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Texas Wine Pairing Guide

Holiday Texas Wine Pairing Guide

Tis the season to eat, drink and be merry! With so many opportunities to create a holiday Texas wine pairing, from family meals to New Year’s celebrations, we’ve put together thisholiday food and Texas wine pairing guide for you.

 How to Pair Your Favorite Texas Wines

Before we jump in with our suggestions on how to pair your favorite wines with your favorite foods, we want to share a few general pairing guidelines we use.

 The first is to consider the predominant flavors and textures of the wine you want to serve or vice versa the food you plan to cook.The four dominating characteristics in wine that will impact how it tastes when paired with food are key to picking the perfect bottle for your meal.

 Acidis the zip, zing, zest in a wine. More prominent in white wines, which are typically picked earlier than red wines, therefore with lower sugar contents, acid is the perfect antidote for a rich food or the ideal complement to a food with a prominent acid component. Pair zesty wines with cheeses, salads and oysters. 

Sugar is present in all wines and isn’t always detected as sweet, but wines with a sweet flavor profile are terrific with a wide variety of dishes, especially those with fruit as an ingredient. Pour a sweet wine with a pork roast served with apple sauce or a butternut squash soup 

Bodyin a wine can be a great equalizer for a robust or meaty dish. Think of beef or a rich pasta dish when you pull out a big Cabernet or Sangiovese.

Tannins are less something to match than to manage. Wines with a lot of tannin should be served with foods that are well balanced and never sweet. A fruity Merlot may seem like the perfect match for a chocolate dessert, but the sugar in the dessert can emphasize the tannins in the wine, making it taste bitter and astringent. 

While it’s helpful to think about these wine characteristics as a starting point, don’t dwell on them because a great menu will be a mélange of many flavors and textures. And it really will all come down to trial and error to develop your own personal favorite combinations.

Holiday Food & Texas Wine Pairing

With so many holiday dishes and wines to choose from, we use a cheat sheet on how to pair wine with food to get the most delicious results. Here are our favorite holiday matches:

 Smoked Salmon. Rosé is a sure bet with smoked salmonwhether it’s served as a topping on a slice of crostini or served on its own.

Cheese Plate.For creamy cheeses, a luscious white wine like Reddy VineyardsMarsanneis a sure bet to match a double or triple cream brie. For aged cheeses, such as Gouda or Parmesan, red wines Sangiovese or Merlot will be sturdy complement.

 Latkes. Fried potatoes with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of salt are the friendliest of dishes to pair with wine, but we especially love them with Sauvignon Blanc.

Oysters Rockefeller. Chenin Blanc is a traditional wine served with oysters. The minerality and acidity complements the briny flavor of the oyster and cuts through the savory topping.

Charcuterie. Cured meats tend to have a salty taste that makes them easy to match with all kinds of wines, from Viognier to Dolcetto.

Roast Duck. Riesling or Cinsault both offer a higher acidity that will complement the richness of duck and are compatible with lots of side dishes.

Prime Rib with Horseradish Cream. We’re traditionalist and believe that beef should be served with red wine. With the bite of horseradish and the richness of Yorkshire pudding or mashed potatoes, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or perhaps our Reddy Vineyards The Dyer Blendwill be the best pairings.

 Pork Crown Roast. Pork, when roasted, can develop a subtle sweetness that calls for a fruity wine. If there’s actual fruit involved in the dish, we recommend a Muscat Canelli, otherwise Pinot Noir is always a safe partner for pork.

Smoked Country Ham. Meat with a smoky flavor is an ideal match for Reddy Vineyards TNT Blend, made primarily with Tempranillo, a Spanish grape made to naturally pair with ham and dishes made with smoked meats.

Lasagne. Sangiovese or our Reddy Vineyards Field Blend is a perfect choice for lasagna made with a meat or mushroom sauce.

 Cioppino. A seafood stew with tomato is easy to pair with a range of wines, from a rich Roussane to a fruity red, like Dolcetto.

Tamales. The savory cornmeal and deeply flavored fillings of tamales need a wine that can play in the background without getting lost, a wine like a Rosé that can be both fruity and zesty.

 Brisket. Braised for a long time, brisket will develop layers of flavors that tastes best with a robust red wine, such as Reddy Vineyards The Dyer Red Blend.

