Wine writer prefers beer
OK, maybe a bit of an overstatement.
Jancis Robinson is one of the world’s leading wine writers, but that doesn’t mean she can’t appreciate beer once and a while. She gave beer credit in a recent article in the Financial Times which she then posted at her website:
I had my beer epiphany a few weeks ago. I had previously found a few sips of beer perfectly nice on a very hot day, but more than that quantity of most beers had proved too gassy, too bland or too bitter to enjoy. I had met the self-styled Beer Hunter and prolific author on brewing matters and matters brewed Michael Jackson on several occasions to swap tales of publishers and television producers but he had never tried to convert me from grape to grain.
This was left, curiously enough, to Michel Roux Jr of Le Gavroche, the famous two star London restaurant. Michel, who disconcertingly is as thin as a rake thanks to his inexplicable devotion to marathon running, has also written a book, Matching Food & Wine, on matching food not just to wine (which has frequently been done) but also to different beers. And to this end, served up a six-course meal, each course with what he proposed as a suitable wine partner and, alongside, a suitable beer.
At the end of this selfless and, needless to say, ruthlessly clinical research project, I can reveal that in only two out of the six cases did I prefer the wine to the beer. Result for brewers everywhere!
The menu.
