Wine vs Beer
I have been writing some silly posts of late, the word CAMEL springs to mind as one such post. Putting all silliness aside, I thought I might actually blog about something semi-serious.The debate regarding the social standing of beer vs wine is starting to reach fever pitch in both the press and the blogosphere. Melissa Cole has challenged serial w@nker Malcolm Gluck to a beer food pairing challenge. The idea is to 'educate' Mr Gluck and hopefully challenge his point of view on beer. I have a couple of issues with this whole affair, the first being that this is starting to sound like a staged public relations exercise, one that I seem to be now drawn into. The second being that Malcolm Gluck takes an iconoclastic view to his journalism. The fact that he openly slanders beer in an attempt to provoke reaction is unlikely to be his true viewpoint, but is a useful tool in drawing an interest to his work.
For anyone who cares, I can simplify the whole situation.
Flavours in wine; Red and White. Rose is just a shade of Grey. Any talk of mild citrus and soft vanilla undertones is absolute rubbish. Anything produced from a simple fruit such as a grape does not have the capacity to be complex and these flavours do not exist in grapes, nor are they a character of yeast. The general rules of thumb concerning food wine pairings clearly demonstrates the simplicity of wine. Red wine with beef and white wine with fish. You don't need a wine critic to tell you that!
Beer on the other hand is made from more ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast), and these ingredients have the scope to be modified (roasted, caramelized, acidified, hardened and softened). These produce a myriad of flavours that are infinitely more suited to food than the two dimensional flavours of wine. The following flavour wheel, supports this. A similar wheel for wine would have two sides, red and white with possibly some extra sub-nodes for production taints such as 'oaking' or 'botrytis infection'. Thats right, these flavours are actually defects.
posted by Tim at
Friday, January 30, 2009
12 Comments:
This is the polar opposite of Malcolm and as such lacks the observation that all wine buffs are stuck up, snobby, t...s, which is a sweeping generalisation, but possibly has some correlation with reality.
I wouldn't say the polar opposite as I do not directly state that wine is rubbish. Wine goes very nicely with SOME foods, but beer goes better with MORE foods. I was just trying to highlight the reason why. I agree though, wine buffs generally are stuck up, snobby twats.
No need for the t...s censorship here. Feel free to come out and say it!
I'm glad to see that you have managed to acquire the same skills of polemic as seen by the likes of Michael Moore. You need to at least pretend to argue the other side a bit. Also I am now in a massive quandary what wine to have with my lamb or chicken. Should I drink if I am eating macaroni cheese or my breakfast cornflakes.
Hey Tim, wasn't a PR stunt at all, I genuinely challenged Malcolm to come and try some beer & food and was he true to his prejudices, pretty much yes, although some concessions were made - not sure how it will turn out in the end as it will all depend, as these things do, on the edit, but I'm sure the guys & gals at the observer/guardian site will be fair.
@Curious gregor aka Alex Jones thanks for popping by. I think your brand of sarcasm has been lost on the likes of Sausage! Keep reducing those electrons!
Melissa, I understand it probably wasn't a PR stunt but it certainly has gone a little viral and has drummed up lots of opinion. I think Malcom's provocative style has brought more awareness to food and beer pairings than he intended - and this is a good thing.
Keep up the good work, I look forward to reading the hopefully entertaining report!
Nice retort Tim!
Gluck, I feel, is trying to incite this kind of response and it's a good thing because what it is going to show is the ultimate limitations of wine compared to beer with food.
The flavour profile in beer is so much larger than wine (including flavours impossible in wine such as smoke, caramel, toffee, roast, char, coffee, chocolate - proper chocolate and not Zinfandel 'chocolate'). The range of strength of beer (3-25% ABV) smashes wines (8-16% ABV) narrow margin (excluding ports, etc) which means you have got more selection. It has textures from water-thin to syrup thick, there are bubbles or it can be smooth, sweet or bitter, colour from pale gold, amber, through reds, browns and blacks.
I think wines go well with many foods, it's hard to argue, but like you say beer goes better with more. I think that has something to do with the inherent savoury nature of beer which aligns it closer to food. Plus the four brewing ingredients can be combined in infinite ways to create infinite numbers of beers.
My opinion is that beer can compliment a meal and add something extra, whereas my experience with wine is that it is a nice accessory to the meal. I would happily put a beer up against any wine and for any course and I reckon the beer would ultimately match the food better than the wine could.
Hi Mark,
I agree, it's not rocket science.
And at the end of the day, it's just a beverage.
Personally I usually do not have more than a sip of liquid (beer, wine whatever) while I am eating. I usually save my 'beverage' until I have finished. I find I can drink more this way!
I am very serious enthusiast of beer and various other alcoholic concoctions. Curious Gregor's humour, sarcasm, or whatever the hell you call it is as dry as the Sierra. I see no place for it in a forum regarding beer. Perhaps that's why he doesn't write about beer.
@Sausage, true thats why he pushes electrons around all day. he is a sad individual. So sad in fact that his favourite text is "Pushing Electrons" by Dennis Weeks.
He is also a prime representative of the Welsh Jewish Community - well he was according to Wikipedia at one stage!
So Artist Formerly Known as Wurst takes his beer very seriously. I assume that means that he spends all day on a park bench.
Park benches are ok, but I prefer my house. It's better because I like to pee in private. Now excuse me, I'm working on various quadratic equations to help me dial in the flow of ale from my beer engine.
There is no right answer here, other than that food enhances the drinking experience, be that beer, wine or both! I'm happy to keep an open mind and choose based on the food I'm eating. No need to be narrow minded. There's nothing better than quenching your thirst with a couple of pale ales/pilseners/lagers before moving onto a crisp glass of sav blanc, followed by a cab sav and then perhaps a fortefied wine or amber ale/porter. Drink widely and enjoy more! Dare I say your wine pallet may not be sophisticated enough yet Tim...? ; }
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