Pairing Wines With Spanish Food

Sometimes one feels like a nut, sometimes one doesn't. I may be reaching here, but I love the simplicity of this statement, and to paraphrase while retaining the essence of this statement, sometimes you feel like a classic wine and food pairing, and sometimes you just want the damn thing to work well-enough together.

Wine and food pairing perspectives have reached manic levels as of late. The science behind the myriad thesis in play is of course solid and sound, and yes there is science at play here, but the problem is in the equipment we use to measure the applications of these thesis, and the horribly inaccurate computers we use to analyze those measurements. Yes my friends, there is a science to wine and food pairings, but our palates and our minds just seem to get in the way of its simple perfection.

By science of course I mean the basis for so many wine and food matchups that work, and that don't work. Science comes into play when we talk of pairing a high-acid wine with fish, or not matching tannins with artichokes or jalapeños, for example. But what happens if you like artichokes and tannic wines? The science continues to be sound, yet our assumptions turn out to be wrong. That's the problem with the intersection of art and science, too many assumptions just don't pan out, and some that shouldn't do.

Wine and food are certainly a large part of this overlapping region on many people's art and science Venn diagram, right between keeping an old car running and painting (walls or canvas, doesn't matter which in most cases). It's where the "rules" we know we should abide by, and our preferences collide, often creating what seems to be anti-matter showering down pain on our most sophisticated, bombastic foodie friends.

Click here for Spanish food and wine pairings.

— Gregory Del Piaz, Snooth