Trip the Light Fantastic

I love food and wine pairing- for me, it’s a way of living in moments of magic in our everyday lives. Enjoying food and wine and enjoying them together gives us the moments of comfort, surprise, intrigue and elevation, and when we pairing really works, you know about it , it’s an emotional response.

The art of food and wine pairing is, I realise, is quite a contentious issue, with nay-sayers and believers from all corners of the arena, which is fair enough, as ultimately, we are dealing with something that is to a large extent, a subjective experience.

But I would argue, that there is a great deal of objective experience to stand on first, before we get into the nuances of subjectivity. I would argue that food and wine pairing is both an art and a science, there are certain amount of stone cold facts which base the grounding of the interactions at the level of the 5 tastes, and then there is a dimension of experience that leans more into subjectivity, but which also can find common consensus – eg (tongue only slightly in cheek when I say Credence Clear Water’s Proud Mary is Good. Tina Turner’s version is The Best.

I also believe that most people haven’t experienced enough examples of a food and wine pairing where the earth moves and the angels sing– that’s a pairing.

Too often I think people experience food and wine pairing at best as a non-event, where neither the food nor the wine has anything better to say, but most often, I think people experience pairings where the wine gets stripped of a few layers – that if you were to pay attention, you would actually say something like “the wine feels more alcoholic now” or “ the wine tastes nicer on its own”, but you’re not paying attention because you’re still in the realms of a non-event experience.

What is very evident however, is that we need to create a space where everyone can share their opinions and experience on this subject, and so I want to invite everyone to this session to do just that!

I've chosen 3 wines (not the ones pictured - it's a surprise!) that have excited me the most lately in terms of their pairing capacities.

I will show you how I break each one down, to see what I see in terms of the elements and characteristics at play, the angles and approaches, all the different interactions with food that can be unlocked within them.

I have teamed up with the fabulous guys at Sheridan's Cheesemongers to put together  a cheese and meat platter curated to these wines, to help me demonstrate some of the the theory at work, which are available to buy directly from Sheridan's (Price shown includes  a 15% discount) for participants of this tasting - available for collection from the shop on South Anne's Street and also through delivery with DPD.