Over the two plus decades that I have been teaching about food and wine I have, of course, evolved my philosophies in keeping with changing palates, evolving wine styles, and culinary changes (and challenges). The one paramount concept that has remained a constant for me is that, for most people, experience (the totality of who you are with, what the occasion is, where you are dining, etc.) trumps food and wine matching perfection. If you ask Joe and Mary Consumer what their most memorable epicurean occasions were, they are more often based on context rather than the actual synergy (or even epiphany) of the wine and food. The couple in love enjoying crappy Italian wine and mediocre risotto at a little trattoria in Siena likely recall their occasion with great fondness though if they had the same wine and food combo at home on a Tuesday night, it would not carry the same emotionally attached result.

What we eat is very mood dependent as is where we go and which places we choose. The ambient mood contributes so much, but so, apparently, does lighting! There is some research from Germany that empirically puts forward that blue or red lit rooms make your white wine taste better than enjoying same wine in rooms with green or white background lighting. In the article in Science Daily, Dr. Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel of the Johannes Gutenberg University suggests that extreme lighting conditions sway the way a wine tastes and while it’s not 100% clear why, researchers seem to think that it has something to do with the mood the lighting puts consumers in. And apparently those who enjoy in red or blue lit rooms ranked Riesling higher and were more willing to pay top dollar. Go figure.

I have long believed that the time, effort, and money spent by restaurateurs to create ‘wow factor’ and drama is in part directly responsible for what people spend. Simply look at so many of the multi-million dollar dining rooms complete with Chihuly fixtures, expensive designer furniture, wine walls and towers giving you the message to drink, drink, drink, but apparently the lighting has a lot to do with it as well. Time will tell and clearly this requires much more study… and they need to add reds, bubbles, stickies, and pinks to the study to really make it substantive but hey, at least it’s a start. So as we enter the holiday period with all that red and green… I guess I’ll be enjoying my Riesling and doing so more than usual as per Dr. Oberfeld-Twistel.

Now if I wanted to enjoy a Vermentino…