Knowledge and the enjoyment of fine wine

In my 19 years of experience as a wine consultant the one phrase that is often uttered and that gives me concern is, "I don't know enough about wine to enjoy good wine".

I still don't know how much education people assume they need to move up to a better caliber of wine. Personally my thoughts are that no knowledge is needed to enjoy the nectar of the grape in all it's splendor.

Granted wine can be a complex topic and there are mountains of information on wine, and more coming each day, this missive included.  In spite of the massive volumes of information, if we look back into the past man has enjoyed wine even before he was able to write about it.

In it's essence wine is very simple, and some of the very best in our modern age of technology are still made  with a minimum of human intervention.  Likewise the enjoyment of wine is quite simple.

Knowing a great amount of detail about a wine is not going to make it taste better, it may enhance your understanding of the wine and your appreciation of it's propriety, but the quality of what is in the bottle will remain the same.  All one need do to enjoy a wine is to put it in a glass, give it a sniff, if it doesn't smell good you have gone as far as you need go.  Since the majority of our 'taste' is in the aromas we inhale, if the wine doesn't smell appealing you can bet it won't prove to be any different once you get it in your mouth.  If it has a pleasing aroma then all one need do is take a sip, and voila, if it tastes good then that wine is a good wine for you. Conversely if you don't like the smell and/or taste then it is not a good wine for you.

 The person next to you may have a completely different opinion, and that is fine, what I encourage people to do is trust their own palate, your palate can never lie to you.  One person's treasure is another's trash, your taste is yours and will always be true to you.  We all have our own taste in cars, art, mates; we are also free to have our own taste for wine.

Over time your taste may change, but if it does, and to what degree, is still unique to you, therefore you need to follow your palate rather than some popular trend. Often as we begin to pair wine with food rather than merely consuming it as a cocktail; our tastes begin to gravitate to drier styles of wine and as this is a common transition, others may continue to enjoy their cocktail wines with meals and as long as you are happy so be it.

The one caveat I would propose is to always make sure the wine is good quality wine.  Unknown to many consumers, wineries, especially those producing large volumes of 'value' wine, are in the habit of enhancing the aromas and character of the wine with various additives.  The FDA is not the branch of government that regulates wine, it is the Department of Revenue division of Alcohol and Tobacco, and therefore any additives in the bottle need not be listed on the label.  the exception to that was mandated decades ago and that is the phrase "contains sulfites", this is required for any wine containing more than 5ppm (parts per million) sulphur dioxide, the maximum allowed under this regulation is 350ppm.  Most wines will produce more than 5ppm in natural fermentation so this is seen on literally all wine bottles, there may be an exception to this but I have never seen it nor am I aware of a wine sold in the U.S. that this is not on the label.  Wines packaged for sale in other nations may not be required to do so at all.

The advantage of better quality wine is that not only are the flavors more authentic, but your body isn't hampered with processing who knows what synthetic and organic compounds that are foreign to natural wine. A wise man told me many years ago, " if you spend 50% more on the wine you drink, you will be 100% happier about it", that was over 30 years ago and he is still right.

Wine & North Carolina Barbecue

Admittedly I have left the most challenging style, wine wise, for the final missive, on American Barbecue styles, that being North Carolina.  This style of barbecue is set apart form other styles for a couple of distinct reasons.

• North Carolina Barbecue is all about pork, predominantly either pork shoulder or whole hog served chopped or "pulled".
• the sauce is vinegar based and can range from mild to very spicy.

North Carolina barbecue actually has a sub set known as West North Carolina, wherein a little ketchup is added to the traditional vinegar-based sauce.

The biggest challenge here is the sauce; vinegar is essentially a wine, beer or hard-cider in which the alcohol has been converted by bacteria to acetic acid.  In a sense we are trying to pair wine and or beer with soured wine or beer!

We will leave beer to other bloggers. The challenge here is wine and vinegar.  Overall, the best wine to pair with North Carolina barbecue will be one that has retained a good portion of its natural acidity.  Two predominant  factors determine the acidity of a wine:

• its growth climate 
• when the grapes are harvested.

With climate, the cooler the better. As a grape ripens on the vine it develops more sugars, while at the same time, the acidity diminishes. The cooler the climate, where the grapes are grown, the higher the level of natural acidity that will remain in the wine.  With time of harvest, the sooner the better. Again, if the grapes are allowed extended hang time on the vine, the acidity will naturally decrease, as additional sugars are produced.

