St. Patrick’s Day Wine Pairings

What kinds of wines could go with Irish food? Sure, you could drink Ireland’s famous brews, Guinness, Harp, Kilkenny and the like, but that’s too easy.

Even some Irish agree. Wine sales in Ireland have quadrupled since 1990. And, as global warming warms the globe, a few wineries have popped up there. Bunratty Castle makes mead, a wine based on honey and Blackwater Valley Vineyard makes wines from cold weather grapes including Muller Thurgau and Reichensteiner. But you’d be hard pressed to find a bottle of them at a State Store.

So this year, let’s turn elsewhere. Here are some likely pairings, keeping in mind that the Irish often share favorite foods with the Cornish, the Scots, the English and Americans:

·         Corned beef and cabbage with a not too tannic red like pinot noir.

·         Irish lamb stew with Merlot.  In fact, everything lamb based, including shepherd’s pie, goes with Merlot.

·         Irish coddle, a pick up stew of leftovers, often including sausage, bacon, potatoes, carrots and such, would go nicely with a red wine with a little weight, like an Italian Barbera.

·         Salmon, in all of its forms, is one of those “red wine with fish” dishes that also calls for a light red like Pinot Noir, or a Carmenere.

·         Fish ’n’ chips, deep fried, goes well with the bubbles of a sparkling wine.

·         Bangers and mash are fat pork sausages served with mashed potatoes and, often, with gravy, calling for a light red wine like Grenache.

·         Pasties, a treat the Irish share with nearby Cornwall, are often made with beef, onion and rutabaga, which has a sweet flavor which goes well with Australian Shiraz.

·         Fisherman’s pie, a rich and creamy vegetarian substitute for its beef based cousin, often includes fish, shrimp and mushrooms, calling for a crisp white wine to cut through the richness like a lean Sauvignon Blanc.

·         When dessert arrives, the Irish seem to like theirs to have a wee nip of alcohol. For example, Guinness cake with Bailey’s frosting. It’s a whiskey cake, with two tablespoons of Irish whiskey in the cake and a full quarter cup of it in the butter cream frosting. They also enjoy Irish chocolate stout cake. Here you need a powerful wine like red port.

With these wine choices, you can toast St. Paddy with the best of the beer drinkers.

The word for “Cheers” in Ireland, incidentally, is “Sláinte.” It’s up to you and Google to figure out how to pronounce it.

Keep checking the blog site for more tips and announcements!

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