Pairing wine and food . . .

  One of the world’s great pleasures is pairing some form of alcoholic    beverage with food.  Though you can’t beat beer with burgers, in my book, the supreme food-mate is that delicious beverage derived from grapes.

Wine has graced human tables (or whatever our ancestors used) longer than recorded history. In fact, Archeologists have unearthed evidence in the middle east of wine going back some 7000 years.  Regretfully, I suspect their discovery was “over the hill,” as they say.

Never-the-less, wine consumption was surely going on a great deal longer as it’s one of the few alcoholic beverages (along with beer) that can literally make itself.  Since the yeasts needed to convert grape sugar into alcohol occur naturally in nature, fermentation can begin when grapes are crushed (accidently or purposefully).

Now I don’t know what our cave-man ancestors swirled with saber-tooth tiger flank or leg of mastodon.  I do, however, know that the ancient Romans and Greeks were very particular about their beverages, especially vino.

And that brings us to the present and the challenge of selecting appropriate wines with specific foods.  It’s not as complicated as some “wine experts” have led us to believe.  Essentially, you want to pair light wines with light foods and, conversely, heavier foods with heavier wines.  They should complement each other and not overpower one another.   Do a little experimenting and you’ll soon arrive at what suits your individual taste.  And, don’t concern yourself with some of the strict pairing rules you might come across.

I’ll have more to say on the subject, but I hope this helps in the meantime.

Kind regards,

John Davis, founder, Wine Insiders

August 30, 2011 at 3:50 am John Davis Leave a comment