picking the perfect wine for my weekly wine night with the girls

"DaleW" wrote in news:1159142701.188980.101870 @m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

Here, Here!

But I did not ridicule her. She herself said it tasted 'harsh'. Well...yuh! I would expect it to. This is called "learning the hard way".

The comment

... in the context in which you wrote it is nasty and insulting. I think it counts as ridicule. ("anybody would know this, why are you so stupid - of course it tastes harsh...")

Jose

I'm sorry if it did seem that way. Some people insist on learning things the hard way.

Thats not snobbery. Insisting that a particular wine must be served with a particular food for proper pairing is snobbery. My pairings differ from day to day depending on what I am in the mood for. I dislike certain wines that others say are the perfect pairing for the food I'm having. I think the perfect pairing is the one that an individual enjoys.

miles wrote in news:yL0Sg.1556$tO5.657@fed1read10:

Of course, you should do what you want. But as we disucssed in another thread, a well matched wine and food combination will result in both the food and the wine tasting better than they would by themselves. By pairing them in the way you do, you will often end up with combinations in which both the food and the wine taste worse than they would by themselves. I'm with Dale and a host of others on on this, I'd prefer to maximize and take advantage of the symbiosis that can be achieved by careful matching.

John

Certainly no offense taken or even assumed. I agree that probably each of you here could find a better wine and food pairing than I could, but my suggestion was for the wannabe (maybe soon to be) enophile. Start with a wine you like and a food you like. Instinct will usually win out to help avoid something terrible from happening. Part of enjoying wine with food is finding out both what you do and don't like. You won't know unless you try. As her preferences become more sophisticated, she will no doubt decided that there are wines and foods that just don't go together. In the meantime, it's not a job, it's an adventure.

Easy Mark. It was a very lighthearted comment. I just wanted to suggest that until a pairing has been tried, don't say no unless it's as clear as "red wine and asparagus." To me Jenna is at the beginning and I'd rather she saw the world of wine and food my way (again, a little levity) - full of positive possibilities - and I don't want to see her worry too much about getting the pairings just right. Experimentation is half the battle and a really bad pairing will be a story to tell down the road and a great pairing will be some knowledge to share. I'm a beginner, too. And until I found you guys I worried too much about getting it all just right.

Sorry guys, didn't mean to raise such a ruckus over a poorly chosen phrase.

Absolutely. And your palates are experienced and disciplined. It takes some mistakes and some surprises to pave the way to a more discerning taste. That seems to be where Jenna is; at the beginning of her adventure and training.

I don't think Jenna is the least bit interested in wine and food. You're projecting your own point of view here. She wants tp sit around and sip wine with the girls and nibble on goat cheese. You and I could point out that Chianti Classico Riserva is wasted in such a setting, but I doubt that this would bother her. She's not interested in cooking (she's "too tired" to bother) so what's the point of talking to her?

Bryan, I agree completely with you about experimentation, but I think that it's also important to understand that you do have to consider how the wine will interact with food. Sorry if I read your comments the wrong way, but when it's just the written word it's hard to get your tone.

Cheers! Mark Lipton

But Jenna has not indicated that she's interested in cooking!

Yanno, you keep harping on that wine can =only= be enjoyed with food as part of a meal, and that anything else is a waste. But many people in this forum seem to have been able to fool themselves into thinking that they are enjoying wine even when they are not having a meal.

All of us will be dead one day.

At that time, does it matter whether we've "enjoyed" our wine, or merely "convinced ourselves that we've enjoyed it"?. And isn't talking about wine sort of the same kind of waste?

Jose

Chianti Classico Riserva? She TOLD us that she did not enjoy it. Are you blind? CAN'T YOU READ? WHY DID SHE WRITE TO US?

"Unfortuanately, I hated the wine and the cheese. I was severly dissapointed. I thought that I would pick up a nice chianti and some goat cheese. The wine was extremely bitter."

I don't know why I bother sometimes with you scum. Read the damn posts before you reply!

Chianti Classico Riserva? She TOLD us that she did not enjoy it. Are you bl "Unfortuanately, I hated the wine and the cheese. I was severly dissapointed. I thought that I would pick up a nice chianti and some goat cheese. The wine was extremely bitter."

The reason she had this experience was because she did not have the wine with an appropriate meal. When I told her this, she said she was not going to bother cooking because she was "too tired". That basically ends the discussion. If she does not care to listen, that's her problem, isn't it?

I don't know why I bother sometimes with you scum. Read the damn posts before you reply!

I'm not responding to that part. She is clearly attempting to find wines to enjoy with her girls and her cheese (or whatever). You berate her (and others) for "tasting" rather than "enjoying wine with a meal".

I merely claim that some of us enjoy (or fool ourselves into thinking we enjoy) wines even outside of a meal context.

Now that wasn't very nice.

Jose

Of course, because the reason she di NOT enjoy the wine was because she did not have it with an appropriate meal. How difficult is this to grasp?

Irrelevant for THIS thread about THIS POSTER'S question. She wondered why she had a bad experience drinking Chianti Classico Riserva. I told her. End of discussion.

Try to keep up.

Jose, By now, you must realize that Mr. Scarpitti combines the endearing traits of a lack of social graces with an inability to read what's written without twisting your words to his own ends. Do consider whether it's really worth your time to reply to such a piece of work or even to read what he writes.

Mark Lipton