Whether your priority is what’s on the plate or what’s in the bottle, always keeps thing balanced
Depending on your priorities in life, the matching of food and wine usually goes one of two ways. Either you start with the food, then look for a bottle with a range of attributes that will bring out the best in ingredients, or at least not clash with them, casting the wine in the role of condiment. Or you start with the wine, worrying more about avoiding anything (spice, sugar, acid) that will prevent the precious liquid from displaying its charms.
Either direction can result in one of those moments when wine and food elevate each other in blissful harmony. The most perceptive dispensers of wine and food matching advice – Fiona Beckett, Joanna Simon and Victoria Moore– are equal parts wine and food lovers who are happy with either route. Moore’s The Wine Dine Dictionary is all about cross-referencing ingredients and wine styles in joyously creative but practical and flexible ways.
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