best wine for NC style barbecue?
I wasn't sure if this was best posted to the 'south' board, but since I am asking for a wine recommendation I thought I'd try here first...
A friend is having a catered event where eastern NC style barbecue will be served. NC style barbecue is slow smoked, pork barbecue cooked and served with a vinegary-spicy pepper barbecue sauce. Around here this would traditionally be served with very sweet iced tea, but prohibition ended a long time ago, and they want to also serve beer and wine. What type of wine would be best? Looking for suggestions for both the red and white wine styles. Thanks!
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I have had success offering a Californian Zinfandel and a South African or Austrian Gewurztraminer - in addition to beer, bourbon, and tea.
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alkapal
Mar 18, 2008 06:24 AM
a inspiration: Long Island Iced Tea punch. Not beer, not wine, just sneaky booze! (i'd have to have some, even though i was quaffing redhook esb with my Q)
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re: alkapal
Actually, the Artillery Punch mentioned above is:
2 gallons Iced Tea, brewed Strong,
3 gallons Catawba wine
1 gallon rum
1 gallon brandy
1 gallon rye whiskey
5 lbs. brown sugar
2 qts. cherries
juice of three dozen oranges
juice of three dozen lemons
1 gallon gin
Mix all this in a cooler and set it aside for a day or two.When it's time to drink, put ice in an Artillery punch glass, fill the glass 1/2 full with the punch, add maraschino cherries and cherry juice, then
fill with champagne.For the above amount, keep on hand
12 quarts of champagne (we use the really cheap stuff)..Tastes like fruit juice, hits like a slice of lemon wrapped around a brick.
This way we get the cocktails, the bubbly celebrating stuff, and all, wrapped into one. ....
Did I say don't put the crocquet set down in front of the skeet traps? I did, I'm sure I did...
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It's a wedding, it's a pig-picking!
Consider Asti Spumante. It's sweet, sparkling, light, easily drinkable, and it's so inexpensive you won't mind drinking it at this kind of event. And since it's bubbly, it's celebrative. Any Harris Teeter will have perfectly drinkable inexpensive Asti, and you can be bringing it as much to pair with the wedding as the food.
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re: fussycouple
danna
Mar 18, 2008 05:47 AM
I was thinking sweet and sparkling as well, although I'm less optimistic about getting a good Asti in the grocery store. (although Harris Teeter left Greenville years ago...maybe I don't know what I'm missing)
I had an Italian sparkler w/ a dessert course at Babbo a few years ago that was so good I wound up ordering more on the 'net. Unfortunately I don't remember what it was.
I can't see any dry wine being decent w/ vinegar sauced bbq.
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Paul Weller
Mar 15, 2008 12:02 PM
Zin. You need something that will stand up to all the spice and vinegar. If it is a large event get something cheap like a Rancho Zabacho. It's drinkable enough for wine lovers and people who drink jug type wines might think it's something special.
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re: anewton
Paul Weller
Mar 15, 2008 05:49 PM
For a big group I would not serve sherry or port. That's more of a people like it or don't like it kind of thing. Port tastes sort of boozy to me. I don't like it with food, and I think sherry is just for cooking, but that's just my opinion.
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re: bubbles4me
Paul Weller
Mar 15, 2008 06:16 PM
Southern France is my favorite region but some areas of the country it's not easy to find a cheap and decent Cotes du Rhone. That's why I suggested the Rancho Zabaco, it's cheap and most supermarkets will have it.
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With the acidity of the vinegar sauce in eastern NC BBQ, it will be very difficult to pair the meat with any type of dry wine and I certainly wouldn't reach for a wine glass where BBQ was served. There is a reason why it is traditionally served with SWEET tea, remember.
But let's try to tackle the request, anyway.
The only sweet wines I enjoy are dessert wines, but I am not sure that any of those would go well with BBQ.
Perhaps a German riesling would work.
If you are in NC, you might try to experiment by getting some take out from a local BBQ joint and pairing it with a variety of wines. I think it might be a bit of a lost cause - good luck to you.
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I've never drunk wine with my Wilber's, but had a bottle of Perrin Cotes du Rhone last night (with a curried lamb chop) that might suit the situation well, having just enough acid to cut through the fat a bit - $8.00 at Trader Joe's in NYC, but I think it's generally available at Lowe's and Food Lion down yonder.
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I live in eastern NC as well, and we do these things, so please don't think I'm putting the only real BBQ out there down.
At our shindigs we serve bourbon in the morning, beer in the hot of the afternoon, and catawba or scuppernong wine in the late of the afternoon. Real Artillery Punch sits in a cooler, waiting for folks to imbibe. Generally a couple folks show up with a few different grades of moonshine they picked up in the last year so we can all check them out.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should take what you personally like to drink - between the wood smoke and the pork fat and the vinegar sauce and the white bread and the slaw and whatever else they have to eat and/or drink, I'm not sure this is an event where you need to be worrying about a wine pairing, except to say to get something that will cut the grease.
I will also note in passing that setting up the croquet sets down in front of the skeet traps is not a good idea.
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re: ncn8tive
karmalaw
Mar 15, 2008 11:01 AM
Make Clerico -- white wine sangria -- large plastic bins -- toss in the fruit (diced apple, sliced kiwi, strawberry, and whatever else you have ripe), into the container and cover with sugar -- let it set for a few hours.. then pour in reisling or any other sweet white wine.
serve over ice.
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