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Super Bowl Synchronicity


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My kind of Super Bowl

It's Super Bowl Sunday, readers.  Which really means nothing to me, honestly.  I have no vested interest, I have no favorites, I have no great love of the game.

But what I do have, dear readers, are two phenomenal food-and-wine pairings for you today.

The Vertikal Riesling with the Spicy Garlic Shrimp.  The Vertikal is fine for drinking by itself (which means, on the sweet side), but it really gains a new life when drank with the spicy, garlicky, srirachy flavors of the shrimp.

The Vertikal is a bit nebulous.  The label indicates the wine was made in the Mosel river region in Germany, which is a very good thing.  But, it's imported to the States by an American wine company...and it's not out of the question for a conversation between American importers and German winemakers to go like this:

Am: Hey, there, German wine people.  We've got a great way to sell your wine here in the States.

Germ: Oh yeah, how's that then?

Am: We know that a true Riesling is on the dry side, but we can sell more of it if it's a little sweeter.  Americans like sweeter wine, and they like feeling like they're drinking European wines.  What do you say?  Your wine, sweeten it up a little, and we'll sell it for you?

Germ: It goes against everything we believe in, but ach, we need the marks.  Okay.

There you go.  It probably happened very similar to that.

Pairing #2

Ignore the scratched-off price tag.  That's the way it is around here
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A pretty good pairing, although not as good as the Riesling/Shrimp

For dinner tonight, the kids chose a tasty, fun French bread pizza.  The main base, though, was Ranch dressing and mozzarella cheese.  Interesting, right?  I mean, what wine does one pair with a Hidden Valley Ranch dressing?

All research points to a Chardonnay (maybe a Pinot Gris).  So, that's what I bought.  For some weird reason, Brent bought the Black Swan brand on Chardonnay...and it's not because he's a fan of the movie (because he certainly is not).  This wine was gorgeous to pour, that dark golden color...I mean, just pure spun gold.  The taste was okay, nothing terrible, but nothing to write home about either.  It paired well with the pizza, and I definitely noticed more caramel notes coming out of the wine as I ate the pizza.

And, on a plus note, making the pizza allowed me to use up the rest of my Hidden Valley Ranch dressing.  Now I can go another three years before buying another bottle (not really, but one can wish).

Go Bears!  Or Bulls!  Or Bottles of Wine!



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