Pairing Your Favorite Super Sunday Snacks With the Right Wine
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
Once again, New Yorkers are in the middle of a football-wasteland week. No home team to root for in the post-season and no built-in reason to quaff our favorite wine or beer as we veg out in our favorite reclining chair.
The upcoming Super Bowl LVII game is as much anticipated for its off-the-field festivities as it is for its on-the-field combat. The season has come down to a single game and the glory and esteem it will bestow on one team.
A few statistics as a reference point for the game:
On the field: The Kansas City Chiefs are appearing in their fifth Super Bowl (third in the last four years). The Philadelphia Eagles have been in the Super Bowl four times. Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, is one of, if not the, premier quarterback in the league. Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts, is this season’s breakout star quarterback.
Off the field: Super Bowl Sunday brings together friends and family to indulge in the biggest junk food day of the year. Once a year we indulge guilt-free in those waist-widening, artery-clogging foods we attempt to avoid fastidiously all year. And what better way to wash down those calories and fat than with your favorite beverage. Although beer comes to mind as the beverage of choice for junk food, wine will stand up to the challenge for a number of these ubiquitous snacks.
On this traditional national junk food day, the National Restaurant Association predicts that 48 million Americans will order takeout food. What will we be eating? About 69 percent will be noshing on salsa, chips and dips and 63 percent will be inhaling chicken wings. In fact, according to the National Chicken Council, 1.42 billion chicken wings will be devoured, enough to circumnavigate the Earth three times.
When it comes to the American palate, we are gluttons for fat, salt and sugar, the holy trinity of obesity and early-onset heart disease. And the staple of an alarming number of American diets. Super Bowl Sunday is the perfect challenge: pairing potentially artery-clogging, blood-pressure-raising junk food with several antioxidant- and resveratrol-rich wines.
Here are my choices for pairing popular Super Bowl Sunday junk foods with wine. Although I’ve shared these pairings in the past, I feel compelled to reprise them during these COVID-uncertain times.
- Buffalo wings. The high acidity and seemingly perpetual bubbles of sparkling wine cut through the indulgent fat and spice of the wings. Suitable alternatives include Riesling and Grüner Veltliner.
- Pigs in a blanket. A soft, lighter red wine works, as well as a medium-bodied white or perhaps a rosé, but don’t go hog wild by consuming too many. I suggest a fruit-forward Tempranillo or velvety Merlot, but you can also borrow that bottle of Grüner Veltliner your wings-fanatic friend is hogging.
- Spinach and artichoke dip (or its close cousin) the seven-layer taco dip. The fat, salt and sugar components are easily sublimated by a crisp, minerally acidic Spanish Albarino or Verdejo.
- The scores of fried, baked or otherwise-processed potato products. Again, it’s the fat and salt combo that sets our salivary glands craving for a wine to cut through the grease and yeast. My go-to recommendation is Sauvignon Blanc for its acidity and minerality. Be it the lemongrass aromas of the New Zealand offerings, the grapefruit, tropical flavors of the New World offerings or the citrus, green grass French offerings, there’s a perfect match for these finger-licking snacks. (For fans of chips and salsa or hummus, certain Sauvignon Blancs also pair very well.) French fries? Sparkling wine every time, to cut through the fat and salt, setting up our palate for the next morsel.
I’ve run out of space for other pairings such as chili with Cabernet Sauvignon, popcorn with Chardonnay, jalapeno poppers with Riesling and brownies with Port.
Just as Super (Snack) Bowl Sunday draws many once-a-year viewers to football, so too can junk food draw once-a-year indulgers to satiate their cravings.
Nick Antonaccio is a 45-year Pleasantville resident. For over 25 years, he has conducted wine tastings and lectures. Nick is a member and program director of the Wine Media Guild of wine journalists. He also offers personalized wine tastings and wine travel services. Nick’s credo: continuous experimenting results in instinctive behavior. You can reach him at nantonaccio@theexaminernews.com or on Twitter @sharingwine.
