A recent article

The other week there was an article in either the Times or the Journal about this chap. This was no ordinary wine chap but someone who has achieved some of the highest recognized wine titles/degrees/etc in the world. And who happens to be a recovering alcoholic. The article revolved around him challenging traditional food/wine pairing, basically saying by playing with certain flavors in the dish (salt, mainly) you can make certain dishes play well with wine, therefore eliminating nasty aftertastes or bitterness from the pairing.

I'm certainly no wine god and don't have any wine related diplomas under my belt but I thought all this 'playing with the recipe' to make it more wine friendly was defeating the purpose. The dish, without being changed or extra-salted or having whatever done to it, stands alone. It is delicious in it's own right. The chosen wine, tasted and drank on its own, is also delicious in it's own right. The tricky part is getting the right combo where they both elevate each other to new deliciousness. I suppose my argument is that certain dishes have been prepared certain ways for a reason. They are supposed to taste just the way they taste, whether or not that makes it easy or hard to find a wine that will play along. It's finding the correct wine (be it varietal, region, style within varietal) to elevate the dish that makes it difficult.