Sparkling wine and potato chips
There is nothing I like more than having fun with what I do. Sometimes wine can be such a pretentious subject and being pompous is definitely not in my repertoire. The times when I do try and act the part of the ‘wine snob’, I will undoubtedly end up dribbling red wine down my front or something of the like. That’s typical clumsy Casey.
Therefore I must celebrate my skills and I believe that is by bringing fun into the world of wine. I want to strip wine of that snobbish vibe and show that anyone can enjoy it. It’s also noteworthy to know that you don’t have to own an Aston Martin to enjoy wine either.
Potato chips, whether they are crinkle cut, quick fried or salted are the ultimate snack food. They are cheap, accessible and nowadays you can even get some ‘slightly’ healthy ones. So let’s match the ultimate snack food to wine, better yet, lets make it something sparkling.
I have always heard that sparkling wine and potato chips flatter each other. Actually experts like Sommelier, Jaclyn Stuart, believe that the effervescence (sparkling quality of the wine) of the wine, especially dry sparklers, clears the palate of the fried fat in the chips. How good is that? Basically what we are saying here is that you are tricking your palate that it ate anything remotely bad for you. I like!
So last Friday I headed down to the local Sainsbury Supermarket to gather my supplies. As I’m still on a backpacker’s budget I was pretty limited to what I could get. Needless to say it was still a great night overall. My shopping purchase consisted of: 1x bottle of Sainsbury Brut Cava £5 and 1 x packed of those mixed flavour school lunchbox bags of potato chips £2.
Preparation was simply: Cava in the freezer and open the chip packs. What a great way to spend a Friday night with great company.
The Cava which won a bronze medal at the 2011’ International Wine & Spirits Competition’ was surprisingly delicious. In the glass it is a lemon colour with beautiful gold flecks that catch the light. The bubble stream in the glass was vivacious throughout the whole half an hour or so it took to drink the bottle, which I found rare for Cava. Normally the bubbles die out super quick. The palate was extremely approachable with notes of granny smith apple, citrus and barely ripe nectarines.
Now the bit you have all been waiting for. What was it like with the potato chips? I bought 4 of the typical flavours: ready salted, cheese & onion, prawn cocktail and salt’n’vinegar. Here is what we came up with, after various tests 😉
Ready Salted: This is the typical sparkling wine potato chip flavouring match. In my household it was not bad. It is complimentary but not that bang of flavours we were all so looking forward to. Next chip my dear..
Cheese & Onion: I have to admit I was a fan. The cheese hit did take over the palate but as I mentioned previously, the Cava really did take that ‘I’m such a fatty for eating chips’ feeling out of my mouth.
Prawn Cocktail: I was so looking forward to this one and I thought it would be a dead winner. I mean you can’t do better than a bottle of sparkling with seafood right? Well it is right, but the key to the rule is that it needs to be ‘fresh seafood’.
Salt’n’Vinegar: This was the one I left for last, as I thought no way in hell will this work. Maybe it was our crazy taste buds tricking us but I believe this was one of the best matches. The acidity of the salt’n’vinegar really bowled over that acidity in the Cava. Once the acidity was wiped out it simply let the apple fruit notes of the Cava shine through. I should mention, being a salt’n’vinegar chip connoisseur that I am, that this brand was more on the salty side than the vinegar side. Perhaps this effected the outcome.
In the end, you like what you like. It is a fun, cheap and cheerful way to start tasting wine with different flavours. Once I am a working girl again I will have to try the gourmet chip range. A girl’s got to do her research after all.