Perfect Pairings for your Holiday Table

With all these suggestions, you won’t be at a loss for finding the perfect pairings for your holiday table. And of course, the most important rule for pairing wine with food is to drink and eat what you love and to do so with company you love. But if you still need a little something to make your food and wine pair perfectly, try this trick that wine country chefs use: Season your dish with a little lemon juice and salt before serving. It’s magic, just like the holidays. 

Check Out More https://www.reddyvineyards.com/blog/Texas-Wine-Pairing-Guide 

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Holiday Texas Wine Pairing Guide

Tis the season to eat, drink and be merry! With so many opportunities to create a holiday Texas wine pairing, from family meals to New Year’s celebrations, we’ve put together this holiday food and Texas wine pairing guide for you.

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Winemakers Holiday Gift Guide

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Discovering the Terroir of the Texas High Plains

Brownfield, TX – “Can you even grow grapes in Texas?” “Texas wine - is it any good?” These are questions I am asked daily when speaking with friends and customers about my work at Reddy Vineyards.  Honestly, they were questions that I had myself when first asked to join the Reddy family’s endeavors to launch their own estate wines. Even as a Certified Sommelier I had very little prior knowledge of Texas wines.  In fact, you’ll be hard pressed to find any reference to Texas wines in any of the leading primers prepared for those studying for the leading industry certifications.  But let me tell you, the answer to these questions is a resounding “YES”!

Unbeknownst to most, Texas is the fifth largest producer of wines in the United States with over 400 wineries generating more than $13 billion annually.  The Texas wine industry has experienced an incredible boom in the past thirty years, driven by the craft alcohol renaissance and demand for more locally sourced products.  Experimentation by producers still looking to test the qualities of different grape varietals in the state’s various microclimates makes this period of growth fun and exciting.  Like most things “Texan”, producers here have adopted certain proven methods of viticulture and winemaking but chart their own path, unconcerned with the dictates of tradition and what people are doing in Napa or Sonoma, to makes wines that reflect the unique character of Texas.

Ask any winemaker anywhere what makes his or her wines special and they will generally provide the same answer: the terroir.  A French term referring to the qualities of the place in which the grapes are grown, this concept is equal parts scientific and mystical.  I’ve had the fortune of traveling to numerous winemaking regions throughout the United States, France and Spain. Walking through the Texas vineyards, seeing the geography, witnessing the weather and tasting the wines, you begin to appreciate how grapes are expressions of where they are grown.  My visit to the vineyards of  Dr. Vijay and Subada Reddy in the Texas High Plains AVA (American Viticultural Area), one of the most celebrated vineyards in the state, was particularly eye opening and inspiring.  

Plains indeed! Flat land as far as the eye can see.  Driving down US-380 it be easy to write off West Texas as boring and uninteresting. The reality, however, is that this region has a unique set of favorable geographic, geologic and climatic factors that makes it well suited for growing premium grapes.  In fact, the Texas High Plains AVA accounts for 85% of the grapes produced for winemaking in Texas.

The sandy soils, burnt orange in color resulting from the drier climate, low rainfall and rich concentrations of oxidized iron, provide excellent drainage in the vineyard. Walking through the vineyards is quite reminiscent of walking on a sandy beach.  Nutrient poor, the vines are forced to struggle and dig its roots deep into the earth for nourishment.  Sandy soils are also a natural protection from vineyard pests, including the infamous phylloxera.

Sitting at an elevation of 3000-4000ft, the region possesses a high dinural temperature range.  The warm days and cool nights of the Texas High Plains extends the growing season and encourages the development of fruit ripeness while preserving acidic balance in the grapes.  With an average rainfall of less than 20 inches per year, this region sees less annual rainfall than Napa and Bordeaux.  Although precipitation is more common throughout the season, the moderate rainfall helps to nurture the grapes through the hot Texas summers.  Consistent wind provides a cooling influence and alleviates fungal pressure by keeping the vineyard dry.  

Each of these factors could be analogized to those found in the most heralded wine regions.  This unique confluence of conditions makes the terroir of the Texas High Plains special and capable of producing fruit of incredible concentration, depth and quality.  Even in its infancy, the Texas wine industry is producing many exciting premium Texas wines which rival those made in better-known areas and is poised to reshape the wine industry in the United States at large.  Stop by our vineyards or grab a bottle for dinner and experience for yourself what makes our authentically Texas wines so special!

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Planted in 1997 by renowned viticulturist Dr. Vijay Reddy, Reddy Vineyards has grown to become the preeminent producer of premiumTexas grown grapes.