Golden Grape Estates Australian Blend

This next bit of news may be hard to swallow, but overall the 'fruit forward' expression, favored by most New World wine producers, requires an extended 'hang time' to accomplish. Essentially, what the winemaker is doing is picking 'late harvested' grapes, but rather than produce a dessert style of wine, they ferment the wine to dryness.  This is why so many wines from North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa tend to have a higher alcohol content than wines produced in a more traditional European style.

When looking for red wines to pair with North Carolina barbecue, start in Italy.  Not only do the Italian wine makers prefer to harvest their wines at peak ripeness, as opposed to over-ripeness, but some of the native grapes of Italy also tend to have higher levels of natural acidity to start with. Red grape wines to look for are Chianti, made predominantly from the Sangiovese grape, Barolo and Barbaresco made from the Nebiolo grape.

In addition, wine with the name Barbera on the label, which is the name of the grape used to make the wine, will give you the acidic balance you will want. Outside of Italy your next best bet will be France, particularly Bordeaux, Burgundy and the northern Rhone Valley. Wines from these areas are grown in cooler climates and harvested ripe, with more acidity, to improve their ability to cellar for extended periods of time.

And now for something completely different: as pork has been touted in the media as "the other white meat", there is plenty of justification to pour a white wine with your chopped pork plate. In addition white grapes, as a rule, have a higher level of natural acidity. This also opens up the opportunity to purchase wines from the New World that you may be more familiar with. At the top of the list would be Sauvignon Blanc, a wine with a great crisp acidic character. Also Pinot Grigio, also known as Pinot Gris in the New World.

If you can find an Italian wine made from the Cortese grape, you won't be disappointed.  Last but certainly not least, the Riesling grape has the highest level of natural acidity, that I am aware of. Here you have two options:

• the traditionally semi-sweet German style easily found in most areas - this would be my first choice if the accompanying sauce offers a little 'heat' in its profile.  
• Second is a dry Riesling -  although not as easy to find these wines are a real eye-opener to those who have never tasted one.  Australia has a long tradition of making this style of Riesling and they are quite skilled at it. You may also find some dry Riesling wine from Washington state and possibly the Finger Lakes region of New York.

Well if you have read this far I want to thank you for your time. As always, look for recipes and barbecue tips at The Smokin' BBQ Pit where my buddy Bubba Q really knows his stuff.

If you have specific questions for me just email me at Pat 'the wine guy".

Remember: the difference between eating and dining is a glass of wine. Enjoy one today.

Wine and Barbecue - Memphis Style

Memphis is our next stop on the wine and barbecue journey.

There are three features of  Memphis barbecue that define its 'style'.  The dominant protein is Pork; either ribs, or pork butt that is served 'pulled'.  Dry rubs are used to prepare the meat for the smoker. Often this is the only preparation used and the pork is served 'dry'.

Memphis Sauce, which is either served along side the meat or applied after the meat is off the heat, is a thinner type of sauce that has vinegar as a primary ingredient.

The 'spice' in Memphis rubs and sauces is not a hot spice, such as that found in Texas Style barbecue, so wines with a distinct oak signature are certainly to be considered. As pork is not as fatty as beef I tend to go for Malbec, Pinot Noir, Barbera, Sangiovese and Tempranillo as opposed to the bigger Cabernet, Syrah and Zinfandel varieties.

Lirico Malbec

If the meat is to be served and eaten dry, there will be a wider spectrum of wines that will enhance the meal. The challenge comes when you choose to add the Memphis sauce.

When the sauce is brought into play, the pairing gets more complicated. The vinegar essence brings a need for a wine with a good level of acidity; these will be  wines grown in cooler climates which helps retain the natural acidity. With reds in mind again a nice Malbec brings a good amount of acidity to the table as well as a Pinot Noir. Now, for a change of pace,often times a nice acidic Sauvignon Blanc or a dry Riesling from Australia will enhance the pork ribs better than any red, most definitely with the pulled pork served with a generous ladle of sauce.

Most importantly, always remember to trust your own palate as it will never lie to you. If you like the wine and food combination then it is a good one for you, although others may feel differently, they must also trust their palate.

For more tips on preparation and recipes, visit my buddy, Bubba Q at The Smokin' BBQ Pit, and if you have questions about wine you can reach me at the number on the right, or email at Pat The Wine Guy.

