Skip to main content
Category

Spirits

Jun 18
Love0

Pairing Food With Local Drinks: 8 Cities That Get It Right

By Beer, Food, Spirits, Taste Vacations, Wine No Comments

One of the best ways to explore a destination is through its flavors. It’s not just about what’s on your plate, but in your glass. Around the world, some cities go above and beyond, offering local pairings that are more than just delicious—they’re cultural experiences.

Whether it’s a flaky pastry paired with fortified wine or street tacos served with smoky mezcal, these 8 cities perfect the pairing game, giving food-loving travelers something to savor and remember. Let’s talk about pairing food with local drinks.

1. Porto, Portugal

Pairing: Pastel de nata + Tawny Port
Why it works: Portugal’s famous egg tart is a sweet custard dream, and when you pair it with a chilled tawny port, the caramel notes sing. In Porto, you can hop between pastry shops and historic port lodges in a single afternoon.

Pro tip: Visit Café Majestic for coffee and a tart, then cross the river to Graham’s or Taylor’s for a port tasting with cheese and chocolate or let us organize a perfect tasting for you.

2. Cape Town, South Africa

Pairing: Bobotie + Chenin Blanc
Why it works: Bobotie is a spiced meat pie with sweet-savory flavors that shine next to a crisp, slightly fruity Chenin Blanc—a South African favorite that’s having a global moment.

Pro tip: Visit Franschhoek or Stellenbosch for a taste of the Cape’s best pairings, included on our South Africa Wine & Safari Vacation.

3. Brussels, Belgium

Pairing: Moules-frites + Saison beer
Why it works: Mussels in white wine sauce, served with golden fries, call for something dry and effervescent. Enter: saison—a Belgian farmhouse ale that’s bubbly, slightly funky, and perfect with seafood.

Pro tip: Pair each course with a different Belgian beer. You’ll find entire menus dedicated to beer pairings here.

4. Tbilisi, Georgia

Pairing: Khinkali (soup dumplings) + Qvevri wine
Why it works: Georgia is the birthplace of wine, and its amber-hued, skin-contact wines made in clay vessels (qvevri) pair beautifully with hearty local dishes. Khinkali—juicy, meaty dumplings—balance perfectly with the tannic bite of an unfiltered Rkatsiteli.

Pro tip: Try a wine bar like Vino Underground to taste traditional qvevri wines alongside small plates like lobio and sulguni cheese.

5. Mumbai, India

Pairing: Butter chicken + Indian craft beer
Why it works: Mumbai’s vibrant street food and bold curries need refreshment, and India’s exploding craft beer scene delivers. A hoppy pale ale or mango-flavored wheat beer cuts through rich dishes like butter chicken or pav bhaji.

Pro tip: Visit Bombay Canteen or Gateway Taproom for regional dishes paired with creative cocktails and local brews.

6. Bordeaux, France

Pairing: Entrecôte à la Bordelaise + Left Bank red
Why it works: Bordeaux may be famous for its wine, but the food deserves equal praise. A juicy steak in a red wine-shallot sauce sings with a classic Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot blend from the Médoc.

Pro tip: Go beyond châteaux—try a casual wine bar in the Chartrons district to sample regional bottles with cheese, pâté, and duck confit.

7. Mendoza, Argentina

Pairing: Empanadas + Malbec
Why it works: Mendoza’s empanadas (often filled with spiced beef and olives) are baked to golden perfection and practically demand a glass of inky, bold Malbec. The wine’s dark fruit and spice echo the smoky meat and flaky pastry.

Pro tip: Tour vineyards on bike in the Uco Valley, stopping for empanadas and asado lunches with mountain views.

8. Adelaide, Australia

Pairing: Kangaroo loin + Barossa Shiraz
Why it works: Adelaide’s food scene is fearless, local, and bold—just like its wines. Kangaroo, a lean, gamey red meat, pairs perfectly with the spicy intensity of a Barossa Valley Shiraz.

Pro tip: Head to the Adelaide Central Market for snacks, then take a short trip into wine country for cellar-door tastings with seasonal lunch pairings.

From the dumpling houses of Tbilisi to the wine cellars of Adelaide, these cities prove that food and drink are made to be enjoyed together. So next time you travel, don’t just ask what’s for dinner. Ask what goes with it.

Want to learn more about pairing food with local drinks? Check out our featured travel destinations!

Apr 01
Love3
Taking a deeper look your favorite cocktails

What’s in your drink? A deeper look at your favorite cocktail

By Spirits No Comments
The Drunken Botanist

Source: Amazon

What makes a good cocktail? And I’m not just talking about the ingredients like gin, bitters, or vermouth. I mean how were those individual ingredients created? Where did they come from? What’s their history? If you’ve ever wondered the same, you should check out the book, The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World’s Great Drinks, by Amy Stewart.

“Around the world, it seems, there is not a tree or shrub or delicate wildflower that has not been harvested, brewed, and bottled. Every advance in botanical exploration or horticultural science brought with it a corresponding uptick in the quality of our spirituous liquors. Drunken botanists? Given the role they play in creating the world’s great drinks, it’s a wonder there are any sober botanists at all.”

