Paddy O'Romanee

Just a hypothetical here.

Let's say your trailer trash redheaded wife of Irish extract insists on a full blown stereotypical Irish-American feast over your protestations every Saint Patrick's Day. So every year you make it, and every year it's served with equally insisted upon Harp lager dyed a cheery neon green.

But this particular year your Funny Little Hunny has invited a friend to share in the feast. A friend who does not like beer. A friend who has requested wine.

What wine would you serve?

Just to refresh your memory:

Corned beef
Cabbage
Mashed potatoes (AND colcannon)
Irish soda bread

If it makes a difference, one corned beef will be steamed over beer (my fave), another slow cooked in ginger ale (hers). The cabbage is braised for hours with aromatics - the only way my Lower GI tract can have it without clearing the room 10 minutes later. Boiled cabbage = death.

Waddaya suggest as far as grape variety, keeping in mind this is not a person who might appreciate the difference between Sutter Home and Screaming Eagle (and would probably be more excited to see the former)?

Yes. Just a hypothetical.

Well, you could have a Wild Geese Bordeaux (Leo or Langoa Barton, Lynch Bages)

I usually serve a drier Riesling, on idea that it works with choucroute. The corned beef is less wine friendly than the sausages and meats I use in choucroute (and the cabbage a bit more assertive than wine-cooked kraut), so I typically serve something on lower $$ end like a base Trimbach or a Fingers Lake Riesling. A not too sweet QbA or Kab could do as well.

I think red would be harder, but something easy going like a Beaujolais AC or a CA field blend like Marietta would be ok. This is not the time for splurging.

Thanks Dale!

[Jenise]

Pretty much agree with Dale. Riesling, gewurz, or a lighter style zinfandel. Something like a Valpolicella might work very well, too. Hey, I know, a tangy Borsao Grenache from Spain--in my head based on the last bottle I tasted, this would be a perfect corned beef red.

If you serve a mustard and you use the Riesling or the Gewurz, consider mixing a tiny bit of the wine with a dash of sugar into the mustard. Makes it a little runnier and drizzle-worthy, and the wine flavor adds terrific complexity. Extra points for adding fresh chopped mint.

Pretty much agree with Dale. Riesling, gewurz, or a lighter style zinfandel. Something like a Valpolicella might work very well, too. Hey, I know, a tangy Borsao Grenache from Spain--in my head based on the last bottle I tasted, this would be a perfect corned beef red.

If you serve a mustard and you use the Riesling or the Gewurz, consider mixing a tiny bit of the wine with a dash of sugar into the mustard. Makes it a little runnier and drizzle-worthy, and the wine flavor adds terrific complexity. Extra points for adding fresh chopped mint.

Thanks for all that, Jenise! The chopped mint in with that sounds spectacular, and I'm gonna try that...but not until the mint in our yard comes up and I can use it as soon as plucked. I've tried "fresh" packs from the grocery store during the off season, but those had about as much flavor as the Styrofoam trays they were packed on.

Hey, maybe I can crumble some Thin Mints in instead Quick, to the Girl Scouts meeting hall, Batman!

And Hennessy Cognac as well, good Irish folk that they were originally.

And Hennessy Cognac as well, good Irish folk that they were originally.

Now THERE'S a recommendation I can raise a glass to!