Wine and Weather Pairing

            Call me what you will – and words like uneducated, nonconformist and even heathen may come to mind.  But even though I’ve tasted thousands of wines and live for innovative, well prepared food, one of the first questions I ask myself when pairing a wine with food is: “what’s the weather”.  Educated or not, I have serious tactile preferences.  In our hot balmy Houston summers, I drink rose by the case.  Even with meat or heavy pastas, I find it difficult to enjoy red wine, even cool from the cellar.  In the sticky heat of our summers, it just feels heavy and sends my hot flashes into overdrive.  If a special meal calls for an equally special red, fine…..but crank down that ac……

            Similarly, while our winters aren’t by global standards cold, I must have what my great-aunt called “thin blood”.  I’m always cold once the outside temperature drops below 70.  And even if our temperatures aren’t that cold, our winters feel damp and damp cold seems to soak into my bones and linger.  As a producer of red wine, I am thrilled when October arrives and my palate warms to reds.  But Houston is a coastal town.  Seafood is fresh and plentiful and I love it.  In fall and winter, I prefer a light red to a white, even with fish.

            My preferences are my own and while I’m open to education, somehow I don’t think they’re going to change.  And to me, one of the joys of aging is that we gain the courage to accept who we are and what we enjoy, even if the world looks at us like crazy fools.  And to me, food and wine are all about enhancing the complete experience of a meal, an experience that involves exploration, appreciation, sensory pleasure and most of all, sharing with family and friends.  With that equation, I vote for preference over education every time.