Today's Wine | 67 points despite not pairing with food. What Otaru Niagara taught me

There are wines that, for some reason, leave an impression even when they don't pair well with a meal.

When I choose a wine, I am always thinking about dinner.

I'll have white because I'm grilling chicken tonight, or maybe a light red because it's pasta. That is how I approach wine, working backward from the dish. Wine is meant to complement a meal. I think that premise became ingrained in me without me even realizing it.

That is why, when I first picked up a bottle of Otaru Niagara, I was thinking the same way.

At the supermarket wine section, a green label caught my eye. Hokkaido Wine, Otaru Niagara. 1,479 yen. It was on the slightly higher end of the price range on the shelf, but I was curious about it being a Japanese wine, so I picked it up. I had heard of the Niagara variety. I vaguely remembered it being the kind with a sweet, grape-like aroma.

That night's dinner was a stir-fry of spinach and pork.
It wasn't anything special, but it wasn't bad either—just a typical meal. Thinking it would pair well since it was a white wine, I poured it into a glass and took a sip.

What spread through my mouth was a sweet, floral aroma like muscat grapes. It was fresh, juicy, and I felt almost none of the heaviness of alcohol. It was so good that I couldn't help but say, "Oh, this is delicious."

However, the next moment, when I ate a bite of spinach with my chopsticks and drank the wine again, I felt like something was off.

I thought, that's strange. The wine is delicious. The food is delicious. But when I drank them together, there was a subtle friction, as if they were interfering with each other. The flavor of the miso competed with the sweetness of the wine, and it felt like both were asserting themselves too much. Every time I ate the food and drank the wine, that friction kept building up.

After I finished drinking, I thought about it for a while. This wine was delicious. But honestly, it didn't pair well with the meal. It was a strange experience.

Since I keep a record, I entered the score for that night. Taste/Drinkability: 34 points (out of 40). Compatibility with mood: 25 points (out of 30). Compatibility with food: 2 points (out of 20). Value for money: 6 points (out of 10). Total: 67 points.

Looking at the numbers again, I was surprised myself. Compatibility with food was 2 points. 2 points out of 20. It was almost zero. But the total was 67 points. Because the scores for taste and mood were high, it ended up in the middle range overall.

These contradictory numbers kept bothering me. Why 67 points if it doesn't pair with food? And is that actually a problem? This article is a record of my thoughts on that.

Data disclosure—a score table of 17 bottles

I started keeping records because I wanted to properly understand my own wine preferences.

Even when I feel something is delicious, I don't really know why. Is it delicious because it's expensive? Does it change based on the region? Does it differ by variety? If I drink based only on intuition, I can't see those things. So, I decided to set four axes and score every bottle.

There are four axes. Taste/Drinkability (out of 40), Compatibility with mood (out of 30), Compatibility with food (out of 20), and Value for money (out of 10). A total of 100 points. The point allocation reflects my own priorities for daily drinking. Taste is the most important, and mood and the atmosphere of the setting cannot be ignored. Compatibility with food is also important, but not absolute. That way of thinking is reflected in the numbers.

I have now accumulated data on 17 bottles. The following is the complete record.

Looking at this table, I notice something.

Look at the column for food pairing.
The 16 wines, excluding the lowest-ranked one, fall between 12 and 18 points. The highest is 18, and even the lowest is 12. While there is some variation, they are at a similar level. However, only Otaru Niagara recorded an exceptionally low score of 2 points. Even though the lowest value among the 16 is 12 points,only Niagara is 2 points. This isolated number stands out as the only one in the table.

It ranks 12th out of 17 in total points. It is 6th from the bottom. However, it is not the lowest, but rather positioned around the boundary between the middle and the bottom. This is the strange part; while it is overwhelmingly the lowest when looking only at the food axis, it has not sunk that far in the total. This is because the taste and mood scores compensate for the low food axis score.

I compared it with public opinion

While looking at the data, I suddenly became curious. Is this evaluation of 2 points for food pairing something only I felt? Or is that the general perception as well?

As I read reviews and product descriptions for Otaru Niagara, one phrase appears repeatedly.

Combinations with cheesecake or fruit tarts are recommended, and it seems that drinking it with savory meal dishes is not really intended.

What surprised me even more was the manufacturer's own description. On the product page of a winery that handles a similar Niagara variety, it says,

In other words, the manufacturer also sells it assuming it will be drunk as an aperitif or dessert, not based on its compatibility with meals.

My evaluation of 2 points for food pairing. This might not mean that my palate was particularly unsuited to Niagara, but rather thatNiagara wine is not the type of wine to be drunk with meals in the first place.

Come to think of it, Niagara is a slightly sweet white wine. When sweet wines are drunk with dishes that are salty or rich in umami, they can interfere with each other, making it difficult for either to taste good.

In other words, I thought my score of 2 points did not represent a flaw in the Niagara, but rather accurately recorded the issue with how it was consumed.

When you line up the data and general evaluations, that is the conclusion that is reached.

From here on is my own analysis.
So, what does the figure of 67 points mean even though I know it doesn't go well with food?

Analysis | Why is it 67 points even though it doesn't go well with food?

While looking at the data and general evaluations, I will summarize what I have been vaguely feeling.

First, there is something that can be explained as a mechanism.

