The London based Wine and Spirit Education Trust is well known for its professional courses - taken mainly by those 'in the trade'. They have just announced two dates for the wine enthusiast, a session on matching wine and food.

Held at their base at the London Wine School, 39-45 Bermondsey Street, London the workshop is for fun only and doesn't involve any examinations. The wine and food workshop opens with an explanation of the principles of matching foods and wines together and which combinations work and which don't. This is followed by a practical session tasting examples of various food components; acidity, protein, spice, smokiness and sweetness; and finding out how in practice they react with various wines.

Cost is £50 for a two hour session. Dates are 26th September and the 28th November.

Basically the same wines that you would serve for beef based dishes are also the ones you should serve with steak. There are some steak dishes though, such as steak au poivre and steak Bearnaise that offer slightly different choices.

Simple steaks are highly suited for showing off your finest red wines - red Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and blends made from both. Shiraz is also a superb match and, staying in the Rhone region, so are the wines of Chateauneurf-du-Pape. Generally young or very fruity wines go better with rarer steak or char-grilled. Medium-rare or more well cooked steaks suit softer styled reds. Try a decent Rioja for example.

My favourite steak dish, Beef Stroganoff, is great with a good Rhone village wine. Look towards Cairanne, Vacqueyras or Lirac. These wines often display a distinct peppery quality and it is to these I would turn for the steak au poivre. The Bearnaise sauce makes serving a white wine with steak a possibility. Try a good quality Californian Chardonnay but if you must stay with a red try a good Beaujolais Cru - Morgan or Brouilly.

Oh yes indeedee, my friends, the top wine blog event WBW (Wine Blogging Wednesday) and the premier food bloggers event IMBB (Is My Blog Burning) are combining in May to create perhaps the largest food blog event EVER!

To be called the Fabulous Favorites Festival this exciting event will occur on Friday May 19. Combining the food and the wine FFF is a food and wine pairing event that the organisers hope "will attract the largest group of participants ever for any culinary blog event."

The concept is simple, with two plans of attack you can choose from.

1. Pick a favorite bottle of wine from your cellar and create/cook a dish that goes with it.
2. Pick a favorite dish in your culinary repertoire and seek out a wine that will pair will it.

Or, if you're feeling really ambitious, create an entire wine-pairing menu of favorites.

While we here at Slashfood seem to be too busy to join in (or in my case too forgetful) the biggest food bloggers' event might just spur a few of us to join in this time.

[Nick had a great post the other day for Sugar High Friday]