Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Natural Wine

Unlock the perfect flavour pairings for natural wine according to data science. Explore unique recipes and discover the hidden mathematics of flavour.

Natural wine immediately conjures the embrace of lactic acid and the bracing kiss of barnyard. But look beneath its obvious sourness and you'll discover a captivating symphony of softer notes, a whisper of petrichor, a hint of vinegar, and subtle accents reminiscent of banana that contribute remarkable depth. And the alchemy of the kitchen begins when we seek out partners that allow these notes to truly sing, to harmonise in unexpected and delightful ways.

To map these harmonies, we analysed thousands of ingredients, breaking each one down across 150 flavour dimensions, identifying which notes complement and contrast. Our findings reveal, for instance, how paprika's capsicum tones can infuse with natural wine, or how cocoa powder's theobromine notes create an unexpectedly harmonious bridge with the creamy tanginess.

An ingredient's flavour comes from its core characteristics, like acidic, floral, and earthy, combined with its unique aroma notes (outer bars). When pairing ingredients, aim to include a broad variety of core characteristics for a balanced dish. And choose aroma notes that complement each other for a harmonious combination.

The Art of Flavour Pairing

To understand how flavour notes harmonise, we analysed more than 50,000 popular ingredient combinations. By exploring these pairings, we identified specific flavour notes that frequently occur together, indicating they share a harmonious relationship.

The Flavours That Harmonise With Lactic Notes

Our analysis shows that the flavour of lactic acid is strongly associated with the flavour of cocoa. This suggests we should look for ingredients with a cocoa flavour, such as cocoa powder, when pairing with the lactic acid aroma accents of natural wine.

The recipes below provide inspiration for pairing natural wine with cocoa powder.

Harmonious Flavours Of Natural Wine

Just as our statistical analysis showed that lactic acid and cocoa flavours are often associated, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the flavours present in natural wine. For instance, the brettanomycine notes of natural wine are strongly associated with walnut and clove-like notes.

The accents complementing the various notes of natural wine can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of paprika offers many of the aromas complementary to natural wine, including capsicum and thyme aroma notes. Because the flavour profile of paprika has many of the of the features that are complementary to natural wine, they are likely to pair very well together.

The chart above shows the unique profile of paprika across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with natural wine.

Recipes That Pair Natural Wine With Paprika

Linked Flavour Notes

Looking at the aroma notes that are most strongly associated with the various flavours of natural wine, we can identify other ingredients that are likely to pair well.

The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of natural wine, along with the complementary aromas associated with each note. While the right side shows some of the ingredients that share many of the aroma accents complementary to natural wine.

How Flavonomics Works

We've pioneered a unique, data-driven approach to decode the intricate art of flavour pairing. Our goal is to move beyond intuition and uncover the science of why certain ingredients harmonise beautifully. This rigorous methodology allows us to provide you with insightful and reliable pairing recommendations.

Our analysis begins with over 50,000 carefully selected recipes from acclaimed chefs like Galton Blackiston, Marcello Tully, and Pierre Lambinon. This premium dataset ensures our model distils genuine culinary excellence and creativity.

Each ingredient from these recipes is deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, creating a unique numerical "flavour fingerprint." This quantification allows us to apply advanced analytical methods to identify complex patterns between flavour notes.

We identify popular ingredient combinations that frequently appear in our recipe database. Regression analysis is then performed on these pairings to statistically validate and pinpoint truly harmonious flavours.

These insights drive our predictive model, which allows us to take any ingredient (e.g., Natural Wine), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.