Wine DInners -- Do They Pair Food With Wine or Wine With Food?

Your favorite restaurant sends you an email or posts on Facebook or Instagram or some other social media outlet although those seem to be the two favorties for this purpose -- they are having a wine dinner. And, that wine dinner will be a [insert an integer usually in the range of 3 to 6] paired dinner supposedly featuring the wines of XYZ Winery or the wines of ABC region.

Hmm, you said supposedly. What's going on there?

And, that is why I ask the question: is the restaurant pairing food with wine or wine with food? And, for that matter, which should they do?

Ultimately, it's obviously the restaurant's decision. But, then again, you as the potential customer do have a vote in the matter. How's that? You get to vote with your feet and your wallet. That is, you can choose to walk into the restaurant for that dinner and choose to pull out your credit card (I suppose some people pay cash, but that is pretty darn rare these days). 

Obvisously, your thoughts about this might be different than mine. And, you are entitled to your opinions, even if they are wrong (just kidding about that last part), but here is the way I think about it.

The wines that are being served are selected either by the winery or by a distributor. The restaurant might have a little bit of flexibility, but just a little. So, it's the wines that are being showcased. That gives us a hint as to where I believe we should be headed. The foods should pair with the selected wines and the wines should be showcased. 

But, this is a restaurant. Shouldn't they get to showcase their food?

Yes, but ...

When I've been to wine dinners where the goal of the restaurant is to showcase their food, they almost inevitably serve dishes that are a bit too big for the wines. They overwhelm the wines. And, it's no much about the wines playing first violin, but about them getting at least equal billing. So, if you see overly complex dishes in which it is difficult for anyone to express why that complexity enhances the wine, then in my experience, it is more likely that the wine is being done a disservice. Next time, my feet might not walk there and my wallet might not open there.

Doing this is really difficult though, isn't it?

It's not easy, but it can be done.

We've been privileged to have a number of wineries come to our homes. They've supplied wine and presented their wines and of course, they do want to sell their wines. We've always felt that, in return, the foods we've served should showcase their wines. So, we think long and hard about how to do that and then serve foods that do not overwhelm the wines they are paired with.

We're not professionals. If we can do it, so can the restaurants.

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