Expensive wine with expensive food -- or not?

WINE TALK
1

There are wine lovers who think it’s cool to open a cult cabernet with a burger. But most of the time, a better sense of proportion suggests that wines with impressive pedigrees deserve important dishes, just as modest wines are often more suited to simpler fare. Budget plays a role. I would not splurge on langoustines with the unassuming though crisp and nicely structured sauvignon blancs from South America, most of which cost $15 or less.

So says Florence Fabricant in a sidebar (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/dining/221prex.html?ref=dining) to today’s Eric Asimov tasting of South American SB’s.

I get the idea of a celebration involving great food and wine. What I don’t get is this idea that that is only way to go. Frankly I think Florence needs a better “sense of proportion.” Do you agree? Disagree?

(Frankly I like a crisp SB or dry Riesling with lobster but that’s not really my point.)

2

Color me guilty of drinking wines that are out of proportion with the food on occasion. Once ordered 1994 Opus One off the list and got a bacon cheeseburger.

If I am going all out at a serious dinner out, or at home, I will do my best to match wines that are in league with the food. I cannot see drinking a CdR with a Flannery Rib cap topped with truffle butter and shaved truffles.

3

I wish we ate higher quality food at the price we’re paying @ offlines 75% of the time. Price doesn’t always correlate with food =(

4

It’s called fun and enjoying yourself and the wine. Difficult concept for a lot of people in wine it seems.

I agree with Charlie. Expensive food so often leaves me feeling fleeced.

5

[soap.gif]

6

While I do enjoy a fine meal with great wine some of my favorite food/wine pairings are

Mature Red Burg w/pizza
Champagne w/popcorn and truffle oil
Champagne w/scrambled eggs (truffles kicks it up a notch)
Right Bank Bordeaux w/turkey burgers

7

Ray, how about adding bacon with those eggs? That sounds like a really good match for Champagne to me.

8

Bill,

I only eat duck bacon (don’t eat pork/mammals and I haven’t found a turkey bacon that I really like) and usually as an ingredient with foods other than eggs. But, I have done the combo and found that it’s best matched with champagne that isn’t too old. I would think that would be even more so the case with pork bacon.

9

Cool. Forgot you didn’t eat any mammals.

10

i think on top of that, really good restaurants for the price usually charge an assload for corkage so we’re always looking for restaurants that don’t charge much corkage with decent food… and most of those restaurants are priced higher than they ought to be.

hence my insistence on eating cheap chinese food with wine :wink:

11

See what happens if you delete the reference to the burger? [g]

Seriously, wasn’t it Victor Hazan who said drink what you like and eat what you like, or something like that?

But if we must offer iron-clad rules of food and wine pairing, here’s mine. Find out the exact phase of the moon when the wine grapes were harvested, and make sure it’s the exact same moon phase as when the food was harvested or killed. Then everything is in perfect harmony. Oh, yes, don’t forget to rub your crystals!

Bruce

12

We typically will drink what sounds good to us and what will pair with what we are eating and at times we decide on food after the decision on wine. It may be $$$$ and it may not. I don’t get that expensive wine is not the right thing to have with moderate priced menus whether it be at home or in a restaurant. If you like the wine it shouldn’t matter if it’s $100 or $10, the point is to enjoy !

13

I don’t think it’s a matter of price but I’m a great believer in honouring grand wines with appropriate food, which is very often simpler than ambitious kitchens wish to provide. Nothing is better, for example, than a plain roast of veal, beef or chicken, prepared and garnished simply but exquisitely, with a mature red burgundy. I also have an unfashionable fondness for continuing the reds with a cheese course, straight cheese not one of the new style composed plates. I think very complex food, in particular food with many different elements on one plate, is distracting. Perfection rather than innovation is what’s needed here.

14

plus there really isn’t any better food out there than cheap chinese!

15

Shit…I understand the concept of wine changing food and vice versa, and I love good food, also love what I consider to be good wine, but its very rarerly that I think wine makes food better or vice versa. I prefer to drink wine by itself. I try to avoid bad pairings rather than ensure good ones. Then again, a lot fo the wines I prefer have been called cocktail wines, crap, fruit bombs, Mollydooker, Robitussin, etc at one point or another… [middle-finger.gif]

16

You want my last bottle of MD COL '06?

17

I have several left…I actually think its the worst COL to date. It actually tastes like someone poured a little vodka in it. Ok if Im looking to get hammered. Like the 05 and to a lesser extent the 07 though…and I still love Velvet Glove.

18

Tom, are you referring to the “condiments” that now accompany cheese (various jam-like things) or something else?

But I agree with Tom on good simple food with top wines; I have served many great wines with a leg of lamb or a simple fish dish. My sense is that there are plenty of combinations of typical foods from a region with the local wines that provide a good background for enjoying a fine wine.

19

There’s an asymmetry for me here: I really like great wine with inexpensive food. $100 wine with a good $12 pizza sounds great. But the other way around generally doesn’t work for me. If I’m having a great meal, I want a great wine. There are a couple $12 wines that might work (OK, well I can think of one), but generally not.

I think it’s because I can get lots of really interesting $15 meals that I’d want great wine with. I have much more trouble getting really interesting $15 wines that I’d want great food with.

A pound of grilled shrimp and some crusty bread don’t cost that much. Nor does a rind of epoisses. Or some oysters. Or a good pizza. I can make a wonderful meal out of any of that and would love great wine to go with it.

So I guess I agree on not splurging for great food with cheap wine, but I really don’t think you need to splurge on great food just because you’re drinking a great wine. Simple, inexpensive food can be great with great wine.

Cheers,
-Robert

20

I’m with Robert here. I like great wine with great food, and I also like great wine with “basic” food. I guess I just like great wine flirtysmile

Very often when I open what I think will be a truly great bottle, I prefer something simple (but excellent) so that it complements the wine nicely instead of trying to steal the show. A good, simple red meat dish is usually my favorite pairing for most red wines. With fish/seafood I always tend to go the extra mile because average fish is way worse than average meat. So great whites will usually be paired with really seafood or mushrooms meals.

I might also point out that a great pizza is to me at the level of pretty much any kind of supposedly “great food”, and I’d certainly have great, inexpensive pizza over overpriced “great food” any day of the week.