The Game Changer

For over two decades, Jerry Comfort, Treasury Wine Estates’ Senior Manager of Wine Education, has been exploring the chemistry behind food and wine pairings.

An early start helped solidify his oenological leanings: as soon as he had been of age to drink, he was already working in the kitchen of one of only eight Mobil-rated five-star hotels in the United States at the time, which put him in proximity to what he describes as ‘a world-class cellar’.

Over the years, he honed his skills in various restaurants in San Francisco, just as the city was experiencing its ‘culinary renaissance’, before heading up to Napa Valley, where he was first chef de cuisine at Domaine Chandon for four years, before going on to Beringer Vineyards, first as a chef and, later on, to develop the exquisite food and wine pairings which have since left legions of visitors smacking their lips.

During a lunch at the Senses restaurant at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur and over a bottle of opulent 2001 Chateau St Jean’s Cabernet Sauvignon Cinq Cépages and a delicious Beringer White Zinfandel, he explains the science in a perfect food-wine pairing that has eluded even master sommeliers.

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