Characteristics & Compatibility

I had a pleasant evening making some new friends over beautiful wines at Tenuta by Park90, which serves an amazing collection of Italian.

Photo of the bottle of Barone Pizzini Animante we had, with AI-enhanced effect.

Our conversations started flowing with the bubbly (of course). Barone Pizzini Animante, an Italian sparkling made in accordance with champagne-making tradition by the organic grower. Its appellation of Franciacorta denotes the province of Brescia (Lombardy) with the status of a DOCG. 

The choice of the bubbly did not fail to please, with a liveliness that is true to its name, refined bubbles as a result of fine-making, and a nice creamy finish due to at least two years of aging over lees. And I thought these three desirable characteristics which helped to define a bottle of fine bubbly, could perhaps be extrapolated to describe a good personality - a lively nature, refined and consistent demeanors and gentle wisdom matured over the years. We would all love such fine bubbly gal or guy, don't we? ;p

We had a discovery journey of Italian wines, pleasantly surprised by the quality of all the bottles we have chosen. We learned from each other and the sommelier of the lesser known names and preferences. As we warmed up to each other over the bottles, our conversations shifted to the topic of dating too. The wine clearly helped with the talking (and maybe the thinking too). There seemed to be some characteristics (in wine and in dating) which are objectively considered desirable by most, e.g. kindness, intelligence (or talent of various types) and attractiveness (good looks, physique, or charm of various types). As we compared our wish-list criteria and debated over what they really mean, compatibility seems to be the more fundamental issue over and above the list of objective characteristics.

Photo of TheBubblyGal and friends at Tenuta by Park90, photo credit @dchfoong, with AI-enhanced effects.

Compatibility is not a simple equation of similarities or differences in personalities, backgrounds, interests, aspirations or values. It is also not a determination of which characteristic is good or bad. The pairing up of couples may be likened to the pairing of wine - how it is always relative and a matter of finding harmony in the balance and contrast. If paired wrongly, even the best wine can go to waste. While there are some general principles for pairing wines (which we can talk about another time), it seems almost impossible to derive any useful rules when it comes to compatibility between humans. One (wo)man’s meat is another (wo)man’s poison. That is all we can say for now.

Back to raising our glasses, we toasted to the new friendships and best wishes for the new year and the better to come.