Degustation Interpretations

I recently had the pleasure of experiencing two wine & food degustation dinners hosted by winemakers.  The first dinner was a degustation in the true sense of the word.  Waiting staff brought out plates of food for all to share and poured the wine or wines that were matched by the winemaker and chef.  It was very well done and, yep, worked perfectly.  If you get the opportunity, go along to one.  The other not so degustational (if that is a word) but excellent nonetheless.  There were bottles of different varieties of wines placed on the table (and plenty of them I might add) and then plates of food were brought out periodically for everybody to share.  On this occasion, the winemaker encouraged us to try different wines with the different types of food to get an idea of how flavours worked, or didn't work, together.  I am not sure you would call this a degustation but the experience was interesting and educational.  Rather than be told (for want of a better word) which wine to have with our food, we were able to work it out ourselves and/or, get other "non-winey" people's opinions.  This type of scenario is also much easier to do at home and can be fun, and interesting, at the same time.  'Til next time and remember to live simply, laugh often, wine alot.