The Holiday Table: The Annual Wine-Pairing Dilemma

NAPA, CA, October 11, 2012 (Press-News.org) People should be able to like what they like, and this includes sweet wines. Offering wines matched to the different Vinotypes who all come together at the holiday dining table just might be your own holiday gift to wine lovers.

Conventional wisdom recommends offering a selection of wines to complement a menu that might include everything from Aunt Edna's green beans to friend Jerry's tofu turkey.

Napa-Valley based Master of Wine Tim Hanni suggests, however, that instead of offering wines based on what's on the table, hosts at upcoming holiday meals should choose wines based on who is gathering around it.

Hanni, a trained chef and veteran food and wine pairing guru, has distilled years of experience and research into a seemingly revolutionary approach to wine drinking, based on a simple premise: People really do have different tastes, and they should be able to discover and enjoy the wines they really prefer, including sweet wines, without apologizing or wondering what's wrong.

According to Hanni, wine drinkers fall into categories, or Vinotypes. Derived from both physiological and psychological elements in an individual's make-up, the four basic Vinotypes range from people who naturally prefer sweet wines to those who relish the bigger, more robust wines -- and what tastes delicious to one person may easily leave another grimacing with distaste. You remember this from your childhood dinner table.

"Discover your Vinotype and that of your guests and you will learn how to consistently find the wines you will love the most and how to get the most pleasure from wine on your terms," says Hanni.

Hanni was a pioneer in the art of food and wine pairings at Napa Valley's Beringer Winery in the 1980s. His experiences there sent him on a three-decade investigation of why people like what they like.

"I'd create what I thought were magical pairings," Hanni said. "And while some people loved them, others could hardly tolerate them. I went from thinking, 'What's wrong with you?' to 'What's going on here?'"

Hanni began work with. Virginia Utermohlen, M.D., from Cornell University, who shared a deep interest in the subject. Based on their research, Hanni said, "it's clear that the range and intensity of sensations we experience varies, often dramatically, from one person to the next; and these individual differences play an important role in determining individual wine preferences."

A series of questions Hanni has developed -- How do you take your coffee? What do you think of artificial sweeteners? -- are guide posts that help people identify their Vinotype: Sweet, Hypersensitive, Sensitive or Tolerant.

At one end of the spectrum are the Sweet Vinotypes, people who experience a sensory overload from stimuli: light, sound, taste and smell. In wines they who crave sweetness to mask what they perceive as intolerable bitterness.

These are the people who may have started drinking wine with white zinfandels, and also the ones fueling the explosive popularity of moscato wines in the U.S. They are also the ones who have been made to feel apologetic about their tastes. "They suffer from the collective delusion that, as their palate matures they will be able to appreciate what's perceived as more sophisticated wines, the big reds, the over-oaked chardonnays," Hanni says. "But it's not true. If a person likes white Zin with their steak, that's what they should have."

At the other end of the taste spectrum are the Tolerant Vinotypes.

"Tolerant Vinotypes don't understand what all of the fuss is about with more sensitive Vinotypes - those wimps!" Hanni explains. "They are the ones who want the thermostat set colder and the volume on the TV turned up."

They take their coffee black and love highly spiced foods. "Big, red wines are their favorites and damn the torpedoes, Hanni says. "Intensity is the name of the game and the bigger the better."

In between these two lie the types Hanni terms Sensitives and HyperSensitives.

Hypersensitive Vinotypes are quite sensitive to all sorts of things and, like the Sweet Vinotypes, they have many pet peeves, he says. They are often artistic and adamant that they know what they like.

"Hypersensitive Vinotypes tend to prefer dry, or just off-dry, wines on an everyday basis," he says. "Their favorite wines tend to be more delicate and very, very smooth while also being lower in alcohol. They may even like intense red wines but not with a lot of oak or heavy tannins smooth and rich. "The Hypersensitive Vinotype is a bit more likely to 'talk dry and drink sweet' looking for those wines that have a slight bit of residual sugar," he adds.

The Sensitive Vinotype is the most flexible of wine drinkers. "Sensitive Vinotypes go with the flow," Hanni says. "Maybe they take their coffee with cream or a touch of sweetness at one point in the day, but they'll enjoy black coffee if the wind is right. They are open to trying new things, and variety is truly the spice of their lives."

Sweet Vinotypes love a wide range of mostly dry white and red wines, along with roses and sparkling wines, Hanni says. "They are among the most adventurous wine lovers and open to all sorts of flavors and wine styles from delicate to robust."They do have more limitations on bitterness and tannins than Tolerant Vinotypes, Hanni notes. "They are not typically looking for the oaky monsters but really impeccably balanced, smooth and the word 'complex' is usually important as a wine description."

"Discovering Vinotype helps explain a lot of things people disagree on in life, from the temperature in the room, to the use of cilantro in a recipe, to the volume of the television, to the sheets that you sleep on," Hanni says.

"People should be able to like what they like, and this includes sweet wines," he concludes, and offering wines matched to the different Vinotypes who all come together at holiday dining table just might be your own holiday gift to wine lovers.

To discover your Vinotype, visit www.myvinotype.com.

ABOUT TIM HANNI

Tim Hanni MW
Master of Wine, Certified Wine Educator
Wine Industry Faculty, Sonoma State University

Tim Hanni is an internationally renowned 'flavor maven.' A professionally-trained chef, he is one of the first two resident Americans to successfully complete the examination and earn the title Master of Wine. He is a Certified Wine Educator accredited by the Society of Wine Educators. He has been involved with wine- and food-related businesses, education and research for over thirty-five years. Hanni has a unique perspective on food and wine, providing a modern and innovative approach to the subject.

His techniques for creating easy to use wine lists and retail wine programs are combined with tried and tested culinary philosophies on "balancing" food and wine flavors. These techniques are employed by thousands of restaurants and hotel outlets around the world and have provided the foundation for Napa Seasoning Company's unique new product Vignon , the first Flavor Balancing Seasoning designed to simplify food preparation. Hanni is recognized for introducing the concept of the "umami" taste phenomenon to the wine and food community. He has lectured in over 27 countries around the world on the topics of flavor balancing, sensory sciences, wine and culinary history.

For more info, www.timhanni.com.