Wine Pairing Pet Peeve

Posted by twoojoe, March 4, 2009 at 11:41 PM

Has anyone else noticed that when wines are paired with recipes on nearly all websites and in most magazines they often recommend small single vineyard wines from uncommon/older vintages? I have been in the wine business for years and nothing ticks me off more than trying to help a customer that demands that she must have the Eroica Horse Heaven Vineyard Riesling from the 2003 vintage rather than the commonly available Eroica Riesling (just an example).
Its usually from some fancy Wine and Food magazine and the wine is either unavailable or allocated to only 25 6-packs for the entire state of NJ. Many other times customers request a vintage that was released 10 years ago and is no longer readily available except for at auction houses at 10 times the original retail value. Often they know nothing about the wine and would be very pleased with something from a similar producer in a nearby vineyard.
I think wine pairing needs to head in the direction of general guidance or stick to readily available nationally distributed wines. Just because magazine editors have highly rated, very expensive, and incredibly allocated wines doesn't mean they have to rub in in our faces!

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