Stewart originally got the book idea while at a convention for garden writers. She was surprised to find that one of her friends claimed that he didn’t like gin.  She then went on a quest to convince him that gin should be every botanist’s liquor of choice due to its fascinating botanical origin. Once at the liquor store to pick up the ingredients for the gin cocktail, she realized that “every drink starts with a plant.”

Stewart breaks down the botanical origins of all our favorite libations: wine, beer, spirits, and even a few mixers.  Though the book is formatted like a textbook or encyclopedia with each plant getting its own section, it’s easy to quickly read it cover to cover, from Agave to Zanzibar cloves. She provides intriguing historical facts, brewing information, advice (and warnings!) on growing the splendid plants yourself, drink recipes and brand recommendations.

A few interesting facts from the book:

  • The agave plant used to make Tequila is not a cactus but a member of the asparagus family.
  • It isn’t the wormwood that made France’s 19th centurey bohemian set “crazy” when drinking Absinthe, but rather, it was that is was traditionally bottled at 70 – 80 % ABV – making it twice alcoholic as gin or vodka.
  • Ever wonder why créme de menthe or créme de cassis doesn’t have cream in it? The term créme actually indicates a higher sugar content and is meant to signify an especially sweet liqueur.
  • Cork comes from the Portuguese Oak Q. Suber. These trees live for more than two hundred years, and by the time they are 40 years old, they have produced enough of their spongy bark to harvest four thousand corks! This is because the bark stripping process doesn’t hurt the tree and it continues to regrow the precious bark year after year.

This is only a taste of the  delightful tidbits you’ll find in The Drunken Botanist. Check it out for yourself – you never know what you might learn!

 

 

May 19
Love3

How to Convert Someone Into A Kentucky Bourbon Enthusiast in One Taste

By Spirits No Comments

I hadn’t been to Kentucky since 1971 when I drove cross-country (during those halcyon days of my youth) in a ’61 VW Van with four of my college chums. While I was there I tasted Kentucky bourbon for the very first time. Here is what I remember: I thought I was going to die.

I coughed, I gasped for air, my eyes burned red and ran with tears. It wasn’t a fun experience at all. I was quite the novice when it came to alcoholic beverages.

Fast forward to last year.  In April, I flew to Louisville for eight days to put the final touches on our Taste Vacations Kentucky Bourbon tour. I had a very busy schedule in front of me meeting our business associates, restaurants, distilleries, and chefs. On day one, I met one of our local partners at his office. We exchanged a few pleasantries and then he told me that before we get started on our day of activities, we were going to do a little bourbon tasting together… it was nine o’clock in the morning.

He wanted to introduce a novice like me to the wonders of Kentucky bourbon. So without further ado and with a twinkle in his eye, he lined up four bourbon glasses in front of us. Next he went into his (locked) liquor cabinet and brought over four different bottles of bourbon. He then poured 1 oz. shots into each glass.

It was a progressive tasting, meaning I started with the lightest style bourbon progressing my way up the bourbon complexity chain to experience more and more flavor profiles.

I can’t remember having tasted Bourbon since that 1971 experience. I clutched the glass with trepidation, held it to my nose and, inhaled the aromas of the drink. Hmmm…it smelled quite good. Good start. Next, I took a small sip, closed my eyes, and swished it around my mouth letting the liquid gold dance on my tongue for a few seconds before swallowing it. This was my first taste of a premium bourbon: Makers 46.

And my opinion about bourbon changed in about a nanosecond.

This drink was really very smooth, nothing like I remembered at all. The OMG finish had flavors of vanilla, caramel, honey and butterscotch. I sadly realized how much of a good thing I had missed over the years. But wait … it gets better!

I still had three more bourbons to taste. I was definitely up for the challenge. The next three were:

  • Woodford Reserve
  • Blanton’s Single Barrel
  • A 17 Year Old Buffalo Trace Eagle Rare “Antique” 

Each bourbon was uniquely different and I’m not even sure which one I liked the best. I’m certainly going to have to do more “research” in the future.

The following eight days were spent meeting some of the most hospitable people on the planet. “Southern Hospitality” is for real. I also saw the best of the best the Kentucky Bourbon Trail has to offer and was able to arrange visits for our tour that are generally not open to the public, making our Taste Vacation to Kentucky a very special and memorable trip.

 

Oct 15
Love3

Kentucky Bourbon (Tour) Riding a High

By Spirits No Comments

I recently read an interesting Associated Press article about the Kentucky bourbon industry.

I must admit I can’t remember the last time I read an article about Kentucky Bourbon. I am sure if one lives in Louisville these articles appear all the time. But for those of us in the rest of the country, this seemed an unusual event.

It turns out the Kentucky bourbon industry is predicting a bright future for themselves:

  • Kentucky produces 95% of the world’s bourbon
  • Production has surged more than 150% in the last 15 years
  • Bourbon production is at a 44 year high
  • Bourbon storage (all bourbon has to be aged at least two years) is at a 37 year high

Apparently high-end consumers in China as well as the American public have developed a taste for Bourbon and the Kentucky industry is humming along to meet the demand. Sure seems like a good time to offer a Kentucky Bourbon Tour!