But the same principle applies for table wines. Most tomato sauces are sweet. So, too, are many Asian dishes, especially when prepared by, or for, non-Asians. And many of the classic and modern French dishes, duck a l orange or bigerade, French onion soup, Boudin aux Pommes, and all the dishes with heavy cream, are usually proferred as fairly sweet dishes. If the sweetness in a dish is not matched by a comparable sweetness in the wine, the wine will likely seem bland or unpleasantly tart.
Experience shows that fruitiness can stand in for sweetness.
The preceding observations don t negate the notion that there is simplicity in food and drink. First, drink and eat what you like. Second, if the food and drink are roughly the same intensity, they will provide a balanced interplay in the mouth. But the senses of taste and smell are sciences only for those studying them. For the rest of us, they are experiences, memories, inexplicable moments, and reasons why we return to food and drink again and again.