Fine wines -- best without food?

[Botafogo]

Emphatically NOT!!! The "finest" wines have evolved over centuries as parts of a binary flavor bomb that only detonates when combined with the flavor / stucture / style elements of the foods of their region (OR something from another cuisine with the same specs re acidity / sweetness / spicing). The vast quantities of wines now being engineered to win blind tastings without food and garner big points through sheer power of extract are like silicone enhanced, teased hair, over made up stippers: they stand out in the crowd and have immediate visual appeal but pale before an elegant natural beauty. I often comment that when I return from Brasil every year all the women in LA look like drag queens and when I come back from Italy all the wines in California taste like Smuckers' Grape Jelly.

A good test of what is NOT a fine wine is when you can not imagine a food to pair with it.

Roberto