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Wine
An Important Flavor-Maker
Appears in
By John Ash
Published 2004
As someone who has spent most of his adult life in the wine country of California, learning and writing and teaching about wine as well as food, I’m amazed that most Americans still rarely, if ever, drink or cook with wine. Setting aside those who simply don’t like it and those who have religious objections or other concerns about alcohol consumption, there is still a big bunch of you who don’t partake, and I’d just like to say bluntly: I think you’re missing something great.
For me, a glass of wine is food. It’s another flavor—often many flavors in one sip—to be enjoyed along with the other foods that I’m eating at a meal. More than any other beverage, wine has the ability to complement and enhance other flavors. Though you hardly ever hear any chef or food authority say this, the simplest possible technique for adding flavor interest to any meal is to drink a glass of wine alongside it. Try it sometime with even a slice of pizza and see how many more flavors you taste in that ordinary, familiar dish.