Always remember,  "the difference between eating and dining is a glass of wine. Enjoy one today."

Barbecue and Wine, Texas Style Barbecue

Next in our series, we're heading south, to Texas, where we find some variation from the Kansas City style.

• First, the meat is usually smoked over mesquite wood rather than hickory. This is merely due to the local availability of each wood.  The mesquite adds a bit of a spice note to the meat not found in hickory.
• Second, the meat is smoked 'naked' meaning no sauce preparation is applied during the cooking process. The sauce is either served along side the meat, or ladled on just before serving.
• Third, the sauce itself is a tomato based sauce, similar to Kansas City sauce, but it tends to be less sweet and much spicier.    

 One thing I have learned over time is that hot spicy food preparations and oak aged wines are not very compatible.  So my first recommendation is to avoid oak aged wines.

Since beef is the main protein featured in Texas barbecue, and everything is bigger in Texas, I recommend big reds that are made to accentuate their fruit character.  Some Italian reds would fit this profile such as a Barbera D'Asti, but my tendency would be to focus on the 'fruit forward' styles of red wines predominantly made in the western and southern hemispheres. 

For brisket, a nice Zinfandel is a good match, or a California Central Coast blend, many which feature four to five different wines. For the ribs I am thinking a Petite Sirah or a substantial Shiraz from Australia. Also look for Chilean Carmenere in an unoaked style.  You need the substantial body to pair with the big flavors of the beef ribs.

The other predominant meat is a large smoked sausage, the character of which can vary greatly. Suffice it to say it will be spicy. Just how spicy only a taste will tell, so this is often a difficult pairing.  For this category I would recommend something with a hint of sweetness. The residual sugar in the wine will cool the fire of the spice in the sausage and the sauce itself. The challenge is to find a red wine with that profile.  If you have a well rounded wine shop in your area, you could ask for a late-harvest style of Cabernet.

I get some of these from South Africa, Australia and Chile; however the true masters of full body reds with a nice fruity finish are the Eastern Europeans, specifically the Romanians and the Hungarians.

Full bodied Hungarian Merlot

 The wines they make are well balanced, full of body and certainly on the sweet side but they are not widely distributed unless you are doing business with a specialty broker such as myself (wink wink)! They will cool the fire, but yet have the body and character to pair with the meat.

One other rather out of the box recommendation would be a German Late Harvest Spatlese, since one of the components in most Texas sausage is some pork and the heat is ever present. This type of wine would be a pleasant accompaniment particularly on a deck in the middle of summer.

The most important thing is to trust your own palate, as it will never lead you astray. For hints and tips on how to make Texas style barbecue visit my buddy, Bubba Q, over at  The Smokin' BBQ Pit.

My next stop on this virtual tour of barbecue and wine will be in Memphis, and if Elvis likes it you know it has to be good!

I welcome your questions and comments. Operators are standing by, so drop me a note at Pat The Wine Guy, or give me a call at the number on the right.

Barbecue and wine, Kansas City Style Barbecue

There are a ton of barbecue styles, so lets begin with the 800 pound gorilla of barbecue, Kansas City style.  This style of barbecue utilizes the widest variety of meats, paired with a sweet and savory sauce utilized in generous proportions.

The dominant factors in the regional style are the sauce and hickory smoked meats. This leads to a fairly wide selection of complimentary wines.

When enjoying beef ribs or brisket you could go directly to a big, oak-aged California Cabernet Sauvignon.  The wood influences will enhance each other and the bold fruit will enhance the texture and flavor of the beef, without being overpowered by the sauce application.

If you don't want to feature the wood influence in both wine and food, then a California Petite Syrah would be a good alternative.  This wine is not normally made with a distinct oak signature, if oak aged at all, however it brings big, bold fruit to the palate that will certainly meld well with the sauce and beef.

When pork is on the menu, a bit of subtlety is called for.  I like Australian Shiraz' and blends featuring Shiraz. Also, a good Chianti or Barbera D'Asti  provides a solid platform for the sauce and meat without over-powering  the senses.  Too big a wine will drown out the pork.  One could also make a case for Zinfandel and pork ribs, as long as the sauce is sweet enough to balance the spice of the Zinfandel.

