Are Food And Wine Pairings Completely Bogus?

Sixty percent of wine is consumed outside of meals, according to a recent industry study. These results call into question the "fruitless" obsession with food and wine pairing, argues Vinography.com wine blogger Alder Yarrow.

Yarrow continues:

I can only barely imagine what might happen if wine writing and the attentions of wine lovers actually matched their real behavior. Would a large portion of the critical establishment stop excoriating all wines that are greater than 14.5 percent alcohol as having no place at the dinner table? Would wine drinkers feel free to not only drink whatever they like, but to explore and experiment in their wine choices without fear of doing something wrong? Would more people actually drink wine because they knew it didn’t always HAVE to go with food?

Jason Wilson of the Washington Post wonders in his article "The lies, lies, lies of food and wine pairings," "So if a majority of the bottles bought by the nation’s prime wine drinkers never sees a dinner table, how can we explain this obsession with pairing rules and etiquette?"

Your move, food media, wine companies and authors of the 204 books on the subject.

Comments

[Alva Mahaffey-Johnson]

01:19 AM on 04/05/2011

the only rule to follow in wine is drinking what you wnjoy and what tastes best for you. But when it comes to food and wine pairings...there is nothing hocus pocus about it. It is such an amazing art form and when you've eaten food paired with a wine that brings out the flavors and undertones of that dish- it is a party in your mouth. So drink what you want, eat it with whatever you want, but don't discount a proper food and wine pairing. It will change you rlife and your perspective on what wine and food is all about.

[LivJamesBooks]

10:42 PM on 04/04/2011

I'm drinking a glass of Cabernet and eating a Rolo. Best food and wine pairing ever. The chocolate, the caramel, the tannins ... Oo la la!

[Andrew Spielberg]

10:03 PM on 04/04/2011

this is stupid

[SlurmsMcKenzie]

09:11 PM on 04/04/2011

i think wine folks are by their very nature conformist competitive followers; like the pokemon cards..... trying to prove uniquiness and status by hyper-conforming and accumulating.

i like german whites and beaujoulis, i also like lambrusco. no one ever drinks the wine i bring....

[jimboy71]

09:48 PM on 04/04/2011

Or you have just described the poseurs who flock to whatever the media tells them to instead of the real amateur.

[DeanThoreau]

06:49 PM on 04/04/2011

Drink what you want withvwhat you want to eat, if it tastes good to you that is all that matters. Spending an inordinant amount of time worrying and buying extrmrly expensive vinegar is for the people that prefer to be label snobs...but a smart wine connesuier knows ultimately its drink what you like and let forbes buy a fake bottle of thomas jeffersons wine for a billion.

[jimboy71]

09:49 PM on 04/04/2011

There's a whole world in between the two choices.

If a vintner spends generations of time learning how to perfect a product, I say it deserves respect, and research.

[fannefer]

06:44 PM on 04/04/2011

all i know is that i really like chianti with pizza.

[garystartswithg]

06:28 PM on 04/04/2011

Wine pairing might be somewhat myth, but at the same time you really don't want to serve a sauvignon blanc with asparagus or a cab with sushi.

[Thomas Bradley]

06:21 PM on 04/04/2011

I have attended one wine tasting in my life. I'm more of a beer guy anyway, but I went along with it since the host is a co-worker and a nice guy.
The pretentiousness of the sommelier (a friend of the host) was comical in a way. To begin the evening, he had us take a multiple-choice quiz to test our knowledge of wine. I got an F.
Then came the tasting. Now to me, all red wine tastes the same -- sorry, wine snobs, but it does. Somebody once asked me how it tasted and I said, "Red."
We had "scorecards" on which to rate the wines and provide comments. For one red, I wrote "Not poopy." The next one I rated as "poopy." And no, I didn't detect notes of oak and shoe leather. Grapes, yes, but nothing else.
I mean, c'mon, we're sitting there swirling and sipping and spitting while a kitchen full of food's getting cold. Good thing we got a chance to eat between the reds and the whites. I ate like a pig, and am still unclear if the potato salad paired well with the merlot.
I've never been invited back.

