SUB-ZERO WINE BLOG

I think wine and food pairings are comically overrated. I really do. That may be funny coming from me, considering the work I do with Gourmet magazine. But here’s why I’m such a cynic about the idea of wine and food pairing: it’s usually spoken about in absolutes, which is ridiculous. Who’s to say what wine should go with what food? I think what needs to be talked about more is what happens when you bring a wine and food together.

If you understand the basic mechanics of food – the sugars and acids – you can better understand how they’re going to change when you introduce wine into the equation. Recently, I served a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to a group I was speaking to. Half the people loved the wine because of its fresh, zingy, acidity and half didn’t like the wine for the exact same reasons. But here’s the interesting part: at this point, the first portion of food came out, which was a petite crab cake. I encouraged everyone who didn’t like the Sauvignon Blanc before to put a squeeze of lemon on the crab cake and try the wine again. Not only did their faces show surprise at how different the wine tasted, some people thought the wine was now too sweet.