My year of wine: Finding the right companion to lift the tart

Pairing is this season's suburban rage. But I am a late adopter. While the rest of the world is pairing beer and whisky - neither of which I drink - I am discovering the joys of pairing food and wine.

A few months ago, at Le Quartier Français's The Tasting Room in Franschhoek, I chose to pay a small fortune for the wine pairing. It was the first time I had done this - and the money may well have been wasted. For each of the eight dishes on the surprise menu, I was offered a taste of a wine especially selected by the restaurant's executive chef, Margot Janse. Each sip was delicious and each morsel of food was delicious. But I could not describe the effect the one had on the other.

Like there is sense to aromas and flavours, there is sense to pairing. During my recent training at Wine and Spirit Education Trust, convenor Cathy Marston gave me a glass of sauvignon blanc with a slice of lemon and instructed me to take note of what happens to the taste of the food and of the wine. The wine softened, it was smoother and less acidic with the lemon than without. That is what is supposed to happen: Acidity in food decreases the perception of acidity in wine. Likewise, salt in food increases the perception of body in the wine.

Now, everywhere I look there are tips on what wine to pair with what food. Take the latest edition of Woolworths Taste magazine. There are three suggestions about what wines to serve with a mushroom and goat's cheese tart.

One is "a worthy companion to the dish", the second "a fine foil for the mushrooms", and the third "will lift the tart".

Invitations to wine pairing events have been flooding my e-mail. Solms-Delta, the Franschhoek farm partly owned by its tenants and workers, hosted one at DW eleven-13 Restaurant last week. There were introductions to new wines made by the estate's wine maker Hagen Viljoen . I believe the Amalie 2013, a grenache blanc, chenin blanc, rousanne and viognier blend that was paired for me with a porcini risotto, could make dog shit taste like creme brulee.