this Friday, InterWined brings you ‘Not So Impossible Food & Wine Pairing #1: Chips & Salsa’, a tip of the hat to Dr. Vino and his “Impossible Food Wine Pairings”.

In July 2007 Dr. Vino asked his readers to recommend a wine to serve alongside snack food staple and wine-pairing stumper Chips & Salsa; and at a tasting event yesterday evening, InterWined finally discovered the answer.

A panel of 12 wine experts helped identify each of the characteristics and four grapes (Touriga Nacional, Alfrocheiro, Castelão, and Cabernet Sauvignon) required to produce the 2006 Pink Elephant, Portuguese Rosé (£5 from Tesco and Morrisons).

And, while InterWined doesn’t yet know if it’s the perfect match for spicy foods, it knows that it is the absolute matchless match to Chips & Salsa, and among the only successful examples of wine by committee. Looking quite a bit like Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry Juice on first pour is a fair description of colour, but an insult to the quality of the wine. This isn’t juice. Sure, there’s raspberry on the nose, but the flavour is more tannic and peppery, with a just of little hint of petrol aftertaste. This is a decent Rosé, make no mistake. But, it’s not until the wine (served extremely chilled) is paired, that it becomes something more substantial and worthy of real praise.

For £5, you would be hard pressed to find a better wine to serve with a bowl of Chips & salsa or Sweet Chilli Kettle Crisps (it’s a very good match for that too), when entertaining guests or slumped on the couch in front of the telly. That probably wasn’t what the Bill Rolfe and Toby Hancock from 10 International, the wine company responsible for Pink Elephant, had in mind when they decided to find a wine to pair with spicy food. (In fact, they were specifically thinking curries.) But, the two of them should be proud, regardless. Finding a matchless match to an impossible pairing is no mean feat. On it’s own: 8.0; with Chips & Salsa: peerless.

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A £6 bottle of Organic Rouge describes itself as ’supple, warming Mediterranean wine.’ From Cotes de Thongue in the South of France, this non-vintage wine is full of red berry, but should have a more robust flavour profile. The wine was more stretched thin than supple, and more hot than warming. Not really the ’sun in the cup’ the label made it seem. The next day, it was oxidized, left with about four-fifths still in the bottle. Undrinkable. If a wine can’t last longer than a day, then what is it worth? For my blog, always under 8 points: 7.7.

The 2004 Quinta do Coa, a Vinho Tinto from the Douro river valley in Portugal, known as Duero in Spain. Wines from the Duero are just sooo good. But this is the first Organic Douro to hit these lips. At £9.25, it’s getting a bit pricey, and while the wine should pack more of a punch, the elegance of the blackberry and hints of bitter chocolate satisfy the mouth, if not the wallet: 8.4.

At nearly £12, the 2004 L’Orangerie de Haut-Nouchet from Pessac-Leognan is easily the best, but that’s expected to go with the price tag. The terroir and elegance were there, but the most important aspect was the harmony. The wine is not too tannic, nor is it too thin. It’s well-balanced and ready-to-drink…with almost anything. But it is 28% too expensive: 8.5.

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2003 Sanguinhal Estremadura: Ripe and bold, with black fruit and moist tobacco. Smooth tannin and a solid structure. Finish non-existent, giving the wine one, big great flaw. Other than that, feeling turned around on Portugal: 8.7.

2004 Lusitano Alentejo: Plumy and bubble-gummy, black cherry aroma, with a tad too much oak. Real old world style and surprisingly daring and rich; also, died in the aftertaste department: 8.8.

Decided to try the Bonny Doon, ‘Ancient Vine,’ Carignan, 2004. This wine brings with it a reputation larger than its label. Compared to the Portuguese wines, it was thin. Not unpleasant, but lacked the minerality and earth of the other two (just remembered the two Portuguese wines had that). That’s what you get when you stick ancient vines in fertile earth, though. No true identity; just another California wine. Drank the rest of the bottle the next evening with no apparent oxygen evolution: 8.5.

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While not terribly bad, the 2005 Wolftrap is an awkward mish-mash of Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvedre and Viognier. The aroma swirls with black pepper and tastes of too much oak. It would be a challenge for any expert to taste it blind and say, “Yup, that’s a South African blend of red and white grapes.” My guess is that they would guess South Australia Shiraz. 8.2, not for flavour, but for lacking guts. Also, it’s too early for it to be on the shelves. Too tight, don’t drink before 2007. Around £7.50 at Oddbins.

The Glen Carlou, one of my favourite South African wine producers, 2004 Tortoise Hill Red is also a blend…predominately Cabernet Sauvignon, 69 percent…so big miss there. Syrah is in there, but not Cinsault, at 12.5 percent. Zinfandel and Merlot are there, at nine and four percent… but the big surprise is the Portuguese bad boy Tourega Nacional fills out the rest of the bottle.) With all those grapes, it’s disappointing… and, oddly, tastes South African. Berries, fruity, oaky, tannic and tight. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. 8.0, because I expected better. Less than £8, also at Oddbins.

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