Wine quality

[Botafogo]

Fourty, you are missing a very large part of the joys of both wine and food with that approach. The most interesting wines (and foods) are but one part of a binary flavor bomb just waiting to go off in your mouth and not only jazz up your life but make you the toast of the town if you pull it off.

As a simple experiment. try some Linguini with Clams with the following and then report back to us on your preferences:

Some luke warm Coca Cola

A nicely chilled but not ice cold bottle of Verdicchio or Tocai Friulano

A Belgian Biere Blanche at cool Cellar temp

An ice cold glass of milk

Some fine vintage Porto from the most recent vintage.

I would bet the ranch on you preferring the white wine or the Biere by a landslide.....

This is where the fun actually BEGINS in this sport: it's like making up dream teams for baseball or super groups for Jazz except you can actually do it live on your palate.

Back to the original question, the Shiraz begs for BBQ or at least grilled burgers and the Bardolino is a nice, easy drinking red for pork, chicken or veal dishes (eggplant pasta if you're a veggie).

The whole concept of our store is based on NOT selling scores or even hot varietals but answering on a case by case basis "What do I serve with X when I have Y dollars?" As a result not only are we wildly successful but our clientele is 70% female and the average age is under 35. We like it like that, the fewer balding, cigar smoking Lawyers with Robert Parker under their arms the better, Roberto