Wine Pairing

Wine Pairing

We spend a good part of our lives “pairing” things, and for some the most important pairing is food and wine. Pairing food and wine is fun, complicated, subjective (everyone’s palate is different), and very, very satisfying. When it is done well, the food compliments the wine and vice versa. When we eat and drink, we want everything to “taste” great, and why shouldn’t we. However, what often doesn’t get talked about when consuming food and wine is the smell, the aroma, the scents that trigger our olfactory senses. That is an unfortunate oversight. It is said (the science behind this is interesting) that 80-90% of “taste” is, in fact, smell. Wine glasses have large openings so that when you bring a glass to your mouth to drink, your nose can get as close to the liquid as possible, to take in the aromas (the “nose” in wine tasting parlance). Wines have different characteristics and different aromas, and if you have ever read tasting notes on the wines you consume, they often mention the “nose” of the wine first.

While we almost never use the term “nose” when referring to weed, why is it that the first thing a budtender will do when showing you their product is open up a sample so you can smell it? In a word, terpenes. These are the chemicals that give cannabis types of scents, and there are many different kinds and they are almost always associated with mood. After the budtender lets you smell the weed, she almost always asks: “How do you want to feel?” So, if we can pair wine with its many different aromas with food to create a harmonious balance between the two, why not weed? Why not, indeed! What got me thinking about this was a birthday dinner party I was invited to recently. The desert course was a chocolate cake, and after a dinner of good food and wine, my hosts suggested we switch to some weed to compliment the cake. A joint rolled with the strain White Tahoe Cookies was passed around and the results were amazing. The strain is Indica dominant and the pepper, citrus, and herbal notes paired beautifully with the cake. Everything was enhanced: the texture, the mouth feel, the flavor, and especially the smell. I obviously have more research to do. Stay tuned!

By North Shubert