I've always had a fascination with the way some people obsess with the notion of matching wine with food. During one memorable discussion long ago, I was told that lobster and wine don't really go together because the claws and tail call for different wines. Not everybody thinks this way and several recent meals in Italy's Piedmont region seemed to prove the point. Cooking bollito misto. As so often happens in places where there's a long and historic wine tradition, the Piemontese don't really bother with wine matching at all. Instead, they choose a bottle—often one that brings up fond memories—and drink it with everything. This attitude was on proud display at a food festival in the small Alpine...
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BusinessWeek's Kerry Miller discusses an upcoming lower-priced wine brand that "classifies its wines not by how they're made, but by what foods to pair them with": The bottle's label doesn't list the wines' primary grape or vintage—details most buyers are accustomed to looking for, even if it doesn't mean much to them. Instead, the back label is a mini wine-pairing lesson in grid form, with simple descriptions explaining the intensity, acidity, tannin, and flavor of the wine. The aim: to win over foodies without alienating newer drinkers who might be scared off by more esoteric tasting-notes."Wine That Loves Pizza," for example, reads, "Pizza crust can create a dry mouth feel, so the right wine needs to be low in...
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