It's not just culinary etiquette to pair red wine with red meat not fish with a Japanese research team finding there is a scientific explanation.

Researcher Takayuki Tamura and colleagues from the product development research laboratory of Japanese wine producer Mercian Corp. have found that wine connoisseurs established the rule of thumb because of the flavor clash between red wine and fish.

Until now, nobody could consistently predict which wines might trigger a fishy aftertaste because of the lack of knowledge about its cause.

But Tamura and his team found that an unpleasant, fishy aftertaste noticeable after drinking red wine with fish resulted from naturally occurring iron in red wine with some wines having more iron than others.

"Strong positive correlations were found between the intensity of fishy aftertaste and the concentration of both total iron and ferrous ion," the researchers said in a statement.

Their study, published in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, was based on studying 38 commercial red wines from a list of countries, 26 white wines, two sherries, and one each of port, madeira and botrytized wine.

The components of all of the wines was analyzed.

Wine samplers then tested the wines while dining on scallops.

They 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.

They said the findings indicate that iron is the key factor in the fishy aftertaste of wine-seafood pairings but this also meant that low-iron red wines might be a good match with seafood.

日本科学家研究小组发现红酒与肉配一起，不和鱼搭配吃，不仅仅是烹饪礼节，而是有其科学的解释。

来自日本一家酒制造商Mercian 公司的产品发展研究实验室的研究者Takayuki Tamura 和他的同事发现酒行家们是出于红酒香味会与鱼腥味混淆，从而确定这个缺乏科学依据的规定。

至今，没有人能够始终如一地预测哪种酒会发出像鱼腥一样的味道，因为缺乏相关的知识。

但是Tamura和他的团队发现红酒有自然存在的铁，有些红酒铁含量比其他的酒要高，导致在同时喝红酒和吃鱼后像鱼腥一样的难闻的气味特别的浓。

研究者们声称"他们发现鱼腥味的浓度和铁与亚铁离子的含量存在着强而有力的联系。

他们的研究发布在美国化学协会的农业化学与食品化学杂志。论文基于研究38瓶来自很多不同国家的商业红酒，26瓶白酒，2瓶葡萄酒以及波尔特酒，马德拉白葡萄酒各一瓶。

每瓶酒的组分都经过分析。

酒取样器在贝扇里正餐时检测酒。

他们发现铁含量高的酒有更重的鱼腥味。另一方面，当研究者加入一种能凝固铁的物质后，鱼腥味减轻了。

他们说研究发现证明铁是海鲜-酒搭配产生鱼腥味的重要因素，但是这同时也意味着含铁较低的红酒很适合与海鲜搭配吃。