In reading the news recently I can only imagine how the folks in the time of Copernicus and Galileo must have felt. Secure in their faith that the world was the center of the universe and that everything rotated around them, to one day hear that the world on which they traveled was merely one of several spinning orbs that whirled around a much bigger solar system must have been, well, earth-shattering. As human beings we’re pretty stubborn when it comes to clinging to our long-held beliefs, and when they are shown to be just plain wrong, it throws us for quite a loop.
No wonder then, that I find myself in complete denial over the news last week that there is now scientific proof that cheese and wine don’t go well together. Not only that, but these scientists (who the hell was paying them to do this anyway?!? — we should demand a full accounting) have gone so far as to prove that cheese and wine dull each other’s flavors to the point that the palate cannot fully appreciate the subtleties of either.
Never mind that trendy art galleries all over the world are having to do some serious re-thinking about their hors-d’oeuvres programs, this strikes like a lightning bolt in the hearts of most food and wine lovers. I’ll swear up and down that I’ve had some pretty astonishing experiences with wine and cheese: Stilton and Petite Sirah, for instance, or Riesling and Raclette. But perhaps, like those who knew the world was flat at one point, I am merely fooling myself.
