Food and Wine Pairings? All Lies!

Study suggests wine aficionados often skip the meal
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 1, 2011 1:59 PM CDT
Food and Wine Pairings? All Lies!
Are established food and wine pairings meaningless?   (Shutterstock)

We’re always hearing that this wine goes with that food, and feel guilty when we get it wrong—but what if it’s all a scam? asks Jason Wilson in the Washington Post. A new study suggests it might be: More than 60% of wine sipped by “high-frequency wine drinkers”—those who drink wine several times weekly—isn’t accompanied by a meal. It just goes to show, argues wine blogger Alder Yarrow, that the chatter over correct pairings is propagated by the wine establishment, perhaps as a moneymaking move. "For every glass carefully chosen to go with a specific dish, there appear to eight more consumed in the same way most people drink a scotch," writes Yarrow at Vinography.

“I can only barely imagine what might happen if wine writing and the attentions of wine lovers actually matched their real behavior,” muses Yarrow, who has for years called “correct” pairing a lie. “Would wine drinkers feel free to not only drink whatever they like, but to explore and experiment in their wine choices without fear of doing something wrong? Would more people actually drink wine because they knew it didn’t always HAVE to go with food?” (Click for more complaints about fancy wine talk.)

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