The Wine Connection: Burgers and Beaujolais

Posted by Dezel Quillen July 28, 2011

The Wine Connection: Burgers and Beaujolais

Hello Friends,

Depending on how old you are, you may remember classic television game shows like The Dating Game and The Love Connection. These shows sought to connect compatible people and entertain those of us who watched. Here at My Vine Spot, your host Dezel seeks to marry food and wine on the blog show -- The Wine Connection. Generally speaking, food and wine pairing can be a match made in heaven, bringing out the best in both food and wine. It can also be a not-so-pleasant experience, producing off flavors and bringing out the worst in both food and wine. For this Wine Connection, my friends over at http://www.winetwits.com/ (great people BTW) put on the event and ordered up the contestants: Three burger creations with three sides of Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais wines. Tweeps (Twitter users) from all over the wine map jumped online to tweet, share thoughts, and join Georges Duboeuf’s export director Yann Bourigault and Chef Bob Waggoner, host of PBS’s Ucook with Chef Bob, for an online Beaujolais and Burger Tasting.

3 Burgers, 3 Ways, 3 Wines, 1 Perfect Summer Night !!!

Aptly titled, Heat Up the Grill and Chill Down the Wine, we watched via streaming video as chef Bob prepared three mouthwatering burgers. His grilled portabella burger looked delicious and is one I’m trying next week! About an hour before the tasting started, the online participants (aka tweeps) fired up the grills and started flooding Twitter (using #GDandBurgers hash-tag) with a steady stream of burger recipes, pictures, and pairing/tasting notes. I decided to do a dish that I call breakfast burgers. This creation consisted of seasoned grass-fed ground beef, a mild, yet subtly sweet Swiss cheese, maple glazed bacon, topped with a fried egg, and finished with a thin layer of habanero pepper jelly on a toasted bun. There were really good flavors coming out of this burger and the sweetness balanced the spiciness of the pepper jelly and the egg added some texture and additional flavor.

My Breakfast Burger Creation

The three Georges Duboeuf wines we tasted, all from the 2009 vintage, were the Beaujolais-Villages (SRP $9.99), Brouilly (SRP $13.99), and Juliénas des Capitans (SRP $17.99). In Beaujolais, 2009 is said to be the vintage of a lifetime, so I was eager to try these out. Beaujolais is an excellent starter wine; it's not intimidating and its low tannins and higher acidity levels make it a pleasant food wine – especially for summer grilled fare (hint-hint). As a matter of fact, my aunt, who only drinks white wine, said the Beaujolais-Villages was the first red wine that she has ever liked. All three wines, in my humble opinion, are very good QPR (quality-to-price-ratio) wines. The Beaujolais-Villages was bright and smooth with a dark cherry fruit profile and good food-friendly acidity. This wine seemed to pair best with the burger I made and the food-friendly acidity left your palate fresh and ready for another bite. Both the Brouilly and Juliénas offered more complexity and depth of flavor, with the latter showing a medium structure and integrated tannins. Georges Duboeuf, a long-time wine merchant in France, is known for popularizing the wines of Beaujolais. As you can see with the three wines we tasted, these wines are affordable, great starting points for white wine drinkers, and highly food-friendly (burgers, pizza, red sauce dishes, etc.). Additionally,Georges Duboeuf wines are available nationally, so you should have no trouble finding them. I extend a grateful tip of the hat to the good folks over at Wine Twits for another great wine event. To quote the Wine Twits Team mantra, “Eat, Drink, Love” – and I’ll add, Tweet. Cheers!

Eat, Drink, Love, and Tweet. Cheers!!!

Have a question about this post, friends? Feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail at myvinespot@yahoo.com, and as always, Happy Sipping! Stay tuned ...more to come!

CLICK HERE to visit Wine Twit's website.

CLICK HERE to visit Georges Duboeuf's website.

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