Wine and Umami can be a tricky combination to get right. \u00a0Umami is the fifth taste along with salt, sweet, sour and bitter.\u00a0 It is the taste that makes something irresistible. The word Umami comes from the Japanese term for delicious.\u00a0 It was identified as the \u2018fifth taste\u2019, in 1908 by the Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda who identified the active natural ingredient in Umami as glutamic acid or glutamate.\u00a0 The synthetic version is commercially known as MSG or Monosodium Glutamate.<\/p>\n
In fermented beverages, wine is made from fermented grape juice, you find umami, the level increases in wines that have been made from very ripe grapes from low yielding vines and in wines that have been aged.<\/p>\n
Umami is not the easiest partner to wine.\u00a0 If the wine has high tannins when paired with a dish that is high in umami it will be screamingly bitter.\u00a0 However, many foods that are high in umami also tend to be higher in salt, cured ham, bacon and cured cheese, smoked seafood.\u00a0 Salt is \u2018wine friendly\u2019 and has the effect of balancing the flavours.<\/p>\n
We have tasted it\u00a0as\u00a0babies because breast milk has high levels of umami. \u00a0A tasty\u00a0broth is also rich\u00a0in umami as are hard cheeses such as Parmesan y blue cheese.\u00a0 Jam\u00f3n, cooked meat, seafood, tomatoes, mushrooms, olives .\u00a0 Umami enhances flavours that is why a cheeseburger with ketchup or a plate of Jam\u00f3n Serrano with cured hard cheese are so irresistible.<\/p>\n
A good combination to match a umami rich food is with a wine that is low in tannin but relatively high in acidity. \u00a0 The Italians do this brilliantly with a umami rich bolognese sauce with a Chianti, a red wine that is low in tannins but has good acidity.<\/p>\n
A vintage Champagne and Cava, high acidity with a pronounced yeasty flavour, works well with umami rich foods, such as oysters and smoked salmon.<\/p>\n
What could be better than a high quality jam\u00f3n and cured cheese with a glass of Fino or if you prefer an Amontillado Sherry<\/p>\n