Are Wine and Cheese Pairings a "No-no?" NewsScientist Seems to Think So

This is an interesting blog post from one of the other blogs I frequently read. In this posting, seems that having cheese with your wine, something that is frequently done at a tasting, pretty much kills many of the wine characteristics you want to appreciate.

"Madrigal-Galan and Heymann offered cheap and expensive versions of four different varietal wine to a panel of expert wine tasters and carried out a tasting session both on the wine alone and together with eight different cheeses. Cheese supressed pretty much all the sensory stimuli wine can give (sourness, astringency, berry flavours, etc) except buttery aroma, probably because cheese contains the molecule responsible for that. One possible explanation proposed for this effect is that cheese protein binds the aroma molecule in wine or that the fat in the cheese may coat the taste buds decreasing the sensibility to wine flavours."

But, as the posting goes on to say "To me a wine-food pairing works not when the food leaves the aromas of the wine perceptible and clear, but rather when the union of the two forms a new pleasing flavour. The realm problem is that the concept of "pleasing flavour" is a deeply personal one."

So, is the initial claim correct or incorrect? I tend to agree with the poster...

February 28, 2006

Are Wine and Cheese Pairings a "No-no?" NewsScientist Seems to Think So