The Alchemy of Food and Wine Pairing 🍷
We talk about food and wine pairing as if there were universal rules:
“Red meat, red wine.”
“Fish, white wine.”
Simple. Yes, a little too simple.
Because, in reality, every pairing involves much more than what is on the plate and in the glass. It involves the wine, the food, the people we share it with, and the place where we are.
Yes, the place. The atmosphere influences us, too.
And that is where things get interesting.
There is chemistry, of course. Tannins interact with proteins in our saliva. Fat changes how we perceive certain sensations. Salt can soften bitterness. Acidity brings freshness.
All of this happens whether or not we pay attention. Our bodies respond to the compounds in what we eat and drink without asking our permission.
But what happens chemically is one thing. How we experience it is another, and no less fascinating.
We are not passive recipients of these reactions. We perceive them through our own sensitivities, memories, experiences, and even our moods.
Chemistry sets the stage; our subjectivity becomes part of the experience.
And when we begin to pay attention to what happens when we combine food and wine, something more than the pleasure of finding a good pairing emerges.
We begin to understand ourselves.
What do we feel when we taste that wine with that dish? What becomes more pronounced? What disappears? What makes us uncomfortable? What surprises us? What makes us want to take another sip or bite?
Why does one combination fascinate us while another, seemingly flawless on paper, leaves us indifferent?
The answers are not always in the glass or on the plate. Sometimes, they are within us.
Learning about food and wine pairing is also a way of getting to know our own palate. It means discovering what we enjoy, what we reject, what we seek in an experience, and what we might learn to appreciate when we give ourselves the chance to taste without preconceived ideas.
Our palate has a memory. It is shaped by what we have eaten before, the experiences we have accumulated, our habits, our biases, and the memories that certain aromas and flavors can bring back to life.
It is shaped by context, too: the conversation, the company, the landscape, and the place where we find ourselves.
That is why two people can taste the same wine with the same dish and have completely different experiences.
Who is right? Both of them.
Because there are chemical and sensory phenomena we can study, describe, and understand. But the experience we build around them is personal, too.
Food and wine pairing is neither a sommelier’s fairy tale nor a set of rules carved in stone.
Some combinations seek harmony. Others play with contrast. Some find balance, while others surprise us because the wine changes the way we perceive the food, and the food transforms the way we experience the wine.
Some combinations neither detract nor add anything.
Others create a kind of silence on the palate: something fades, the best qualities of the wine or the dish get lost, and neither quite manages to express itself fully.
It happens.
But then there are other combinations that make us say… ah! What a beautiful feeling it is to discover something new. That third flavor, seemingly born from the encounter between wine and food. A sensation that was not there before, at least not in quite the same way, when tasting either one on its own.
And that is where the magic happens. Not because chemistry disappears, but because something occurs that surprises us, moves us, and makes us want to keep exploring.
For us, that is the true meaning of food and wine pairing. It is why we do what we do.
When we design a seven-course menu and select seven wines to accompany it, our goal is not simply to assign one wine to each dish. We want to open up a world of possibilities.
That is why each course is paired with more than one wine. We experiment with different combinations, compare sensations, discover contrasts and affinities. We observe how our perception of a dish changes when we switch wines, and how the wine itself transforms when we taste it alongside food.
It is not simply about finding an answer. It is about exploring the questions that emerge from each encounter.
And although we can study, experiment, and share everything we learn, the final word belongs to the person sitting at the table. Because, ultimately, the experience takes place within the person who tastes it.
Wine speaks to food.
Food speaks to wine.
And we step right into the conversation.
Perhaps that is why the more we learn about food and wine pairing, the less we believe in “correct” pairings.
And the more fun we have searching for the ones we love.
Because, in the end, paying attention to what happens between a glass and a plate is also a way of paying attention to what happens within us.
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