The Kitchen, A mans place.

Weekends are a luxury for most if its spent doing what you love, my kids are big now and have their own social calenders to uphold, this leaves me in a prime slot on weekends to do what i love, wining and dining! Although I'm big on enjoying the benefits of eating out, nothing comes close to taking over the kitchen in raw style accompanied by a glass of your favorite wine and music.

Fridays bring a sense of excitement, pouring my wine of choice and taking a moment to establish what food will go with it, generally it comes in the weirdest form of something called experiment!Let me first tell you about something i discovered about a year ago, I was given a fruit cake and as with most things that don't do it for me i placed it in the kitchen cupboard, there it lay till the day a friend came over and said he would love to enjoy what i enjoy with wine, Being close to the end of the month there wasn't really much in the line of interesting to offer, that's when i opened the cupboard and saw the fruit cake, Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Being caught unawares to a visit, i never even had time to chill the two bottles of Amani Chardonnay given to me by Carmen Stevens, Winemaker of Amani wines, so i ceremoniously popped the cork and poured us each a splosh, the wine displayed some intense aromas, vanilla being the more dominant one, that's when it hit me, vanilla is used in cakes and most baking, so this has to work, being a bit of a caveman when it comes to being hoity toity i just broke a piece of fruitcake and sampled it with a swig of wine, to my delight it was one of the nicest mouth feels i had ever experienced, I took my friend through all the complexity and he was rather taken back by how this wine and fruitcake came together to form a completely different flavor, The short end of the stick is we polished off both bottles and the fruitcake, it was a beautiful thing to see someone enjoy these life changing moments for the first time, My friend is now a avid wine drinker and has even started cooking, his wife is eternally grateful for what he has learn with wine as it allows her to relax on weekend while he is in the kitchen experimenting his new found passion.

This brings me to what i started out doing, trying to show how it works, never order a wine and then the meal, its always the other way around, first decide what you are eating, establish what the dominant flavors are then pair it to a wine, this is law, well mine anyway! Intensity of food is paired to intensity of wine, spicy with spicy, sweet with sweet, tropical with tropical ie; smoked gamon with ripe Mellon just brings out the flavor, its like adding salt to food, it brings a new dimension to your taste buds, you wouldn't put salt in coffee would you? no, you sweeten it, so if your wine has flavors of coffee then try it with something on the sweeter side, However personal taste is different for everyone, experiment and find what works for you, Here is something to help next time you planning on having a pairing session, hope it helps!

Focus on finding a wine with an intensity that suits your meal, Many people make the mistake of ordering a wine before they have decided what meal they will be having, Therefore, decide what meal you will be having before you look at the wine list! The weight and power of a wine should always be matched to the richness and texture of the food ie: Less intense wines for, say, Thai and Sushi dishes and more intense wines for heavy meat dishes. I have compiled a list of wines in order of intensity to help in making an informed decision before ordering so as to avoid disappointment! These wines are as follows: 1 being less intense than 10!

1) Sauvignon Blanc.
2) Riesling.
3) Chenin Blanc.
4) Ros'e
5) Chardonnay.
6) Pinot Noir.
7) Merlot.
8) Pinotage.
9) Shiraz.
10) Cabernet Sauvignon.

Well there you have it, im off to the kitchen, heres me wishing you all a weekend of taste sensation.

Peter.