The concept of pairs is nothing new - boy meets girl = pair. The idea being that these two go nicely together. The same goes for wine and food. For example, would you pour gravey over your ice cream? Well, maybe you would, but most would not. For them it would be better if the word chocolate came into the picture. Why? Because it has been proven to go well with ice cream and to illicit pleasure.

The same goes for wine. In general, wine is an acidic drink with subtle flavours. If a food of strong flavours were to be eaten with a delicately flavoured wine, the overpowering flavour of the one ruins the taste of the other. Like eating a candy then trying to drink orange juice, the flavoura are exagerated and not necessarily pleaasant.

A good pairing may have to be tested, though generalityies can be observed.

Cheese, for example comes in many categories: mild, medium, sharp, smelly, mouldy, melty... yet many wine drinkers believe that wine and cheese go together. With some pairs this is true; but caution with the stronger tones. It is unlikely many will like the combination of cambazola cheese with a rich zinfandel. The strength of the cheese changes the pallette too much to enjoy the zinfandel.

There is a current trend for wine businesses to favour the new aficionado - back lables include suggestions to try.