Wine verses food position

[Randy Caparoso]

Foodie, thanks for mentioning Tuscany. The red wines of that region -- made primarily from the Sangiovese grape -- are indeed wonderful food wines. How many of us have experienced a Chianti Classico (made from Sangiovese) within the context of an five, six, nine, ten, fifteen, or even twenty course Italian style dinner, and found the wine to be a near perfect match with almost every dish! Not an uncommon occurence, I daresay.

But the fact that Gluckstern the "Avenger" prefers Barbera over the crisp and elegant wines made from the Sangiovese grape tells you how authoritative he is (sorry, Mr. Dutton). There is absolutely NO WAY that Barbera can go with nearly as many dishes as Sangiovese. The extreme sharpness of most Barberas is so high that only foods with some degree of acidity (like zesty tomato sauced foods, or vegetables in vinaigrettes) are well matched. Sangiovese, on the other hand, is more gentle yet crisply acidic, and far more complex in aromas and flavors. There's a lot to be said for flavor interactions between foods and wines.

Anyhow, the Sangiovese vs. Barbera topic is just one of my points about easy, bombastically stated food-and-wine pronouncements. Beware!

Not that Gluckstern is totally full of it. I often recommend Riesling, for instance. But only because many of the foods we eat today are sweet, sour, hot and/or spicy (sometimes all at once), and Riesling is one of the few grapes that can handle this. But if you're the type of person that doesn't prefer perfumey, slightly sweet wine, Riesling is more likely to hinder, not help, your food-and-wine match.

Among sure-fire reds, Gluckstern recommends Pinot Noir, and to that I say bravo! However, if you prefer a big, thick, hefty red wine with your slab of beef, then you're more likely to prefer a Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Pinot Noir is good, but not THAT good.

Finally, the fact that Gluckstern pooh-poohs "oak bludgeoned" Chardonnays is also testimony to his lack of imagination. I, for one, can think of dozens of dishes that go great with a fully oaked Chardonnay (dishes, by the way, which would wouldn't take to Riesling very easily!). Besides, there are good reasons why consumers love the taste of Chardonnay, but for some reason Gluckstern can't get beyond his own experiences and prejudices in order to see why. Instead, he seems to think he's doing people a favor by telling them what they should or shouldn't like (which is what Gluckstern does and doesn't like). If Mr. Morganstein, for instance, prefers a creamy oaked Far Niente Chardonnay with his sole in cream sauce, who are we to tell him he's wrong? It's like trying to tell him that he shouldn't drive a Volvo because Lexus is better! Frankly, more responsible authors and consultants are those who work WITH, not against, the ebbs and flows of consumer tastes. I pity the restaurants that follow his advice blindly. There's good and bad in everything. The trick is to sift through all the nuances of food and wine, no matter how complex it may be; and the way to do this is to follow your own common sense and personal taste -- not Mr. Gluckstern's, not Mr. Parker's, Bucko's, Caparoso's, or anyone else's!



[This message has been edited by Randy Caparoso (edited 05-30-2000).]