Information flows at The Wine Forum of Oklahoma

The 2011 Wine Forum of Oklahoma offered wine, flavor and wisdom.

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State University's recently completed its second biennial Wine Forum of Oklahoma, sending me home with some great memories and valuable information.

Raise a glass to Steve Ruby, Philippe Garmy, and all the faculty and students from the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration and College of Human Environmental Sciences for making it happen.

After two days of fine wine and flavors, here are five things I learned at the 2011 Wine Forum of Oklahoma:

• Alcohol is a flavor reducer. What does this mean? It means if you cook with wine or any other spirit, you should cook out all the alcohol unless you're trying to diminish the flavors of the other ingredients.

• Fire can wake the dead. Well, at least when it comes to peppercorns. Before cracking pepper, heat a heavy skillet, drop in peppercorns and toast them a minute or two to ensure that any flavor sent into hibernation by months in a container is awakened.

• Francis Mallmann is a wizard but not from Oz. While fire is the primary force behind the Argentine chef who acted as featured chef for this year's forum, you will see no sleight of hand on his plates nor well-timed pyrotechnics at the table. Rather than turn a piece of beef longing to be the Marlboro Man into a metrosexual, Mallmann concentrates on its natural beauty and flavor. At Saturday's gala, he passed out muscular man-food consisting of a salt-crusted, chimichurri-smeared hunk of fire-charged rib roast and a roasted skin-on potato gently smashed with salt. No edible spires, ribbons or foams. Any lack of pageantry on the plate was quickly forgotten when fork crossed lips. My taste buds were struck into spontaneous song like munchkins after a witch assassination, both the Lollipop Guild and Lullaby League springing forward to promise a bust in the hall of fame.

• Good wine is relative. Whether it's red, white, pink or gold and bubbly, the individual decides the merits of the bottle. If $5 tastes good when you drink it, it's good wine. If only $20,000 bottles of wine taste good to you, start your own energy company and raise a toast to France.

• Progress leads to perfection. After two wine forums, it's easy to see that the concept has great possibilities for enhancing our humble little fly-over state's position in the wide world of food. With further support, it has the potential to grow into an important, foundation-building event for the future of the state's tourism industry.