The subject of wine is a vast one and one of much subjectivity. That subjectivity stands front and center when pairing wine with food as the taste buds of humans are not the same from person to person. Where we do all have the ability to taste sweetness on the tip of the tongue, acid on the side, bitterness in the back, our olfactory senses play a great role in the impression that it makes on each person. So, mouthfeel (silky, oily, acidic) should be pretty consistent from taster to taster, but the subjectivity comes in when sense of taste converges with sense of smell. We describe aroma, body, texture and flavor as the components of taste, so we must think about all of these elements as we experience a wine.

Although guidelines can be given to a person who is not as confident about food and wine pairing as they would like to be, the fact is that there are not hard and fast rules that will work for everyone.
It is easy in a restaurant to have a “wow” moment where the cuisine and wine pairing create a wonderful experience. Restaurants employ people whose job is to create such an experience for their guests. But that job is a challenging one even for a chef or sommelier with excellent olfactory skills. What most everyone agrees on today is that creating a great food and wine pairing experience involves a lot of instinct. In light of all the textures, flavors and aromas that most cuisines offer today, how could pairing be scientific?

Pairing wine and food at home is quite challenging because, again, there are so many variables to consider. Relying on instinct gained from a lot of experimentation is crucial to your success. Trying a lot of wine and being willing to pair with dishes pre?pared in your home will make the process simpler and will eventually result in more of what feels like an instinct. Good thing trying wine is a lot of fun!

The perfect pairing can turn a chardonnay-only drinker into a red drinker. So much depends upon pairing correctly, but American cuisine is such a fusion of spices and herbs from around the globe that our options for pairing are much broader than the old adage “red wine with red meat…white wine with white meat.” That idea came from the days of white wines that were very light in body and color and red wines that were weighty and very dark in color. As we are all now aware, a pinot noir from Oregon is lighter in body than an oak-aged chardonnay. So the rule is to match the weight of the food with the weight of the wine. This is arrived at by noting how a wine feels on your palate. Does it feel like skim-, part-skim, or whole milk?

Keep in mind that you want to choose a wine with food that accentuates the flavors of the food but also cleanses the palate, preparing it for the next bite of food. When you find what you think to be a perfect food and wine match, you realize that the two together are better than either would have been alone.

So in essence it is a complicated topic, but it is also a fun one. If approached from a trial and error perspective it can make finding the perfect pairing a thrilling one and one that you discovered on your own. That is what empowers wine drinkers to continue down the track of thinking out of the box and flinging the doors open to the large world of wine and the varieties created therein.

There is a little wine called Cosentino ‘Ol Red that is a blend of a multitude of grapes that is aged in a solera, which is a vertical row of barrels that holds vintages 1997 through 2004 (currently). So it is a blend of these vintages and a variety of grapes, making it really different. It is very concentrated and quite complex for its tiny retail price. It is my recent favorite for pairing with...

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