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.