“Wine is meant to quench thirst. It’s a beverage. It’s meant to refresh.”
Not a take one hears too often and definitely not one I was expecting from Boston Magazine’s “Best Sommelier of 2011.” But it all makes sense, really. When wine, like lemonade or water, is consumed alongside a meal, it needs first and foremost to hydrate, to alleviate the palate of the dryness resulting from the mastication of food. Of course, a wine also must have a flavor relationship (whether harmony or contrast) with the dish it is paired with and this is perhaps where the culture of meticulous tastings and profiling comes in. But according to Kai Gagnon, wine director at Bergamot restaurant on the Cambridge-Somerville border between Harvard and Inman Squares, one must also consider how wine replenishes after a paired bite.
