When Chinese cuisine meets western wine

This study explores the guiding principle for pairing common western table wines such as Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon with authentic Chinese cuisines. Sensory evaluation was carried out to measure the affective level on the pairing of food and wine. A five by eight (4 different wines and no wine pairing with 8 different cuisines) factorial experiment design was carried out to attain the sensory affection from the taste panel. Hedonic rating was adopted to assess the affective response of the cuisine and wine pairings. The results of affective test indicated that Riesling was the preferred wine to pair with most of the Chinese cuisines in question. The interaction was significant between different cuisines and wines (p=0.000), indicating that the hedonic sensory pattern of the cuisine can be influenced by the type of wine paired. In addition, Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) graph was proven to be an effective tool for visualizing the guiding principle of food and wine pairing.