At the stroke of midnight on November 20, with great anticipation and celebration, France will honor the uncorking of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau.
And even though we Americans were sampling this year’s Childress Vineyard’s Fine Swine Wine —produced for Lexington, North Carolina’s Barbecue Festival—the barbecue fanatics and wine connoisseurs who gathered recently in The Omnivore’s tasting room were no less excited.
After all, how often do you get to try a wine that an award-winning winemaker, Mark Friszolowski, made especially to go with barbecue? “The semi-sweet, fruity flavor is a perfect match for hickory-smoked barbecue,” Friszolowski says.
And we agreed. “Light and fruity, with notes of pepper and cherry,” one wine enthusiast said. “It spreads nicely over the palate and is good with the spicy ‘cue,” another opined. “Sort of soda-poppie,” a Canadian added. “Neither sweet nor dry,” someone else said.
Consensus? Surprisingly pleasant and goes down good with ‘cue that’s been cooked slow and low over hickory coals, especially if it doesn’t have a gloppy, saccharine sweet sauce all over it. (To see how Fine Swine Wine tasted when paired against three styles of barbecue, check out my ‘Cue Confessions blog.)
Robert Pierson, a former sommelier and chair of food science and management at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, loves the idea. “Ideally, wines made in different parts of the United States should be tailored to fit the foods of the area,” Pierson says. “If you look at France, geographically the wines complement the foods in the area.” Where oysters are abundant, you have sharp, white wines. Where tons of foie gras is devoured, sauterne, a perfect match, is vinted..
“But don’t waste your time or money on really expensive wines,” advises Pierson, once the food and beverage manager of The Latham Hotel in Philadelphia. “There’s no great match up with a really tangy sauce. It doesn’t exist.” Why? “The tanginess of the sauce will dull your taste buds,” he says, “so why drink a $200 Chateau Lafitte?”
Do you know of a wine that goes perfect with pulled pork? And what’s your favorite ‘cue? For a list of hundreds of barbecue restaurants recommended by readers of none other than Delta’s own Sky magazine, check out this link.
David
Delta Sky
Note: Delta Sky magazine will contribute to Under the Wing each Wednesday. Tell us what you think!
October 29th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I just heard about the merger and certainly hope that I will still be seeing SKY as usual on my business trips every month. It is a great magazine, one I enjoy as much or more than any subscription magazine I pay for. Long live SKY.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Wow Mr. Bojangles, you’re probably one of the few Sky fans. I bet David B. really appreciates your comment (WINK). So what do you like about a magazine that’s mostly ads and regurgitated press releases? Last time I flew though, it looked pretty small and weak. I probably should have opened it. You want a read, pick up the Economist, the New Yorker, or Sports Illustrated.
Personally, I am looking forward to Delta’s initiative with the Internet. Digital media is the future, not print. Congratulations on Internet access Delta!
October 30th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Well TOND, I do read the New Yorker (just finished a piece on Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell: good. And I know The Economist well as a friend works there. But I have to say I just flew Delta and they had an issue all about coffee that was a hell of a hoot, and full of good information as well. Yes, there was an insert at the back of the mag on some part of the country, but even the New Yorker is plugged full of pages such as “Florida Escapes” “and other pages of real estate I certainly can’t afford.
But yes, the Internet is great. I get to speak to dudes such as you. But of all the travel mags out there, SKY always has something of worth to read, sometimes alot. I would miss it.
November 1st, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Hey, guys…remember there are plain ol’ ordinary folks reading this, too. I don’t read the New Yorker or the Economist, becuz they don’t have much to do with my job (receptionist) or my home life (laundry, grocery shopping, and feeding cats). The point is, lots of us out want to read entertaining, escapist stuff—not that we are uneducated or unthoughtful, but we need a break when we’re not mailing off the water bill or changing diapers. So we like Sky. And I love ‘que and Coca Cola! I’m following the bbq blog with sticky fingers and an open mind for swine wine or whatever comes ’round next.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Well GO BLUE, believe me I live alone and so do my own laundry, grocery, cooking and feeding of the dogs. I am with you on the barbeque (especially if someone else cooks it) and the Coke (who can stand Pepsi) and the fact that SKY is great because it is just plain entertaining and, as I said before, seems to combine really well written pieces with really fun and funny pieces. I fly other airlines, too, as a pharm rep and SKY is the only airline mag I really look for and really read. Looking forward to the uncorking of the Beaujolais. Love that stuff with anything.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:16 pm
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