Wine with your TV dinner? Huh!
I was watching the new Harrison Ford movie "Firewall" with my wife last weekend, and about a quarter of the way into the action, the ruthless thief who has held Ford's family hostage pops a TV dinner into the microwave.
He took it out and turned to Ford.
"Do you have any wine?" the thief asked, holding the TV dinner.
Ford: "Yes, in the basement."
The thief, played by Paul Bettany, turns to one of his henchmen.
"Go get me a nice bottle of red," Bettany commands.
"I don't know nothing about wine."
"Just look for the bottle that has a lot of dust on it," Bettany replies in his proper British accent.
Is that how you should judge a good bottle of red wine, by it apparent age? And, by the way, what wine does go well with a TV dinner?
Let's deal with the second question first. Answer: Any darn wine you like. But be realistic: Do you really want to drink a bottle of 2000 Bordeax with a "hungry man" dinner of cube steak and mashed potatoes? Wouldn't you rather have that exquisite bottle of Bordeaux with the finely cut steaks you got from the butcher at the
gourmet store.
In wine, as in life, it's all about appropriateness.
So, an inexpensive, uncomplicated wine might be the most appropriate match with a TV dinner, itself a pretty unglamorous but functional meal.
I recommend the table wines from Europe. Many are good wines, in fact. But they carry the table wine designation, in part, because these wines aren't always made with grapes from a particular region.
Look for these words on the label:
French wine, vin de table
Spanish wine, vino de mesa
Italy, vino de tovala
We don't tend to drink as much with our midday deals as Europeans do. But tables wines are good with that ham-and-swiss you're having for lunch.
Now, to the second issue: Does a wine have to be old to be good?
Of course not. The vast majority of wines are meant to be consumed as soon as you buy them. Only the better red wines -- the bordeauxs, the zinfandels, the cabernets -- really benefit from being stored for five or so years.
I follow the philosophy that I want to hold on to really good wine for several years, but drink them at special events. For example, my older son, Michael, will be finishing his military duty with the Army in September. I have been saving a bottle of 2000 Bordeaux just for this event. My younger son Otto will graduate from college, hopefully, in three years. I have a 2001 bottle of Bordeaux lined up for that.
I was watching the new Harrison Ford movie "Firewall" with my wife last weekend, and about a quarter of the way into the action, the ruthless thief who has held Ford's family hostage pops a TV dinner into the microwave.
He took it out and turned to Ford.
"Do you have any wine?" the thief asked, holding the TV dinner.
Ford: "Yes, in the basement."
The thief, played by Paul Bettany, turns to one of his henchmen.
"Go get me a nice bottle of red," Bettany commands.
"I don't know nothing about wine."
"Just look for the bottle that has a lot of dust on it," Bettany replies in his proper British accent.
Is that how you should judge a good bottle of red wine, by it apparent age? And, by the way, what wine does go well with a TV dinner?
Let's deal with the second question first. Answer: Any darn wine you like. But be realistic: Do you really want to drink a bottle of 2000 Bordeax with a "hungry man" dinner of cube steak and mashed potatoes? Wouldn't you rather have that exquisite bottle of Bordeaux with the finely cut steaks you got from the butcher at the
gourmet store.
In wine, as in life, it's all about appropriateness.
So, an inexpensive, uncomplicated wine might be the most appropriate match with a TV dinner, itself a pretty unglamorous but functional meal.
I recommend the table wines from Europe. Many are good wines, in fact. But they carry the table wine designation, in part, because these wines aren't always made with grapes from a particular region.
Look for these words on the label:
French wine, vin de table
Spanish wine, vino de mesa
Italy, vino de tovala
We don't tend to drink as much with our midday deals as Europeans do. But tables wines are good with that ham-and-swiss you're having for lunch.
Now, to the second issue: Does a wine have to be old to be good?
Of course not. The vast majority of wines are meant to be consumed as soon as you buy them. Only the better red wines -- the bordeauxs, the zinfandels, the cabernets -- really benefit from being stored for five or so years.
I follow the philosophy that I want to hold on to really good wine for several years, but drink them at special events. For example, my older son, Michael, will be finishing his military duty with the Army in September. I have been saving a bottle of 2000 Bordeaux just for this event. My younger son Otto will graduate from college, hopefully, in three years. I have a 2001 bottle of Bordeaux lined up for that.
posted by McQueen | 6:57 PM
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