I swear, he knows we joke about this non-stop.

WINE TALK
41

Jim,
I agree. I’ve found Chablis to match well with a very wide variety of foods, and would drink it with almost any dish.

I think it’s harder with reds, especially bigger, low-acid ones. I struggle to find foods that can handle them.

I have a friend who loves and drinks almost exclusively these bigger reds and I ask what do you pair them with. The answer is usually a quizzical look and something to the effect of “Why would you eat food with wine?”

42

Uncharitably? Ostentation. Charitably (and probably the case in reality), a mag is a nice size and fun to pull out if you’re serving a party of 8+. You’ll probably go through 2 bottles anyway and a mag makes it feel more special. I do think there’s a subset of people who use them as a show off piece - the bigger is better crowd basically.

43

Once upon a time in Bordeaux, the better barrels went into magnums, on the theory that they aged better. So there was once some basis for thinking some wines in magnum were better.

44

I get that a lot too. Amazing.

45

I’m literally LOL’ing at my desk right now.

46

I vacationed near Chablis a couple of years ago and had grand cru Chablis with every dinner, no matter what I was eating – from fish to steak, it all went great!

When I started out I sampled more big California wines. A lot of them are so dessert-like that they go well with chocolate deserts. Either that or really slathered-on sweet spicy barbecue sauce. They don’t complement much else. My weirdest good California pairing: Rombauer Zinfandel and Cheerios with sugar on top. Went perfect. Rombauer Zinfandel is definitely a dessert wine.

Another weird but effective pairing: greasy deep-fried chicken and young Barolo. The tannins cut right through the grease.

P.S. Levenberg wins the thread [rofl.gif]

47

The Onion Navy Seal column was great stuff, sadly there is so much you can really solve with a KA-BAR and a functional understanding of neck anatomy.

I always get the look if I order a aged Nebbiolo wine with white fish, even if there is a Mediterranean topping. For some folks fish = white wine and that is the end.

48

Fried chicken is a surprisingly good match with a lot of different wines. Orange wines are particularly good but it generally plays well with anything not too old/delicate.

49

A masculine champagne and fried chicken . . . yum!

50

Conventional wisdom (I think) is that the problem with red wine and fish might be that the wine would “overwhelm” the food, but that is not MY problem with this type of pairing.

For me, red wine always seems to make fish taste “fishy”…i.e. a perfectly nice piece of fish suddenly acquires the “fishy taste” that would make you think the fish is bad. It’s like the wine somehow magnifies what would otherwise be a very faint/vague but undesirable element of the fish…I like the idea of “exceptions to the rule”, and frequently try red wines, especially with dishes where you’d think the preparation calls for a red (for example, fried fish or fish with a heavier sauce), but it usually either fails miserably or (at best) is “not bad”…

51

The tannins of nebbiolo strike me as particularly problematic for fish. But I’ve never tried it.

52

years ago David Rosengarten wrote a book titled Red Wine With Fish.
I sure enjoy red Burgundy and salmon, but that’s not a very adventurous combination, though tasty.
alan

53

John,

The fresher the fish, the less you get the slightly metallic edge from the fish oils that are starting to go rancid.
Try red wine with a fish that was caught only hours earlier and see if it makes a difference.

P Hickner

54

John… I agree, it speaks it volumes about Parker. But we come to very different conclusions. To me, it says, he likes the wines he enjoys, he prefers good food and company and seeks pleasure from what pleases his palate.

What is wrong with that?

FWIW, the majority of meals I’ve been served in Bordeaux in private homes and in some of the best chateaux pair fish with red Bordeaux. It’s flavorful and healthy.

55

I don’t think the objection was red wine with fish but highly alcoholic jammy CNP with sushi.

56

Jeff - John can correct me if I misinterpret his intent, but to me at least it’s about the implied attitude toward the interrelationship of food and wine. Some people want to drink A and eat B and couldn’t care less about the pairing. Others care a lot and view food and wine as a symbiotic match. To the latter, something like a huge CdP with fish is anathema not because of the flavors but because it’s a foreign way of relating to wine. Me, I don’t care about Parker in the least so none of this bothers me. His wine, his food. He can do what he wants. Yes, publishing this in the HG validates this for the dittoheads in the readership, but that’s the least of their problems if they’re so slavish in following anyone’s opinion. I suspect that most of the readership will be fine since they can think for themselves.

57

Conspicuous consumption. The mark of a member of the bourgeois having struck it rich…

58

****What is wrong with that? ****

Nothing wrong…same as John, in his own right, comes to his own conclusion.

Freedom of expression - I guess : [cheers.gif] . [highfive.gif]

59

Definitely! In fact I have that combination lined up for Bastille day.

60

I agree that’s an ideal pairing! And the orange wine + fried chicken sounds very promising, I’ve got it on my radar to try in the near future (with a couple bottles of Radikon, Movia, Gravner & Vodopivec sitting in my cellar crying out for a good pairing, if not an all-out orange-wine tasting event)…