PONDER IT

Red wine with red meat and white wine with fish: It is an almost universal rule of thumb that has not had the benefit of a clear scientific explanation – until now.

Scientists in Japan have discovered that drinking red wine with fish leaves an unpleasant fishy aftertaste because of naturally occurring iron in the wine, the American Chemical Society reports.

In an experiment, a panel of subjects were forced to undergo the unspeakable hardship of sampling 38 red wines and 26 white wines while dining on a meal of scallops.

The scientists found that "wines with high amounts of iron had a more intensely fishy aftertaste. This fishy taste diminished, on the other hand, when the researchers added a substance that binds up iron. The findings indicate that iron is the key factor in the fishy aftertaste of wine-seafood pairings, the researchers say, suggesting that low-iron red wines might be a good match with seafood."

John Sakamoto