Perfect Pairings on the Menu at Sarasota Manatee Originals Restaurants

Todays News

Photo by Andrew Fabian

Starting tonight, area residents and visitors from Venice to Anna Maria Island will have a chance to indulge their inner gourmand with multi-course dinners and special-guest wine pairings.

Winemaker Dinners—part of the programming for the 17th annual Forks & Corks Food and Wine Experiences—is a food and dining event produced by Sarasota Manatee Originals and comprising its member restaurants. The Winemaker Dinners begin this evening and runs through Monday, January 27.

At each participating restaurant, executive chefs prepare special menus to pair with visiting winemakers from around the world. Cabernets from Napa Valley, bordeauxs from Château D'Aiguilhe, zinfandels from Paso Robles, champagnes from France—all of it gets matched with flavor profiles that complement and enhance the wines.

Why are food and wine pairings such a big deal?

Our mouths are a complex array of biochemistry and taste buds. Everything we eat or drink alters that chemistry and stimulates the receptors that sense flavors—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. A good pairing is like alchemy, creating new flavor experiences that transcend the individual parts.

But there are an infinite number of flavor profiles in wine based on the grape, the location of the vineyard, the amount of rain that year, and other nuanced facets of climate and geography. Similarly, a dozen different chefs might prepare a cordon bleu from the same recipe and yield slightly different results based on the altitude, relative humidity, cookware, or source of the ingredients.

To achieve those transcendent pairings requires lots of know-how and experience. Winemaker Dinners brings together the folks who know food and wine best: the chefs and vintners who make them.

For a full list of participating restaurants—and to learn which vineyards have partnered with them—visit the Winemaker Dinners landing page, where there are also links to purchase tickets and reserve a spot.

Or, to further enrich your wine knowledge with some “hands on” learning, sign up for one of the few remaining spots in the Forks & Corks University classes being held at Michael’s on East this Saturday, January 25.

Photo by Andrew Fabian

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