Wine and dine

I'm neither a wine connoisseur nor a seasoned sommelier. And my knowledge about wine is as scanty and minimal as my knowledge about keeping-a-lasting-relationship. But before I will end up sulking in my bittersome demeanor, I would like to steer clear that this is a non-romantic post. Oh yeah, I haven't posted anything romantic yet.

Still my knowledge is a heap compared to an average dinner.

You can't be a complete food critic without having to tell which wine goes along with the type of food you are eating with. There are several wine tasting / wine pairing courses and seminars all over the metro though that you can enroll. Some restaurants even offer it for free.

One might ask, what's the rule of thumb in dining with wine. Gone are those days that when you eat a juicy steak with white wine, you can see gasps around your dinner table. Now, almost anything goes. Restrictions of white wine and red wine have long been gone, and winemakers are becoming more creative that they tend to integrate it with the cuisine's fusion concept quite literally.

The key element though is a right balance. You can either for contrast or similarity in taste. For example, chocolate with sweet wine, or perhaps rich flavored food with lighter textured wine. Just make sure the wine will not drown the taste of the food, or vice versa, rather either neutralize or compliment it. And if you're on an assortment of cuisine, go for the dominant taste as a deciding factor on which wine to get. Otherwise, choose a wine that's closer in origin.

Also, save yourself a wallet by buying wines not from department stores or grocery shops but from wine retailers. Some of them are Santi's, Ralph's, Cyrano, Galileo Enoteca, Terry Selection, and Bacchus. But if you don't want t go through the hassle of hopping from one retailer to another, here's a simple suggestion. Go to Wine Depot if you're on a shoe-string budget, otherwise Bacchus for midrange to high end wines will do. Good thing about these retailers is that they loosely allow you to have a free taste of you can't decide which one to get.

So you see, I never go to Rustan's to buy it.