Three Steps of Perfect Pairings

FOUNDATION AND CREATION

The magic that wine can bring to food was introduced to me from an early age before I even thought to try the strange-smelling grape juice. My mother would spend the holidays cooking and baking with every moment she had. It became impossible for me not to get caught up in the preparations for daily meals and countless sweets meant for friends and family. To this day, I have a practical library of recipes, most of which I have yet to even try.

Growing up, the magic that wine could produce became too intriguing to ignore. For a child, the draw of having something that is forbidden to you is appealing in itself, even if the alcohol burns off in the cooking process. One comfort dish that always stood out to me was made only during Fall and Winter in my house. The dish pulled on our family’s Portuguese heritage: Pork Vinha d'alhos or also known in our house as Vina Dosh.

Known also as garlic pork, this meal was a memorable procedure. It involves seasoning and marinating raw pork in wine (my mother preferred using a dry rose though it is usually made with red wine) for two to four days. When ready, the was pork baked in the oven and the result would be a tender and flavorful meal that even I, a picky eater at the time, would not use a single condiment on.

Years later, I found that the dish got even better when paired with wine while enjoying. Still, no matter how good the wine is, my best memories of enjoying this dish come from seeing my family enjoying the meal together.

LEARNING THE VINES

My passion for cooking and trying a vast array of different dishes only grew as I did. As luck would have it, I ended up working for a small wine store for almost a decade. As with any job, there were good and bad events that happened, don’t even get me started on the great wine flood of 2016. Still, I will always be thankful for the amount of history, culture, and general wine knowledge I gained.

It was during the early years working at that wine store when I developed an appreciation for how amazing food and wine pairings can be. In fact, I remember the first wine pairing when everything came together in understanding why wine should always be enjoyed with food.

Our store was unique because they had a wholesale business that brought wine over from France and Italy direct from the vineyards. Due to this, it offered me the chance to attend wine events and tastings our store hosted that I later helped to design.

The first wine dinner I attended was held at an amazing little french bistro. It would be one of the first times I enjoyed a true gourmet meal. In addition, the chef and the store owner worked together to make sure every wine paired to perfection with each course.

At these wine dinners, the average age ranged in the mid-sixties, making my presence there, right out of my undergraduate studies, stand out. Surprisingly, at least to me, everyone was beyond welcoming and, with each course that came, my opinion was sought after by those with who I dined. It was a revelation for a variety of reasons, but the star of the evening was yet to arrive.

While sitting at one of the tables, in a suit normally only reserved for weddings and funerals, the waitress brought a simple dish of pumpkin ravioli. I will say, if you have never had it, this is one of the perfect Fall dishes to enjoy. Now, what I haven’t mentioned is that with each dish, my fellow employees would talk about the dish and the wine we chose to serve with it. This would include a deep dive into the history and the vintage.

Château Lanessan is a Bordeaux red wine from the Haut-Médoc AOC (Appellation d'origine contrôlée) of France. The depth of information that Bordeaux wines have to offer is something known by most wine lovers. Something that someone new to wine can find overwhelming. Queue my colleague listing off in-depth descriptions of the soil, vinification process, and vintage comparisons. To say that the experience started off intimidating would be an understatement.

At this point, I had learned the basics of the ‘right way’ to enjoy wine. The three S’s, smell, swirl, and sip. The 2002 Lanessan was an amazing experience in itself. The earthy tones melding with red fruit were easy to identify and share with my dinner companions. Still, it did not prepare me for having it with the pumpkin ravioli.

This… this was what wine pairing was all about. A distilled eureka moment when two different flavors come together to create something amazing. Now, the trick to enjoying wine with food is to take a bite, chew a little, and then take a sip. The reason given for doing this, was because the flavors complement each other best that way.

Any sense of feeling out of place was forgotten after that bite. I started talking enthusiastically with retirees who had spent decades learning the ins and outs of wines from around the world and was taken seriously. Laughs and stories were shared with ease from that point and it became a special lifelong memory.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are definitely many wine snobs in the wine community. People who spin words and terms to describe a wine that completely alienates those who do not know better (I’m looking at you ‘fresh-cut tennis balls’). That is not what wine is. Wine is about sharing because it inspires an experience, much like a play, that can be actively enjoyed with those around you. Wine is about culture and history that ranges back through generations. In my experience, that is what a true wine pairing is all about, sharing an experience with both those around you and those in the past.

SHARE

I look back on my experience in the wine industry with a fondness that is difficult to describe. It is impossible to replicate the experiences I had in those years. Even so, I try bringing that same enthusiasm when sharing meals with others. In times like these, where social gatherings are restricted and isolation is far too easy to achieve, I feel that lesson is more important than ever.

None of us know how many days we have left and it is far too easy to take advantage of the short time we do have. Food and wine pairings are a great way to make a meal mean more than obtaining substance. It helps to slow the experience down. Go through the process of enjoying every bite and every sip. Most importantly, if done right, it is a way to share with those around you. It is not about being right or wrong when pairing wine with food. The Perfect Pairing is about experiencing something new and sharing an experience that will only happen once with those around you.