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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So the first wine we have here is a 2005 ‘Les Granges’ Cotes du Rhone. Also it’s a ‘reserve’…available from Morrisons for £4. Nice colour, simple nose (most wines in this range don’t really give much in way of smell), but if you really need an aroma there’s a wee bit of milk chocolate. When the bottle was first opened it was OK; it’s been open an hour and there is some serious throat burn…very alcoholic tasting.

Real quick: I went into Crouch End Oddbins and bought a Chapoutier Saint-Joseph. It normally cost £13, now cost £8. Spectacular. Elegant. So expressive, yet simple.

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