Superbowl Wines

In the good ole’ U.S. the Superbowl is definitely an unofficial holiday. Whether you love or hate football you will most likely attend a party surrounding the big game, watch it at home just for the commercials, or go out to a bar to see it all on a big screen. We all know the Superbowl foods, chili, wings, nachos, guacamole, pizza, meats and cheeses, and sub sandwiches. The drink of course that usually comes to mind when talking Superbowl is beer. A good beer such as Goose Island, Pere Jacques or Delirium Tremens are wonderful to enjoy with all the foods of football, even a pilsner or pale ale has its’ place. While beer seems the natural fit, one may raise an eyebrow at wine on Superbowl Sunday. But don’t count out wine when it comes to the classic eats on this big party day. Here are a few wines that are sure to be a hit at the party, and are a perfect fit to all “Superbowl food”.

Viña Esmeralda, Gewürtztraminer and Moscatel blend from the Catalan region of Spain is a great way to get the party started. Florals on the nose with a silky, slightly sweet (not too sweet!) palate this is a perfect pairing for guacamole, as well as meats and cheeses and of course anything with spice. A true crowd pleaser that will work from kickoff until the new champion is crowned.

Sparkling wine is definitely not a choice that may come to mind first, but sparkling wine and fried foods are a natural fit. The effervescence in sparkling wine works with the food just like beer, the bubbles cut the grease and fat. An inexpensive pick is a domestic one from New Mexico, the Gruet Winery. Gruet produces many wines in the style of method champenoise, to fit your taste and menu, brut, rosé, demi-sec, and blanc de blancs. A fun pairing with sparkling wine is pizza! And of course sparkling wine is great with any type of dish that includes chips.

Valpolicella is a classic wine from the Veneto region of Italy, and no stranger to wine lovers. Valpolicella, made from the grapes of Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara can vary to extremes. This particular selection from Folonari has no oak aging, stainless steel is used, which makes it a great red for diverse groups. The ripe red fruit and refreshing light palate won’t overpower, be too tannic with spicy food and will be just right with sub sandwiches, pizza, chili and anything with cheesy goodness!

So, when you arrive at (or host) the Superbowl party with wine in hand and get those raised eyebrows, just make sure you share your vino with those perfect pairings and every party member will see beer isn’t the only choice on game day. Cheers!

Sunday Dinner

Just uttering the words ‘Sunday Dinner’ conjures various thoughts for each of us. Usually it brings to mind, thoughts of family and friends gathering in the home to enjoy comfort food. Sunday Dinner delivers food that is prepared with love and is typically stick to your ribs good! The fiancé and I have the luxury of having two Sundays a month off together, quite rare for a couple in the restaurant business. And wanting to put our new Kitchen Aid mixer to good use, we decided to have a true Sunday dinner.
This time of year allows us to enjoy those foods, which in any other season would leave us feeling like we couldn’t walk. Seeing as Italian food and wine are a serious favorite of both myself and the fiancé, we couldn’t help but think of Bolognese for a good foundation to our dinner.
As with so many dishes each of us has our own recipe and version for Bolognese. Traditionally, according to the Bolognese delegation of Accademia Italiana della Cucina the recipe is as follows: beef, pancetta, onions, celery, carrots, tomato paste, meat broth, wine, milk or heavy cream. But as we know, many adaptations use pork, chicken, veal or liver. For our Sunday Dinner we took a more tradition approach with a little pork thrown in, because for us pork makes everything taste better!
Using our meat grinder attachment for the new mixer (an addition that takes the mixer to a whole new level), we used short ribs for our beef portion of the dish, added ground pork to the mix and kept all other aspects of the dish traditional. Keeping with Sunday Dinner traditions we attempted to make homemade spaghetti, after two attempts we are still trying to perfect the consistency of making pasta at home (a much easier job in a 4,000 square foot kitchen) with the new mixer attachments. So it’s always handy to have a little De Cecco around just in case. Never the less the Bolognese turned out amazing!!!

To start our dinner a simple salad of roasted red peppers, bufala mozzarella, greens, extra virgin and balsamic. We had to start light, since we were going so big for dinner. The bufala mozzarella has a rich creaminess that definitely needs a wine to hold up, so to start a Chardonnay from Sonoma seemed appropriate and Jordan, Chardonnay 2006 fit the bill.

Working on New Year’s Eve is nearly mandatory in the restaurant business, and this Sunday Dinner was shaping up as our way of welcoming in the New Year, which sent me to the vino temp for a special red. Cesari is one of my favorite producers of Italian wines and I had just the bottle to go with our Bolognese. Cesari Ripasso ‘Bosan’ DOC 2004, from the Veneto region uses two of the traditional grapes used in this blend, it’s 80% Corvina Veronese and 20% Rondinella, so no Molinara is used here. The Ripasso process makes this wine quite a treat, as it gives structure and strength, the wine also remains velvety with hints of cocoa and tobacco.

This was a great pick for our spaghetti Bolognese and a wonderful way to celebrate Sunday Dinner and our New Year. Cheers!