Take me out to the hot dog
The good people at Wines of Alsace held a press event in the Bronx yesterday. It allowed me the opportunity to ponder a question I have long overlooked: which wine goes with hot dogs?
The venue was in fact the venerable and soon-to-be-demolished Yankee Stadium. Bud Light be damned–the wines available were, naturally, from Alsace!
So for you, dear reader, I broke a decade-long fast and had my first ball park dog, loaded with sauerkraut and mustard. It’s a crazy food that comprises of salt, fat, some meat-like product, nitrates, and probably much more. I wasn’t about to eat 66 of them like that American who brought home the glory earlier this month in other “sports” news. (As a point of interest, there was a hot dog afficionado present who informed me that, indeed, the hot dogs consumed in such a contest have to “stay down” and if they come back up, it is a violation known euphemistically known as a “reversal.”)
Hot dog in hand, I surveyed the Alsatian wines. With their good acidity and minerality, they seem like a good pairing overall for the dawg if you’re not doing the classic beer pairing. The most effective was the Albert Mann, cremant d’Alsace, brut nonvintage (about $19; find this wine). It has bubbles, like beer! But more importantly, I found the zesty citrus notes worked really well with the dawg.
Moving up the wine richness scale, I found the heft of the Domaine Ehrhart, “Rosenberg,” geurztraminer, 2004 (about $20; find this wine) to work well too. The faint spice of the wine was somewhat overwhlemed by the “zesty mustard” but the refreshing core of acidity and minerality remained a good complement. The Albert Boxler 2004 pinot gris (about $30; find this wine), a rich, sweet and powerful wine seemed a little too flabby with the food.
The Hebrew National dog was great going down but an hour or so later I found it had an unpleasant, um, “finish” (safe for work: no “reversal”!). The finish of the Boxler wine lingered longer and was much more pleasant.
Maybe this should be an “impossible food pairing” post, too. A double-play, if you will. So which wines do you like with hot dogs? Vega Sicilia?
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On July 20th, 2007 at 2:37 pm ,DiablitoWino wrote:
I’d go for:
Colonia de las liebres Bonarda. It should have enough acidity to stand up to the grease and bitterness of all components.
Nora Albariño, if we want to keep things on a lighter note.
A nice Chianti should also do the trick. Trust me, give it a shot.
Salud!
On July 22nd, 2007 at 9:47 am ,East Village Wine Geek wrote:
I know it isn’t easy to find but Albana for white. Little indigenous varietal from Emilia-Romagna. It is a white wine with a nice depth of fruit but heavy on the acidity. I believe it is normally made as a spumante but Cesari makes a still one. Basically when people come into the wine bar asking for beer I give them an Albana and they are quite happy. And for red I would stick with the cold stuff and do a sangue di giuda from Oltrepo Pavese. It’s a naturally sparkling red from uva rara and croatina; both od which, I believe are rlated to bonarda. Not sure though.
EvWg
On July 23rd, 2007 at 8:26 am ,Marco Romano wrote:
Vega Sicilia would go with, um… felt.
On July 23rd, 2007 at 10:27 am ,Richard wrote:
Riesling Kabinett, but the real problem in pairng them is the kraut not the dog. And beer still works better.