Shawn Vest wrote:wine geeks dominate the world of fine dining and us beer nerds are left to our pizza and pub grub
why?
is the public completely unaware of beer's undoubted standing as a founding factor of agricultural societies
as a final challenge to the wine lovers and sommeliers of the world
i offer the perfect challenge to test the qualities of both beverages
easily and without the services of a well trained chef
the cheese pairing (yes, another traditionally wine favored food experience)
choose any five cheeses to pair with your five favorite wines
and i'll choose five beers that better compliment those cheeses
please choose cheeses and wines that are available in the Louisville area
and i'll choose beers that also available in the area
a public version of this contest would be great (Prost at the NABC could probably be convinced to play host)
with five or six tasters chosen by an impartial person
i'm thinking chefs and food critics - not wine or beer folks
Ok, you are obviously not going to let this go. That's cool, with your extreme (and overstated might I add) passion for beer, why should you?
I made an offer earlier in this thread to work with Roger on a pairing dinner featuring both beer and wine. Not to show one is better than the other but to help show that beer is a worthy choice to go with more elegant cuisines.
Len Stephens has offered up L&N Wine Bar as a venue for Roger and I to do this if Roger is interested. I see it as an event with five diverse courses of food paired with five different beers and wines. No competition, no battles, just good natured education.
I want to point out how generous an offer it is from Len. First off he is a wine bar owner offering to host a dinner that promotes beer. Second, he is a very knowledgeable Sommelier himself that is turning over the wine selections to a rank amateur like me. It is a very gracious offer to say the least. I hope he doesn’t faint when I pull out the Pinotage and Ugni Blanc.
The reason I think this would be the best option is there are some flaws with your challenge.
First flaw - cheese and wine IMO are not great partners unless you are talking about fortified and/or sweet wines. Do dry table wines and cheese work together? Yes. Do they make each other rise above their lone state? Not really.
Second flaw - bias. No matter who you choose to "judge" this tasting, they will likely have a personal preference between wine or beer and thus their personal bias will influence the results. There’s no way to avoid it.
So why don't we drop the smackdown and simply show that beer has its place in fine dining and what better way to do so than to put it right next to wine.