I’ve been to enough wine tastings, winery tours, and wine pairing events that I think I could pair my own wine with the meals I cook at home (or the meals I grab on my way home from work!). The operative word in that last sentence was “think.”
While I think I could pair my own wines, it’s probably not always the case, and I still prefer to leave it to the experts. So whenever I see a restaurant that does wine pairings with their menus I get really excited to try it. Which is why Coppervine – a new-ish restaurant in Chicago – was top of my list when my friend asked where I wanted to get some dinner a few weekends ago.
The concept of Coppervine is to search for the “perfect pairing.” And I was surprised to find when I went to dine there that they didn’t stop their pairings at just wine and beer. They also paired their meals with cocktails. Each dish on their menu has a particular wine, beer AND cocktail that you can try with your starters, main dishes and desserts.
The pairing amazingness doesn’t stop here though. Each wine, beer or cocktail can be ordered as a taste or full drink. This is great to someone who wants to share a few different starters with the table but also wants to do the pairings. You can try that new wine you were nervous about trying or just get a small taste of that cocktail that sounds like it would only be good with a few sips and you might tire of it.
This menu trend could easily be executed at many other restaurants and I think it would flourish! Even if you don’t have the bandwidth to do a pairing for all items on your menu, you could do a limited menu of dishes with taste pairings making it easier for you to execute and for the diner to try something new.