Now for a bit of a twist, when it comes to chicken and turkey I strongly recommend red wine.  Keeping in mind the wood smoked meat and the sauce as dominant influences, nothing fits the bill better than a Pinot Noir, particularly those of California and Oregon. The combination of smoked turkey, KC sauce and Pinot Noir is a wonderful thing for the palate!  Other wines to try would be a Beaujolais, (not the Nouveau released in November, but a true Beaujolais), perhaps one of the Grand Cru Beaujolais, or a Rhone style blend from the Paso Robles region in California would also be worth a try.

As always, guidance is simply that: a guide, not a hard and fast rule, so, first and foremost let your palate tell you what is best for you.

For more insight on barbecue and preparations make sure to visit Bubba Q over at The Smokin' BBQ Pit, and for more on wine, whether you're interested in purchasing some beautiful boutique wines of the variety I have mentioned above, or just shootin' the breeze because you don't necessarily share my opinion, I can be reached at 308-338-0006 at Wineshippers, or you can shoot me an email.

"The difference between eating and dining is a glass of wine" , anonymous.

Wine And Barbecue

One of my good friends at The Smokin' BBQ Pit,  posed a question to me the other day; "Pat," he mused, "what wine goes best with barbecue?"

Initially it seemed a simple question, but as I started to formulate an answer it dawned on me that there is no simple response.

• First, one must consider the different regional styles of barbecue: Carolina, Memphis, Texas and Kansas City, not to ignore the International flare of Brazilian churrasco, Argentine, Spanish , Asian and on and on.  All regions have unique aspects in rub, sauce, preparation and presentation, as well as certain factors in common.

• Second, there is the base protein to consider: beef, pork and poultry; but the genre needs to be expanded to include the fruits of the sea and the sportsman's take of venison, wild fowl and game.

• Third, you need to consider the most complex factor: the ambiance and the subjective nature of this question has to take into consideration; the time, place and people in the equation.

My initial approach to understanding wines was to learn the different regions, so, taking a similar tack with the regional styles should, in my opinion, lead to the inclusion of the other pertinent factors, hopefully with some final conclusion to sure-bet wines that enhance the barbecue experience.  It is difficult to spend over seventeen years as a fine wine consultant without developing an affinity for fine food as well, and my girth is testament to that!

In subsequent posts I will make an effort to share my insights on this topic and, hopefully, provide some views that will prove thought provoking and helpful in enhancing your enjoyment of fine wine and fine barbecue, and since this is an interactive experience, with the barbecue season fast approaching, I welcome your comments as I wend my way through this great and ever-broadening topic.

Operators Are Standing By

Have you ever picked up a bottle of wine at a shop, based on the recommendation of the clerk, opened it at home and regretted the money you just wasted?  You probably drank it anyway because throwing $25.00 down the drain goes against your frugal character.  But whether you drank it or not that was not money well spent.

Have you ever heard someone state a wine axiom with authority, then you repeat what you heard in another group and they laugh at you for believing such a pile of drivel?

My name is Pat Broderick, for the last seventeen-plus years most people have gotten to know me as Pat “the wine guy”, and for those many years I have been dealing with solving those above mentioned problems.  I have worked as a branch manager and a consultant for a division of PRP Wine known as the Wine Shippers.

I service an eclectic clientele who want honest recommendations and accurate answers to their wine-related questions. Most of this is done by phone, and now, due to my improving keyboard skills, on-line.

The company I work with, PRP Wine/ Wine Shippers, represents over 300 boutique wineries from 15 countries. These wines are available to clients in the US (in most states) and are delivered direct from our warehouses located in strategic areas of the country.

To avoid making a wrong recommendation, I taste every wine before I sell it.  Rarely will you find someone in a wine shop who can honestly say they are personally familiar with their entire inventory!  In addition, due to the reality of human error, if I make a recommendation to a client that they are not thrilled with, that bottle is free and the remainder of the case is collected at our expense, the client is issued a 100% refund or an exchange for another wine, whichever they choose.
 
When a client has a question pertaining to wine, they are free to contact me for the answer.  Now, if you ever meet someone who claims to know everything about wine, you have also met a big liar! When I am stumped with a question, I gladly conduct the research necessary to insure my client gets an accurate and correct answer, the great benefit of this being that I learn the answer in the process.

In forthcoming missives I will answer questions presented to me as well as make an effort to demystify wine, somewhat.

Your questions pertaining to wine in general or the specifics of the services I offer are welcomed.  It is my fervent wish that you leave comments, email questions to me directly, or just call me at 308-338-0006.

Operators are standing by...