Coffee and wine - Love or Hate story?

To what extent wine and coffee have something in common and why you shouldn't drink them together.

The classic after a good, perhaps even a little too sumptuous meal: Espresso, please! Everyone knows that it closes the stomach. However, sweet wine and champagne are also almost always a welcome end to a menu. What does this look like, though? Is it over with coffee and wine? Not quite, but one after the other, please. It is important to know that coffee paralyzes the sense of taste for a good 20 minutes. Therefore, it is not advisable to drink wine and coffee at the same time.

Parallels between wine and coffee: cultivation, production & taste.

Although there is a real biological difference between the grape varieties (wine) and the varieties (coffee), they have many similarities: Their quality depends on the area where they are grown and can be judged by aroma, acidity, body and finish. As for harvesting and production, both are very time-consuming and labor-intensive. Both are pleasure foods that develop their own flavor profiles.

What's more, in wine you will find not only the taste of fresh grapes, but also typical aromas formed during fermentation, the ripening phase and the storage period - one of which is coffee. Both the alcohol and caffeine carriers are particularly diverse: in the case of wine, more than 500 different aromas can be identified, and in the case of coffee, even more than 800; in addition, there are more than 50 different acids in each case.


Although there is a great biological difference between the grape varieties (wine) and the coffee varieties (coffee), they have many things in common: In both cases, quality depends on the area of cultivation and can be judged by aroma, acidity, body and finish. As for harvesting and production, both are very time-consuming and labor-intensive. Both are pleasure foods that develop their own flavor profiles. What's more, in wine you will find not only the taste of fresh grapes, but also typical aromas formed during fermentation, aging and storage - one of which is coffee. Both the alcohol and caffeine carriers are particularly diverse: in wine, more than 500 different aromas can be identified, in coffee even more than 800, plus in each case more than 50 different acids.

Wine and coffee as a duo? Better not... or one after the other.

In sensory analysis, tobacco and especially coffee are unfortunately sins for the gustatory perception of aromas in wine. We therefore advise against consuming them at the same time.  With a small "taste break" in between, a delicious cup of coffee or espresso can be enjoyed after a glass of wine or wine tasting to round it all off. After a strong red wine, a strong, fresh espresso is more recommended, like roasted coffee. After a fine fruity white wine rather a mild coffee.