If you’re having a dinner party with soup as the starter and want to look like you know what you’re doing, pairing the correct wine would go a long way towards that. Impress your guests with your choice of wine and enjoy a well-paired meal; you might even find you have a skill you didn’t know about.
A crisp, lively wine will pair well with a broccoli cheese soup. Consuming wine with a meal aids in the digestive process. Enjoying wine with a meal can also enhance the flavors of the food.
Having some wine before eating can increase one’s appetite.
Enjoying wine with your food is an age-old tradition; not only does it taste great, but it has some benefits to your health. It could make or break your evening to have the right food paired with the correct wine; knowing which wine pairs well with your food might be slightly tricky so let’s explore.
What Wine Goes with Broccoli Cheese Soup?
Broccoli cheese soup is a delicious meal whether you have it as your main meal or as the starter to a multiple-course meal.
Finding the right wine that compliments your soup could be essential to your dining experience. A crisp, lively wine would pair very well with your soup, but there are many crisp, vibrant wines.
White wine like chardonnay or a sauvignon blanc would pair very well with broccoli cheese soup.
A dry, oaked red wine would also pair well with the soup. Dry, oaked wine is a wine fermented or aged in oak barrels or alternatives to oak barrels for a predetermined amount of time.
The aroma and flavors of dry white wine or a dry, oaked red wine compliment the taste and flavor of a broccoli cheese soup very well and will enhance your dining experience.
Those are the suggested wines to add to your meal; however, if you don’t like any of the wines, it would not enhance your dining experience.
Trying new things is a great idea; trying a wine you haven’t tried before because will pair well with the dish you are going to eat; it can be a fantastic experience, and you could even find a flavor combination that you would fall in love with.
If you had tried the wine before and did not enjoy it, you might still not enjoy it.
If you do not enjoy any of the wines suggested to be paired with your soup, you could try pairing one of your favorite wines with the soup.
You know that you would enjoy the wine and the soup, although they might not be the culinary experience one usually gets from properly pairing aromas in food and wine.
You would still be enjoying not only the dish and your drink but the meal as a whole because you are enjoying each element.
Perhaps you have discovered a new pairing that works well. One needs to remember that wine pairing is still subjective, even though there are some guidelines you could follow.
Guidelines to Wine Pairing
Some things are kept in mind when it comes to wine pairing. You need to have a wine with a similar weight and intensity of flavor to the food.
You also need to keep the acidity of the wine in mind; the acidity is what gives the wine that fresh feel, and if the food is more acidic than the wine, it won’t pair well.
Spicy food is high in acidy and therefore would pair well with a more acidic wine; Italian wines tend to be higher in acidity, perhaps because they love their tomato-infused pasta and know a little something about making wine that would go well with the food they enjoy to consume.
If you want to have a wine with your dessert, a sweeter wine would be the way to go. You need to match the sweetness or bitterness of the food you have with the wine you plan to pair with it.
A dry wine would pair horribly with a piece of chocolate cake as all the negatives of the wine would be highlighted.
Sometimes a bit of contrast can be a fun pairing; you could try adding a sweet wine to a salty dish. The difference in taste could enhance both flavors greatly and make it quite the fine dining experience.
There are some more technical aspects to wine pairing, but you’re good as long as you enjoy the taste of your meal and wine.
Why Do We Pair Wine with Food?
The theory is that the textures and flavors of the food and wine would interact and complement each other to create a fine dining experience with a burst of new flavors coming from the combination.
If you’re not the biggest fan of wine but are curious about the different pairings, I suggest going to a wine pairing evening.
Some restaurants have wine pairing evenings, where they pair some of their dishes with the correct wine. Sometimes there are wine pairing evenings with cheese and wines that compliment the cheese.
If you’re fortunate enough to live in the wine country, some wine farms have wine tasting events as well, definitely worth a try.
See more here: Pairing Food and Wine | What Main Dish Goes With Broccoli and Cheese | What Meat Goes With Broccoli and Cheese | What Bread Goes with Broccoli Cheese Soup | What Protein Goes with Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Conclusion
The wines that would pair well with your broccoli cheese soup are crispy and live dry white wines and a dry, oaked red wine.
These wines would complement the flavors of your soup very well and make for a delicious meal, consider the intensity and heaviness of the flavors of food and wine when you are pairing them.
However, if you don’t enjoy the specific wine paired with a meal, you have the freedom to pair the food with a wine that you do find delicious.
The main point of wine pairing is to make the meal most enjoyable, so pair a wine you enjoy with the food of your choice, enjoy your meal and perhaps discover a great pairing.
References:
Wine Spectator: For Maximum Health Benefits Have Your Wine With a Meal
Quora: Why Do People Drink Wine With Food
Vine Pair: Oaked and Unoaked Wine Guide
Food And Wine: 15 Rules for Great Wine and Food Pairings
Yummly: Wine Pairing Basics
Wine Spectator: ABCs of Food and Wine Pairing
Decanter: The 10 rules of food and wine pairing by Karen MacNeil