[invirginia]

06:48 PM on 04/04/2011

If you ever take time to learn a little about wine, you might find your experience with it to be more enjoyable. It's like asking someone who's never eaten meat to distinguish between flank stank, sirloin, and london broil.

But no need to poke fun at something you don't understand. Oh, right, that's what people do.

[laymancanuck]

06:20 PM on 04/04/2011

The world needs less pretentious, egocentric, silliness.

[invirginia]

06:49 PM on 04/04/2011

The world needs a greater appreciation for the cultural arts, including the millenia-old art of making wine.

[norepublicanleftbehind]

06:07 PM on 04/04/2011

Life is a little too short to worry about food/wine parings. It's like eating a steak, some people like it one way others another. Pairings might be used as suggestions to maximize the flavor of the meal but since palettes are unique, personal preference always wins in at private meal.

At a dinner party you might want to follow pairing suggestions just to keep harmony unless you have an adventuress set of guests.

[Thomas Bradley]

06:22 PM on 04/04/2011

I'll bring the beer.

[wesmith91970]

04:41 PM on 04/04/2011

I have never given in to the wine pairing myth. I know what kind of wine I like and drink it regardless of the meal being served. I am strictly a red wine drinker and dang proud of it :-)

[Thomas Bradley]

05:37 PM on 04/04/2011

Same here. I am proud to say I have had chardonnay with steak.
The whole "craft" beer/food pairing thing is a sham, too.

[baxtron]

02:21 PM on 04/04/2011

Pairing food with wine is like pairing pictures on your wall with the right set of straightening gloves.

[zoemax]

09:56 PM on 04/03/2011

boone's farm, a marlboro cigarette and a summer evening softball game - perfecto!

[sparrow75]

12:37 AM on 04/04/2011

salute!

[norepublicanleftbehind]

06:09 PM on 04/04/2011

Lol---what's next a Camero, pork rinds and Tiki punch:-)

[Thomas Bradley]

06:12 PM on 04/04/2011

Say, now you're on to something...

[winepeddler]

09:04 PM on 04/03/2011

I sold fine wines at retail and wholesale for nearly forty years and one of the things I used to share with customers about food pairings is to try to match the wines with the cuisine where the wines were produced.
Also, I was always amazed at how few customers understood the concept of dry wine with food. The acidity in the wine dries out your mouth, which makes you salivate, which makes the food taste better. Isn't that why we go to the trouble of trying to enhance the experience?
If you like the wine, it doesn't matter what anyone else said, it's a good wine. You're the expert on what you like. If you serve the wine to friends at dinner, you can be sure that at least one person will like your wine choice.
Lastly, the red wine with red meat thing is just common sense. Almost any white wine you have ready access to would simply disappear with a piece of red meat. On the other hand, a lot of red wines would tend to bring out the iodine in fish and make them taste fishier. Oregon Pinot Noir with Pacific Salmon is one of many amazing exceptions.

[garystartswithg]

06:42 PM on 04/04/2011

I like pinot noir with chicken and some fish, not all. I had a waiter trying to push salmon in a tarragon/cream sauce w merlot and thought I would be sick just thinking about it.
I am rather fond of inexpensive sangiovese for a table wine for most southern italian food, I think i generally prefer fruitier wines at the table becuse it pairs well weith southern italian and french, when you get to parisian foods or northern italian its a whole different ballgame. A lot of Spanish food is salty, so a strong but not too dry red works well with that too. I think there is some room for individual pallettes, but there is no reason to overthink it and there is also no reason to show up at a dinner party with something that doesn't match at all unless its your personal stash. .

[RosesForObama]

07:27 PM on 04/03/2011

Oh honey. It's to hide our alcoholism of course. We claim we're pairing it with food so we don't feel guilty during our frequent trips to the liquor store on any give WEEK DAY.

;p

Cheers

[garystartswithg]

06:47 PM on 04/04/2011

lol -- i was at the local botique behind a woman of obvious means -- she and her help were in separate lines to expedite the process.
friends of mine and i can't wait til we get to that age where you can buy a shopping cart of charles schwab and its socially acceptable.

[SlurmsMcKenzie]

09:13 PM on 04/04/2011

it's fun to watch the mercedes matrons when our local safeway has a sale. Different degrees of alcoholism and mutton dressed as lamb.