>Each week, Pairing Off attempts to find just the right bottle of wine to go with ordinary food.
Until recent years, when words like 'fresh,' 'local' and 'slow foods' crept into our vocabularies, we were all pretty well satisfied with canned cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. The real stuff is just too potent--and cans leave those cool rings.
The jellied loaf still has several advantages. It's easy to slice, for one. Preparation requires a can opener. And for those with a limited palate--kids, grandparents, the cousins from Arkansas--Ocean Spray's cranberry sauce tames that rip-roaring, bitter-tart flavor found in homemade dressing, replacing it with a calm, juicy, jiggling mound.
It's an everyman creation...which, of course, makes it far more difficult to find a subtle wine pairing.
"I usually serve Cru Beaujolais for Thanksgiving, like Moulin-a-Vent
from George Duboeuf or a Louis Jadot Cru," explains Van Roberts, owner
of the late, great Lola. "They seem to go great with turkey and can
handle the sweetness of sweet potato and cranberry." But he has no
specific wine in mind for Ocean Spray.
"If I was going to
specifically try to match only the canned cranberry sauce," he finally
decides, "I'd go with a Zinfandel with a high alcohol extracted style."
Yet he's not really certain.
"It is not what I would personally seek out," he says, "but I think it would match very well."
So
I approached Scott Ewing at Vino 100. With a good, homemade cranberry
dressing he recommends a high end Gewurztraminer for its spiciness.
Clearly he relished a more appropriate pairing than canned
jelly--though he did eventually suggest a Beaujolais Nouveau.
Didn't
sound like a bad idea, really. It's seasonal, light and pretty cheap.
This year's batch just hit Dallas shelves last week.
I picked
up an $11 bottle of Beaujolais Villages Nouveau from Domaine de Saint
Ennemond. The new wine carries a twinge of newly cut wood on the nose,
plus the fruit and must you'd expect. The taste is equally fresh and
light, with a quick finish.
Now, I've never been sure why people
rave over the annual nouveau release, although in France it makes for a
great excuse to party. But its smooth, easy nature seemed like it would
make a great pairing.
In fact, it was just OK. The wine picks up a salty taste from
somewhere, with a swipe of astringent bitterness at the finish. Mostly,
however, it becomes enigmatic between that first blush of fruit and
that zap at the end--and odd sensation of old berries and musty attics.
And it does ease through the acidic sauce.
So, it's not bad. You can set up a wrestling match with the recommended
Zin or pick up a cheap Beaujolais Nouveau and let the wine slip into
the background.
Either way.
