White wine with white meat. Red with red meat. Indian wines don't go with European food, and vice versa. The rules keep popping out of thin air.
And true or false, these can never factor in the many variables that could leave you with serious doubts about that 'white' wine you just paired up with that spice-laden Chettinad chicken.
But what better way to make sense of these intricacies of food and wine pairing than to enjoy a few glasses of vino over a lazy lunch in the sun at Olive Bar & Kitchen, Mehrauli, as a leading winemaker and chef talk you through things?
And so it was, when the chief winemaker of Four Seasons, Abhay Kewadkar, and Olive's corporate chef, Sabyasachi 'Saby' Gorai, hosted a pairing, er, masterclass (lately, one can't help but to throw in a Masterchef reference).
"Wine making is a science," declared Kewadkar, "but making great wines is an art." On the whole the red with red and white with white rule is not altogether wrong, explained the vintner. "The only problem is that this rule doesn't factor in cooking methods or the accompanying sauces and spices," he said.
To pair a wine well with food one needs to look at a number of factors, the most important of which are the weight and intensity of both the food and the wine. Heavy foods such as red meats usually go better with a full-bodied wine like a Cabernet Sauvignon. Pair a delicately flavoured fish with the same wine and you'll be courting disaster.
"The best wines to get started off on and to pair with a fair number of Indian dishes would be ones that are neither too sweet nor too dry," Kewadkar said, explaining why he had made the Four Seasons Chenin Blanc and Rose both "off dry".
Chef Saby, who succesfully pulled off a well-paired lunch, gave a little cooking class where he prepared filo-wrapped portobello mushrooms with a side of smoked scarmoza ratatouille and a wild mushroom salsa. A robust and flavoursome dish, it deserved the Four Seasons Barrique Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
To accompany a dessert, Kewadkar suggested a good rose in absence of a dessert wine. The desserts - spiced chocolate cake and tiramisu - showed up accompanied by glasses of the Four Seasons Blush. They did work together, though I would have preferred the cake with one of the reds.
But then again, there's only one rule that should matter when you're pairing food and drink. If it works for you, it works for you, so chuck that rule book out of the window.
And true or false, these can never factor in the many variables that could leave you with serious doubts about that 'white' wine you just paired up with that spice-laden Chettinad chicken.
But what better way to make sense of these intricacies of food and wine pairing than to enjoy a few glasses of vino over a lazy lunch in the sun at Olive Bar & Kitchen, Mehrauli, as a leading winemaker and chef talk you through things?
And so it was, when the chief winemaker of Four Seasons, Abhay Kewadkar, and Olive's corporate chef, Sabyasachi 'Saby' Gorai, hosted a pairing, er, masterclass (lately, one can't help but to throw in a Masterchef reference).
"Wine making is a science," declared Kewadkar, "but making great wines is an art." On the whole the red with red and white with white rule is not altogether wrong, explained the vintner. "The only problem is that this rule doesn't factor in cooking methods or the accompanying sauces and spices," he said.
To pair a wine well with food one needs to look at a number of factors, the most important of which are the weight and intensity of both the food and the wine. Heavy foods such as red meats usually go better with a full-bodied wine like a Cabernet Sauvignon. Pair a delicately flavoured fish with the same wine and you'll be courting disaster.
"The best wines to get started off on and to pair with a fair number of Indian dishes would be ones that are neither too sweet nor too dry," Kewadkar said, explaining why he had made the Four Seasons Chenin Blanc and Rose both "off dry".
Chef Saby, who succesfully pulled off a well-paired lunch, gave a little cooking class where he prepared filo-wrapped portobello mushrooms with a side of smoked scarmoza ratatouille and a wild mushroom salsa. A robust and flavoursome dish, it deserved the Four Seasons Barrique Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
To accompany a dessert, Kewadkar suggested a good rose in absence of a dessert wine. The desserts - spiced chocolate cake and tiramisu - showed up accompanied by glasses of the Four Seasons Blush. They did work together, though I would have preferred the cake with one of the reds.
But then again, there's only one rule that should matter when you're pairing food and drink. If it works for you, it works for you, so chuck that rule book out of the window.
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