My score is composed of 4 axes, and food pairing is worth 20 points, accounting for only 20% of the total.
The remaining 80% is determined by taste/drinkability (40 points), mood compatibility (30 points), and satisfaction with the price (10 points).

Otaru Niagara only scored 2 points on the food axis, but it earned 34 points for taste, 25 points for mood, and 6 points for price. The total of 67 points is the result of these three axes working well together.

It might be natural for it to be that way structurally. However, what I find interesting is that the design itself reflects my own unconscious priorities.

When I drink wine, the most important thing to me is whether it is delicious.

This standard is likely different from general evaluation criteria.
In fact, sommeliers and experts likely evaluate various items such as attack, acidity, sweetness, astringency, body, balance, finish, aroma, color, and viscosity.

The satisfaction when it hits your palate, whether you want to keep drinking it. Next, "does it fit my current mood?" The wine I want to drink on a tiring night is different from the wine I want to drink when I'm in high spirits. Food pairing is certainly important, but it isn't everything. My scoring system was an honest quantification of those feelings.

Hypothesis 1: Otaru Niagara does not pair well with food

It might sound obvious, but I think it's something easily overlooked. On the night I first evaluated it, I had the Niagara alongside a stir-fry. Haha.

I assumed it would pair well because it's a white wine. But originally, this wine was meant to be enjoyed as a first glass without any food, or after a meal with cheesecake or fruit. Perhaps I used it incorrectly.

Hypothesis 2: There are wines that are "sufficient as an experience" even without food pairing

Otaru Niagara has a muscat aroma that spreads softly the moment you uncork it.
The fresh sweetness when it enters your mouth, and a lightness that makes you forget the alcohol. It was certainly true that it didn't pair with the food, but the experience of the wine itself was memorable. The score of 67 points might have been a result that properly reflected the weight of that impression.

Hypothesis 3: Pairing with food is just one way to enjoy wine

Looking at the data for 17 bottles, the average for the food pairing axis is about 13 points (out of 20). The 2 points for Otaru Niagara is clearly an outlier, but even excluding that, the average for the remaining 16 bottles is around 14. It's not that everyone gets a high score. In the first place, food pairing is an axis that changes significantly depending on how you drink it and the combination of dishes. If the dish changes, the evaluation changes. It's not a number that can be completely fixed. If so, a low food pairing score might just mean "it didn't fit that way of drinking" rather than "that wine is bad."

None of these three hypotheses are certainties, but what they all have in common is that when evaluating wine, using "does it pair with food" as the sole criterion might be a bit narrow-minded.

Tips you can use for choosing wine

From this reflection, I will summarize three things that seem useful for choosing my own wine.

First: Decide on the "goal" for tonight before choosing

When standing in the wine section of a supermarket, I think many people try to choose based on food pairing. I was like that for a long time too. But actually, there is something you should decide before that. What is the purpose of drinking wine tonight?. Do you want to make your meal taste better, do you want to enjoy a glass slowly after the meal, or do you want to change your mood after a tiring day? Once the goal is decided, the wine you should choose changes. Sweet wines like Otaru Niagara struggle to show their strength when paired with meals, but they demonstrate outstanding presence when served with dessert or enjoyed as a pre-dinner drink to lift your spirits.

Second: Use the sweet/dry label as the first filter for choosing food

When you pair sweet wine with salty side dishes, a feeling of "interference" is likely to arise, just as I experienced. Until you get used to pairing, just keeping a rough distinction—dry for meals, sweet for desserts or aperitifs—will reduce failures. If you pick up a wine labeled as semi-sweet or sweet, stop and think for a moment if it will go with tonight's dinner. The next time you see Niagara at the supermarket, it might be a good excuse to buy cheesecake for the weekend night.

Third: Give yourself permission to choose wine based on mood or aroma

If you only think about food pairing, choosing wine starts to feel like a chore. The anxiety of "what if it doesn't match?" comes first. But after drinking 17 bottles, I think that most of the joy of wine starts from the simple feeling of "I want to drink this tonight." That night with Otaru Niagara, it didn't pair with the food, but the aroma the moment I uncorked it was truly wonderful. Haha.
Such experiences are also valuable wine memories. You don't have to aim for perfect pairing, and even if it doesn't match, it's an experience that teaches you how to choose next time.

You don't need to look for the right answer with wine

A night when I drank a sweet white wine alongside a stir-fry.
I could only give it 2 points for its pairing with the meal, but the scent of Muscat when poured into the glass remains clearly in my memory. Numbers are honest, but there are things that cannot be told by numbers alone. The record of 67 points was the sum total of that night with the wine.

When I first started scoring, I feel like I was looking for answers in the numbers. If it's above a certain score, buy it; if it's below, skip it next time. I thought that by having such criteria, I wouldn't get lost. But after drinking 17 bottles, what I realized is thatnumbers are clues, not answers. Even with the same wine, the evaluation changes depending on the food you drink it with. Your perception changes if your mood is different, and even if it doesn't pair well with a meal, there are nights that leave a lasting impression.

Otaru Niagara was a wine that possessed a deliciousness outside of my evaluation criteria. If I try drinking it with dessert, it might get a different score. Next time, I will try choosing it with the goal of a quiet time after a meal, rather than the meal I had tonight.

Perhaps there is no perfect correct answer to choosing wine. But there is certainly a feeling of looking forward to opening the next bottle.