Wine & Food Fridays – a proposal.
July 23rd, 2008
Wine and Food
Out of an exchange with Tyler Colman of drvino.com comes an idea that may help us all gain a better understanding of food and wine pairings. The idea is simple: every third Friday of every month, a recipe will be offered for bloggers to try with a wine of their choice. The task for individual bloggers will be to describe how the wine of their choice pairs and interacts with the dish of the month.
I will propose a simple recipe and all willing bloggers will pick the wine they think will do best with the dish. Participants are welcome to try more than one wine with the dish. The only thing I ask is that participating bloggers think about the interaction of flavors, aromas and textures of the food and wine. The idea here is to seek out pairings that create great synergy.
While it is not a requisite, I would encourage all participants to think in the following categories:
- Ultimate synergy of wine and food resulting in pleasing flavors and textures not present in either the wine or food alone.
- Wine flavors and structure complement the food, enhancing or positively affecting flavor and texture characteristics already present in both food and wine.
- Wine flavors and structure match or reflect the character of the food.
- The wine cleanses the palate for the next mouthful.
- Wine and food flavors and textures stand side-by-side without any negative interaction.
- The wine does nothing for the food. You might as well not be drinking anything with the food.
- The wine and food do not work together. They clash in an unpleasant way.
I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts on this idea.
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July 23rd, 2008 at 1:41 am
I like the idea! There are too many sites that focus solely on food or wine (actually, often the food sites are more at fault here). Would you post the recipe and then give us a month to make & match?
Andrew over at Spittoon hosted a similar event (Combinations) a year or so back. Might be worth getting in touch with him to see if he has any advice!
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:52 am
Hi Alex
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, The idea would be to post a recipe, let people play with it, pick some wines and then post their wine pairing(s). So a 3-4 week lead would be part of the format. My thinking is that if there is interest in this, I’ll do one for starters – if people want to see what I am trying to achieve.
I’ll drop Andrew a line. Thanks for the tip.
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:31 am
I really like this idea. I will definitely participate, I think it will be really interesting to see the variety of wines that people choose to pair with the same dish. Keep us posted on the details.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:55 am
I think I mentioned to you already, but I’ll reiterate here. I think it’s a great idea and would love to participate.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:52 am
I love the idea. Of course, bloggers will have to create the recipe to really make sure the pairings work. It would be fun to be able to t rate which blogger made the best match.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
No fair! I want to pick the recipe.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Morton
I would imagine that if this idea takes off, then the participating bloggers would “throw recipes into a hat” and we’d pick something to work with each month.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I think it’s a great idea! We focus a lot on the wine and sometimes forget the food pairing part. I can’t wait to get cookin!
July 25th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Sure, let’s do it. Name a date and a recipe and let’s get going!
August 9th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
As a displaced Californian, I’d like to participate as well, with a twist, if I may. I’ve been living in Israel for over 10 years now, and have been comparing Israeli wines with my memories of California wines. Unless you’re only interested in California wines, I’d like to do this with local Israeli wines and post the results.
August 9th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Hi Susan
You are most welcome!
The idea is that we all agree on the same dish and every one makes their own wine pairing. Israeli wines are as welcome as any other region’s offering.