My philosophy of wine and food pairing can be summed up in a word: humility.
My father likes to say, “The best wine to drink is the one you like.”
He might have a profound point. Then again, he rarely drinks wine.
A great pairing: my mom and dad... with Ziggy.
I think that wine, like people, is to be understood more than judged. What I love about my dad (and my mom too) is that in the absence of knowledge he is unprejudiced… childlike. I aspire to approach wine, and all things, like that.
Liking something simply because you think you should like it isn’t really enjoying it. Wine preferences, like sexual preferences, are different for everyone and are all equally valid. If you like your wine tart and kinky, who am I to tell you there’s more pleasure to be had from something sweet and fruity?
With the modernization of commercial winemaking we don’t often come across truly bad wines. Nearly all wines fall within the spectrum of drinkability. The biggest question now is not, “Is this a good wine?” but, “Who would like this wine, and what would they like it with?”
I think we might enhance everyone’s pleasure by paying more attention to the tasters of wine – consumers – rather than to listing the (imagined?) flavors of “rose petal, lavender, crushed raspberry, forest floor, fresh turned earth, incense, roasted meat, cedar, and peppery spice” and giving it a grade. What does that really tell us about a wine’s potential to give us pleasure? Aren’t our interactions with wine – our personal preferences and the food we eat with it – the missing variables in the equation?
Call it the “rainbow” philosophy. Studying each of the three elements individually doesn’t help you understand the magic. But when you turn your attention to the interaction of the three elements together… double rainbow all the way!
We always all have lots to learn… and maybe to unlearn… maybe as much about ourselves as about wine & food. How do we know what we like without experimentation?
“Adventures in Survival Hedonism” means that I’m on a quest to discover some of the delicious pleasures that make life worth living, and I invite you to join me.
Enjoy!
Adam Huss