Highest Wine/Lowest Food Pairing

WINE TALK
1

Someone mentioned the Sideways scene where Miles drinks his Cheval Blanc with fast food, and it got me thinking. What’s the “highest” wine you’ve ever paired with the “lowest” food. Napa Cab with blue box mac n cheese? Oscar Meyer Beanie Weenies with Premier Cru Burgs? More importantly, did the pairing work? Feel free to define high wine and low food however you like.

I don’t have a great answer for this myself, although I do feel like popping something nice tonight to go with leftover turkey tetrazini. We’ll see what happens.

2

Krug clos de Mesnil with Doritos. And, yes, it was GREAT!

3

Sancerre and Crunch & Munch can be magical

4

I had the white castle jalapeno cheese burgers with the chapoutier gigondas two weeks ago.

5

I had a 2004 buccella w ropa vieja about two weeks ago…phenomenal.

6

I’m actually drinking a '99 Gambal Mazi Chambertin… with a ham sandwich and a 10Mg Oxycontin. [cheers.gif] The wine was the best bottle I’ve had from the stash that I bought on release just for the hell of it. I know, not a great burg, but it is just missing an “n” to be a great, memorable bottle. [wink.gif]

7

A couple of older vintages of Penfolds Grange with Round Table Pizza at the winery (at midnight) after an especially long day. Perfect!

8

Interesting question, 'berto. This makes me think about wine-food pairings in a different way than I normally do.

I guess an early contender might be tacos with Tapatio and and sweet German Riesling; but I’m sure I can do “better” than that if I think longer. [wink.gif]



I think this insightful question suggests another potentially interesting question: do we give expensive wines an advantage over cheaper wines by pairing them with cuisine that is more likely to be complementary than we do when pairing food and cheap(er) wines? I would suggest the answer to this is, “Yes.”

9

Many 4th of Julys with excellent wines and burgers and dogs.

10

I think Brian should bring bottles of Woodbridge and Yellow Tail to the French Laundry to help us get a definitive answer.

11

Hey, if you’re paying my bill, Chris, I’d be happy to oblige!! [wow.gif]

Seriously though … are really excellent/expensive/complex wines necessarily – or even more often – better matches to food than “average” or “good” wines? I think my answer is, “No.”

Of course, this is thread-drift — and for that, I apologize. I do think it could be a topic of interesting conversation, though. [cheers.gif]

12

Champagne and fish tacos are a regular at my Superbowl parties. I guess that’s the closest I can come up with, but honestly I never thought of that as a high/low pairing.

Joel Peterson calls for Champagne and popcorn in a recent wine searcher interview:
http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2012/11/q-and-a-joel-peterson

13

Back in the eighties, after several cocktails, with the blessing of my friend’s father, we raided his cellar. Three of us drank 2 bottles of '61 Trotanoy and a bottle of '62 Haut Brion with ribs.

By the way, ribs are one of my favorite foods, but maybe not the perfect pairing that night. First offbeat pairing which came to mind.

14

Last weekend, 1989 DRC St Vivant with bbq blood sausage

15

GC Burgundy and pizza (although we make our own, usually with fresh truffles…).

16

Thanks Larry, I never tire of listening to Joel. I’ll try that popcorn/sparkler idea!

17

Robert Fleming has often recommended popcorn cooked in duck fat then topped with Parmigiano Reggiano and Truffle Salt with Champagne.

We served that at a big Champagne event where the local Gosset rep was helping us and she went pat shit crazy with “No! No! That is not the French way…I will NOT try it!” as everyone else devoured the popcorn and pounded Gosset Celebris.

18

duck fat and truffle salt hardly sound “low” to me! You live in Beverly Hills, Roberto!?!?!??? [wow.gif]

19

Krug and french fries (incredible pairing); I tried Louis Latour Clos du Roi with Popeyes fried chicken (not the best, but not bad); 1996 La Chappelle with Rosa’s (dallas fastish food mexican chain) fajitas, which was a bad pairing. You name it with Pizza, from Grange to Insignia and everything in between from just about every region.

20

That was thread drift inspired by the discussion of the general idea of popcorn & bubbly.