Consider offering champagne cocktails as well.
5. Offer wine tasting flights. In order to impress guests, establishments can offer wine tasting flights alongside small bites. This has the potential to increase the average check while engaging customers and making their dining experience better.
6. Dessert pairings. There are different types of wine to pair with every course of a meal. That’s also true for desserts. Wine pairings for desserts are more specific as they need to be sweeter vintages.
7. Embrace the foodie culture. A growing number of consumers wish to experience new flavors and ingredient combinations. That’s also true for wine enthusiasts. That’s why wine bar businesses (check out our post on the best wine bars) have become so popular recently. Customers wish to try new wine types, and establishments can offer those with a higher profit markup.
8. Integrate staff training procedures. In order to offer wine pairing and to properly upsell guests, waiters should be trained regarding the characteristics of different wines and what they can be paired with. This improves the customer experience and can increase both the average order and the size of the tip.
9. Create a wine pairing menu. Creating a menu with dish and wine bundles can help restaurant marketing by making wine a more lucrative beverage option.

Other Beverages to Pair with Food

Businesses shouldn’t be afraid to also offer other drinks that pair well with dishes on their menus. Pairings usually reflect the atmosphere and the style of the establishment. For example, pubs traditionally offer beer or spirit pairings with food. Cocktail and food pairing is an excellent combination. Due to the popularity of mixed drinks and the high profit margin on cocktails, both the business and its guests can find this combination beneficial.

Popular Wine and Food Pairing Combinations

• Fresh and roasted vegetables with dry white wines like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio;
• White fish with dry white or rich white like Chardonnay;
• Lean white meats (primarily poultry) or rich seafood with light rich white wine or light red like Pinot Noir;
• Red and cured meats with medium red wines like Merlot or bold ones like Syrah or Malbec;
• Starch-based dishes can be combined with virtually any type. The wine pairing depends primarily on the additional ingredients used in the dish.

Wine Inventory Management with BlueCart and BinWise

There are multiple solutions for businesses in the hospitality niche market. Some of them are related to restaurant customer acquisition and marketing, while others are complex POS systems. Although BlueCart is known as a solution that helps businesses find suppliers and distributors to increase their wholesale sales, our platforms have other functionalities as well. Here are a few ways BlueCart and BinWise can help restaurants and bars.

1. Businesses can easily create wine lists (wine list menu management), track wine inventory, and calculate wine bar costs with BinWise.
2. BlueCart allows establishments to order in bulk from multiple vendors.
3. Managing par levels and using smart reorder points streamlines inventory management for hospitality businesses.
4. Thanks to BlueCart’s recipe creation features, companies can track their profit margin and calculate the cost of goods sold.
5. Thanks to our solutions, tracking inventory in real time can help hospitality businesses reduce waste, spillage, over-pouring, or other reasons for inventory (and profit) shrinkage.
6. As growing platforms, BlueCart and BinWise regularly introduce new features that help the wholesale distribution & food and beverage industries.

Frequently Asked Questions about Food and Wine Pairing

Whether you’re looking for tips related to wine pairing or wish to find resources on how to open a wine bar, there are plenty of useful articles on BlueCart’s and BinWise’s blogs. Below, we’ve answered popular questions regarding food and wine pairing.

What Is a Wine Pairing Menu?

In addition to having food and beverage menus, some businesses in the hospitality industry also create wine pairing menus. These menus include popular meals and wine combinations. The goal of these menus is to offer guests who are not knowledgeable in wine pairing to choose a meal and wine that combine well. Thanks to food and wine pairing menus, restaurants can increase their average order value. An alternative approach that some establishments choose is to include suitable wine pairing options next to dishes in the menu. The easiest way to create a wine pairing menu is through QR codes for restaurant menus.

How Food Service Can Offer Better Food and Wine Pairing?

Restaurant businesses that offer a wide variety of wines and vintages are the primary choice for wine enthusiasts. That’s why having an extensive wine list is a must for food service businesses that wish to offer better food and wine pairing. Another way to improve the customer experience in that regard is to incorporate proper staff training procedures related to food and wine pairing. Hiring a sommelier is primarily associated with fine-dining establishments. Nevertheless, other restaurants can invest in specialized restaurant training programs for pairing food and wine.

What Is a Wine Pairing Cheat Sheet?

This is a sheet that both individuals and restaurant staff members can use to see popular wine and food pairings. Wine pairing cheat sheets are often in the form of a table. However, they can be infographics or represent common wine and food combinations in other ways. Creating a wine pairing cheat sheet is the simplest way for restaurant managers to train their waiting staff on combining food and wine.