We’re officially in the midst of football mania in Indianapolis.
I haven’t seen anything like it. In the ’99 – ’00 season the Pacers made it to the NBA Finals before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers; in ’02 the Indiana Hoosiers basketball team made it to the NCAA Championship game, every year we have the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ with the Indianapolis 500 and every few years we have the NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis. None of those events have contributed as much pure frenetic energy to Indianapolis as the Colts being in the Super Bowl.
I kind of feel like drinking some tiny bubbles and sipping on some champagne—a response that might be some sort of associational DNA coding to a celebration.
But, I don’t want to get the cart ahead of the horse (bad cliché choice, I know) just yet. There is some business to take care of—notably some food and drink to be imbibed before, during and after the game. Oh, and a game to win for the hometown Colts.
Just in case anybody was wondering, going to the grocery store is an exercise in peril akin to the rush at the store when a big storm comes and people maniacally buy 19 gallons of water and flashlights, just in case.
Except this time its grocery carts full of chips, beer and other football victuals. You know something weird is going on when the Guacamole flavored Doritos have been picked over.
It’s unfortunate that wine isn’t a better match for football fare. I’ll be drinking wine, though. I haven’t picked out the bottle(s) just yet, but I have a hunch it’ll be an inexpensive Riesling like the Jekel and probably a nice Zinfandel. Perhaps, I’ll pick up another bottle of the Kickin’ Ass Colts Cuvee—a wine now getting more than its fair share of promo on Good Grape.
Wine Spectator (WS) and the San Francisco Chronicle both weigh in with football food pairings. An informal tasting panel at WS tried non-vintage Champagne, White Wines (Riesling, Chardonnay and Sav. Blanc) and some hearty reds (Malbec, Cab blend, Shiraz blend, Crianza, Spain Shiraz). Overall winners, according to WS are Chardonnay’s and New World Reds.
At the Chronicle, they make the pairing a bit more tangible and neutral by offering both a beer and a wine pairing. The best pairing suggestion is for chili:
Wine: If your chili recipe is fairly mild, plenty of wines can cozy up to a simmering bowl. Bold wines and delicate wines do not blend well with chili. If you go red, keep the wine young and fruity with good acidity to match the acid in the tomatoes. An Italian-style Sangiovese works well. A somewhat sweeter Zinfandel, like some of the Zins produced in Sonoma, will stand up to the spice in the chili. Think contrasting flavors—spicy and sweet. If the chili is really hot, try a sweeter white wine.
And, At least the Miami and South Beach is getting broken in this week in advance of the South Beach Food & Wine Festival taking place February 22 – 25th. Some of the wine “personalities” that will be in attendance can be found here. Overall, they pale in pop culture stature to their food brethren. Peter Mondavi, while a nice guy for sure, can’t hold a candle to TV titan Al Roker in terms of mindshare.
Over at Wine Spectator, James Laube dropped an interesting factoid—it seems James, a graduate of Chapman College, and a Chicago native, was invited to a tryout for the Baltimore Colts way back when … he got some good natured cocktail party mileage out of intimating that he was drafted. While coy on his pick for the Super Bowl, my hunch is that the pull of a childhood in the Windy City means that Laube is pulling for the Bears.
My prediction for the game? #1, the wine will be very enjoyable. And, I’ll be very happy to win a friendly wager with Dr. Vino by a big Colts victory.
Colts 26 Bears 16
Super Bowl MVP: Colts Rookie Running Back Joseph Addai with 130 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns
Go Colts! And this will be the last Football related post (except for either a personal back-slap or a licking my wounds post for the result of the Dr. Vino wine/football entanglement).