Cheese.
I don’t doubt that many will disagree with this, but many cheeses flatten the palate. If there is to be a higher end tasting or if I’m expecting to write up notes on a tasting, I’ll skip the preliminary cheese, and enjoy it after I’ve tasted the wines.
I was about to chime in with something similar. Unless it’s with D’Yquem, most soft cheeses in the Brie and Camambert range offer a cloying mouth coating that renders reds and whites less enjoyable to me.
But at the same time, many cheese and wine combinations are truly magical (goat with Chenin)
Asparagus, Chinese pine nuts but not Italian, garlic (this is mostly a US industrial farming issue, but all burnt garlic is disgusting), and my big one: red wine with fish/shellfish; I get a horrible taste reaction.
Edit: Raw onions and scallions. I overlooked them originally because I dislike them so much that I omit them from almost everything I eat.
Spicy food and low abv sweet and off-dry wines often match wonderfully.
Hi Sarah,
horrible experience with the Chinese version. Gun shy about anything pine nut now.
Regards
Jeremy
Vinegar, though more an ingredient.
I’d agree,…if they’re made with Miracle Whip and/or sweet pickles. Miracle Whip is one of the most vile products on Earth. Otherwise, I’ve had good deviled eggs that were wine-friendly (served by wine geeks at wine events) and plenty that aren’t (like my grandma’s recipe, which is pure comfort zone benchmark, suited to beer).
pretzels, salty tortilla chips, ginger deserts, to name a few.
A-1?
Surprised at all the garlic replies. So much food which typically pairs with wines features garlic.
Do y’all mean if there is literally whole garlic on the plate, or also its inclusion in so many things? I mean, there is fresh garlic in coq au vin, winter roasts, braised oxtail, braised lamb ragu, and a hundred other wine pairing classics.
Raw garlic, pine nuts, shiso leaf.
Yeah, tomatoes. Or tomahtoes. Especially cherry tomatoes. Messes everything up!
Cilantro. Kills anything, including wine, for me.
Some of the above (gherkins on a charcuterie board, for example) I don’t like as a wine pairing, but none of them have a lingering effect on my palate that interferes with wine tasting.
The one I’ve always heard about doing that is watercress which supposedly dulls the palate for a period of time.
This one doesn’t really linger either but I have that thing that apparently some minority of us have where some cured meats (Serrano ham seems to be one of the worst), while delicious, make any red wine taste metallic and nasty.
Yes, there are many cheeses that are death to wines, and many that work with whites but not with reds. Aged Cantal is a mess with reds, to cite just one example.
I find sheep’s milk cheeses (Manchego, pecorino other than the very hard aged types, French Basque cheeses) are pretty versatile, though, and are less likely to conflict with wine, even reds, than cows milk.
As for Brie and Camembert, I rarely buy them because the pasteurized ones that are imported to the US tend to be rather industrialized and flavorless.
As I recall, it’s a mold that actually causes one to lose one’s sense of taste for an extended period. I don’t think it’s a different species – just a common problem with Chinese pine nuts, which is where most of ours in the US come from now, I believe.
Interesting. For me, it’s raw onion that overpowers and ruins my palate, not specifically for wine, but for ALL food. The effect will fade after a few bites of something else, but until then, I have nothing but a horrible onion taste in my mouth.
For wine specifically, there are a few. A lot of seafood will make red wine taste horrible. Seaweed salad followed by red wine is the absolute worst. The wine will have an awful metallic bitter taste. Scallops are also horrible. I think this is a relatively common issue for people.
Less common and more unique to me is that cured meats (which many would think make an ideal pairing with red wines) cause wine to taste metallic, fruitless and unpleasant. Prosciutto is the worst offender (with capicola a close second).
I hear people complain about asparagus, vinegar, olives, tomatoes, spicy foods, etc. as being “trouble” when it comes to wines, but I have very little problems with any of those. Of course spicy/hot food makes it difficult to taste and enjoy red wine (and the tannin can exacerbate the heat/burn), but none of the foregoing actually makes wine taste “horrible” the way certain seafoods (and, for me, cured meats) can.
Blue cheese clobbers my palate and it takes quite a while for it to clear up before I can perceive anything subtle inwine.
Raw onion. I can taste it to the point that if a knife is used to cut an onion then used to prep the food I"m eating it’s apparent and offputting. If there’s raw onion in a dish it’s probably all I can taste.
Asparagus for me too. There’s a chicken with asparagus dish I enjoy at one of my regular local restaurants and I just don’t drink wine there any more.
Stay away from Chinese pine nuts!! That is the problem !! 