On Food and Cooking

wines and beers and spirits are among the
most finely crafted foods there are, the best
that the world and care have to offer. Their
flavor can be so rich, balanced, dynamic, and
persistent that they touch the mind not with
release from the world, but with a heightened
attentiveness and connection to it.
Wine, beer, and spirits are the creation of
microscopic yeasts, which break food sugars
down into alcohol molecules. Alcohol is a
volatile substance whose own aroma is
relatively diffuse. It has the effect of lending a
new dimension to the flavor of grapes and
grains, a kind of open stage on which the
food’s own volatile molecules can appear.
Yeasts are also prodigious flavor chemists, so
during the fermentation they fill that stage
with dozens of new aromas. The winemaker or
brewer then directs the transformation of this
teeming, unruly cast into a balanced,
harmonious ensemble.
Though they share this basic nature, wine