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Wine With . . . Spicy Sausage (Sandwiches)
by Paul Lukacs and Marguerite Thomas
Spicy sausages are a staple in our house during outdoor grilling season. Local markets seem to offer an ever-expanding range of them, made from chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, pork, and more, and seasoned with everything from chili peppers to wasabi. Served with a green salad, they make for an easy and inexpensive summer supper. They're also a great choice for casual summer entertaining.
When we buy sausages, the two of us often end up eating slightly different dishes. Each of us is likely to choose a separate type of sausage--for example, lamb with mint or garlic for one of us, and spicy Thai for the other. We also prefer our own condiments, and only one of us will even consider putting our sausages in sandwich buns. So even when there are just the two of us at the supper table, we end up acting much like a big crowd at a cookout, with each person opting for something different.
You might think that this would make choosing the right wine difficult; but when we tried twelve wines with a selection of spicy sausages the other evening, we found that almost all of them worked just fine. In fact, of all the food and wine pairings we've experimented with for this column over the past year, this dish turned out to be just about the most versatile and adaptable.
We had purchased Mexican chorizo and Argentinean pork sausages at the Baltimore Farmer's Market that morning. Since we figured that these would be fairly robust (especially for the one of us who ate them on buns along with sautéed onions and red peppers), we sampled only red wines, except for one rosé. And since we think of sausages as mid-week family fare, we made sure that most of the wines sported price tags under $20. That proved a good idea, since three of the four over-$20 wines we tried seemed just a bit disappointing. A Napa Valley Cabernet, much like a Chianti Classico, Rioja Reserva, and Australian Shiraz, seemed complex and nuanced on its own. When paired with this sort spicy fare, however, all subtleties vanished. These otherwise tasty wines just didn't seem worth the money at this meal.
No matter what the various wines cost, the best turned out to be those that tasted primarily of ripe fruit, without too much tannin or too much oak influence. That's because the spicy character of the dish made us want whatever wine we sipped to refresh rather than impress our palates. In different ways, our five favorites did just that.
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Los Cardos, Mendoza (Argentina) Malbec 2004
(Imported by Vineyard Brands)
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$10 |
While we both liked virtually all the wines we opened, we quibbled a little about which would be our five finalists. With this Malbec however, there was no dispute. Each of us independently ranked it numero uno with the meal. Malbec's classic tannic grip and hint of mint and chocolate flavors all worked in perfect harmony with the spice and meat.
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Shenandoah Vineyards, Shenandoah Valley (California) Barbera "Reserve" 2003
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$24 |
This Barbera caught our attention more than the other $20-and-above wines we sampled because of its good tannic structure. Even though our sausages were relatively lean, we found that in general the innate fattiness of sausage meat is at its most appealing in the company of wines with balanced tannins.
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Zaca Mesa, Santa Ynez Valley (California) "Z Cuvée" 2003
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$18 |
If there was any criticism of this wine, it came when the purist of our twosome found it just a trifle sweet and soft with the solo sausages. Tasting it with the bun and trimmings, however, she agreed that the starchiness of the bread and intrinsic sweetness of the peppers and onions balanced the ripe, fruity wine, bringing everything into delicious harmony.
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