Acid With Acid

[Randy Caparoso]

Read all the responses, and it seems to me that we're essentially all in agreement -- even if it pains someone to agree with me.

The generalization that medium to high acid wines are probably better than foods with some degree of acidity, and low acid wines are better with foods with lower acidity (butter, oil, etc.), is as self evident as drinking milk with chocolate chip cookies. No one says you have to drink milk with chocolate chip cookies. We're simply talking about probabilities, or "higher percentage chances" of certain things going together.

But this is not to confuse the issue with idea of "contrast" as opposed to "similarity." Contrasting sensations, however, work better when there are also similar sensations working in concert. This is why oysters don't taste that great with Cabernet Sauvignon -- too much contrast, no similarities. Oysters, however, work with Sauvignon Blancs because the wine provides the acidity that particular food needs to taste better, at the same time finding common ground in a certain minerality or sensations of cold steeliness. This is the same idea of hot fudge going with vanilla ice cream -- contrasting flavors complimenting each other, while finding common ground in sugar components.