"Red wine with red meat, white wine with fish" , say the experts in oenology . A team of Japanese researchers has found the first scientific explanation for this basic pairing rule.
According to Takayuki Tamura and his colleagues in the latest issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry , published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), the unpleasant fishy aftertaste that appears when combined with red wine with seafood is the result of the presence of high levels of iron in this drink. In experiments with samples of 38 varieties of red wine and 26 of white wine, the researchers found that the more iron contained in a broth, the greater the intense fishy taste that remained in the mouth after the meal. However, if a substance that blocked iron was added, the unpleasant effect disappeared.
Tamura assures that some red wines hardly contain iron, and concludes that it is the concentration of this chemical element that must be taken into account when pairing, rather than the color of the drink.
