Takayuki Tamura and colleagues from Mercian Corporation set out to investigate the rule of thumb that says white wine goes with fish, red with meat. Red wines are reported to yield a fishy aftertaste when eaten with fish.

The team asked wine tasters to try a raft of red and white wines with scallops. They found the fishy aftertaste was more pronounced in red wines with higher iron levels.

Since iron levels vary on origin, wine variety and vintage, they suggest that some low-iron reds may make for a good fish accompaniment after all.

Source

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2009, 57 (18), pp 8550–8556

DOI: 10.1021/jf901656k

Iron Is an Essential Cause of Fishy Aftertaste Formation in Wine and Seafood Pairing
Takayuki Tamura, Kiyoshi Taniguchi, Yumiko Suzuki, Toshiyuki Okubo, Ryoji Takata and Tomonori Konno