Science tackles question of serving red wine with fishScience tackles question of serving red wine with fish

Stephen Beaumont

LONDON Levels of iron in both red wine and fish may be behind the long-held belief that the two generally don’t pair well together, according to a recent story in the British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph.

Citing a study by professor Takayuki Tamura and colleagues at the University of California, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the publication noted that the greater the iron content of a wine, the more likely it is to trigger a “fishy” taste in fish. Since red wines are generally higher in iron content than are whites, they are more apt to cause “a ferrous taste, fishy and metallic odors, and bitterness in the mouth,” according to Tamura.

Still, because iron content in wine is dependent on a number of factors, including soil, the way the grapes were transported from field to winery and the method of the crush, it is difficult to predict the iron content of any wine prior to opening it, Tamura says. Therefore, it can be difficult to make clear assessments of the complementary factors of fish and any particular wine.