Southern Foods and Wines

Typically, when pairing food and wine, a trick that sommeliers use is to pair wines from a particular region with foods from that region. But what to do when faced with foods of the southern United States? Because we’re not well known for our wines, I often find myself looking for areas of the world where the cuisine is similar to that of ours. Luckily, similarities abound in some of the greatest wine regions of the world.

To begin with one region: Chateauneuf-du-Pape. This region's cuisine mimics our Summer, vegetable-forward cuisine when eggplants, tomatoes and peppers are plentiful. Try the wines from this region when enjoying Summertime fare in the South.

When the weather turns cooler and the Autumn flavors of squashes, mushrooms, nuts and game meats start to grace the tables, I look to an area in Northern Italy called Barbaresco. The red wines from this region are made from the Nebbiolo grape, and they are a perfect balance of fruit, tannin and an earthly delicacy to balance the more robust and earthy flavors of the Fall menu.

In the Winter when we are eating more pickled vegetables and cured meats, I tend to enjoy wines from two distinct areas. One is the red wines of Tuscany, which are dominated by the bright red grape called Sangiovese. Pork and cured pork are a major part of the cuisine in this region and similar to what we eat here in the Winter. I also love the white wines of Austria with cured meats and pickled vegetables. This style of cuisine is exactly what is eaten all throughout the wine regions in Austria, and the high acid whites of the area are a perfect foil to this richer, heavier cuisine.

– Andy Chabot, Director of Food and Beverage