Food and Wine Pairing

I am always thinking about this. If there is a particular bottle of wine I wish to open, I will plan a meal around it. More often, I will come up with the dish and then select a wine. This is why I was puzzled last weekend when we met another couple for dinner at a byo. I had never been to the restaurant, but it was a French bistro, and they have been several times, and he is a wine geek. I was thinking of a 1998 Grand Puy Lacoste, or maybe a Rhone. When I queried my friend as to what he was bringing along, he said a 2003 Quintessa. Yikes.....I didn't say a word about not considering it a good match to the food since they may have been planning to get thick, juicy steaks, which is the only thing I could phathom eating with such a young California red.
Well, it was a traditional French bistro offering a delicious version of escargots, and onion soup. My friend opened his white wine for us to enjoy with the appetizers - a young California Sauvignon Blanc from Forth - nice and fruity, but not very good company for my escargots So, I opened the '98 GPL, and the earthy wine turned out to pair very well with the escargots. My entree was roast chicken and another good match to the GPL. At this time, the others had turned their attention to the Quintessa. A small sip confirmed my opinion that this wine was not working with the food, although not horrible with my husband's disappointing rendition of steak frites. The other roast chicken and a stew of bison short ribs would have been better matched to the GPL, in my opinion, of course. It didn't seem to bother these predominantly California wine drinkers, and from what I could tell, they even preferred it to the Bordeaux. Last month, I was in Paris having fabulous roast chicken at Allard and we drank a bottle of a 2001 Bourgogne that was just perfect with the food. This meal didn't come close to that experience, but I felt my wine choice, was correct. I would have brought a Burgundy to dinner, but my wine buddy's wife does not drink Pinot Noir. When they ordered dessert, I found a purpose for my glass of Quintessa. It was my dessert.
Fast forward to next weekend when we visit wine friends for dinner on their boat. I will inquire as to the food being served, and will select a bottle accordingly, when I know full well, that they will open whatever they feel like drinking without any thought to matching the food.
But then there is tomorrow night when we meet some wine friends in the city where we will indulge in a tasting menu created for the wines we are bringing. Now, that is a dinner I look forward to.

Sorry to focus on such a narrow segment of your interesting post, but a wine geek married to a teetotaler would be bad enough, but a wine geek married to a person who drinks wine but does not drink pinot noir seems somehow worse, perhaps not in practice, but symbolically...

Sorry to focus on such a narrow segment of your interesting post, but a wine geek married to a teetotaler would be bad enough, but a wine geek married to a person who drinks wine but does not drink pinot noir seems somehow worse, perhaps not in practice, but symbolically...

Oswaldo,
Consider the dilemma of my dear friend and fellow winegeek Rick. His wife, after giving birth to their daughter 10 years ago, found that she had lost her earlier fondness for bold red wines and would only drink Champagne thereafter. So, what is a guy to do with his cellar of many hundreds of bottles of California red wines? Last week, while visiting them, I learned that she had just recently found that she could tolerate aged Cabernets again, so all is not lost since Rick's collection is now 10 years older than it was when she lost her taste for red wine. She still can't tolerate Pinot Noir, though ("It tastes like Grape Kool-Aid") which brought this whole tedious story forth in the first place.

Mark Lipton

This is something my wife and I take very seriously. Unfortunately many people who like wine and food just never think of them together. They open the wine they want to drink and order or cook the food that interests them. These many times are the people that drink huge, ripe, high alcohol wines as they do not match food but if you never think about it, who cares.
Walt

Sorry to focus on such a narrow segment of your interesting post, but a wine geek married to a teetotaler would be bad enough, but a wine geek married to a person who drinks wine but does not drink pinot noir seems somehow worse, perhaps not in practice, but symbolically...

Oswaldo,
Consider the dilemma of my dear friend and fellow winegeek Rick. His wife, after giving birth to their daughter 10 years ago, found that she had lost her earlier fondness for bold red wines and would only drink Champagne thereafter. So, what is a guy to do with his cellar of many hundreds of bottles of California red wines? Last week, while visiting them, I learned that she had just recently found that she could tolerate aged Cabernets again, so all is not lost since Rick's collection is now 10 years older than it was when she lost her taste for red wine. She still can't tolerate Pinot Noir, though ("It tastes like Grape Kool-Aid") which brought this whole tedious story forth in the first place.

Mark Lipton

Mark,
There are PNs that taste like kool-aid, maybe she just needs to try a different bottle. My wife likes Champagne, Chablis and old Bordeaux, how's that for hitting your pocket book.
Walt

Sorry to focus on such a narrow segment of your interesting post, but a wine geek married to a teetotaler would be bad enough, but a wine geek married to a person who drinks wine but does not drink pinot noir seems somehow worse, perhaps not in practice, but symbolically...

He seems content to drink Cali cabs and syrahs. He doesn't drink much in the way of Old World wines, but he is joining us tomorrow night (without his non-Pinot drinking wife) for dinner featuring Rhones and Burgs.

First of all, the chicken at Allard just rocks!

My friends mostly think I'm crazy because I ask what they are cooking so I can bring wine. I've resigned myself to the fact that most people just don't care about matching (including about 50% of the people who are somewhat into wine).

First of all, the chicken at Allard just rocks!

My friends mostly think I'm crazy because I ask what they are cooking so I can bring wine. I've resigned myself to the fact that most people just don't care about matching (including about 50% of the people who are somewhat into wine).

Dale -Lunch at Taillevant and dinner at Allard are 2 very good reasons to return to Paris.

There are PNs that taste like kool-aid, maybe she just needs to try a different bottle. My wife likes Champagne, Chablis and old Bordeaux, how's that for hitting your pocket book.

My wife likes Bordeaux, red Burgundy, Chablis and Champagne, so I can feel your pain, Walt. I've at least got her hooked on sparkling Vouvray now, which saves us a bit... Regarding my friend's wife: she's tried a fair sampling of Pinots over the years (she's a former caterer) but now categorically rejects them untasted, so it's hard to combat. (I've not pressed the issue with the argument that she's liked Pinot Noir just fine in her Champagnes, though)

Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

Boy do I know a lot of people like your Quintessa friend. And what's always so striking is the extent to which they don't connect the wine to the food. His wife's preferences may be especially telling--someone who is immune to the beauty and subtlety of pinot noir is surely less likely to care about the nuances you look for in the food and wine matches you plan for.

I'm suddenly thinking, too, about all the times I say "you're never wrong about what you like" to people. Half the time I don't mean it, I'm just saying that because they've just said something like "You probably think this sucks, but I like it." Fact is, I often *DO* think they're wrong, I just object to unthinking adherence to the old white-wine-with-fish rules.

I don't like to get too anal about food and wine pairings, I often find that concentration and perseverance can make almost anything work

Of course when I'm alone, I will cook in a fair amount of detail to match the nuances of the wine.

But, dining with friends is another story, and is often time to reduce the Wine Geekiness for me..

Sometimes the best laid plans of mice & men go astray. I think I remember G.W.Bush saying that on the deck of an aircraft carrier awhile back.
Well last night my wife said I would sear some ahi tuna on the barbecue but first we would have some sushi she had picked up at Whole Foods. I thought about this and decided to try a decent chablis (Fevre Bourgros 02) to accompany these two dishes. Bleh! the chablis with the Ahi was just terrible. Really only drinkable with the sushi. In retrospect I think a good beer would have been better. Think Anchor Steam.
It has been my experience that real wine geeks care very much about food and wine matching.

Sometimes the best laid plans of mice & men go astray.

In a movie I saw recently there was the line "everytime somebody comes up with a plan, God starts laughing..."