Jose Palacios vs. Empanadas, The Only Wine Related Street Fighter IV Post You’ll Ever See

i don’t ever see my two main obsessions in life (wine and videogames [i am a videogame designer by trade, a wino by hobby]) ever overlapping in any meaningful way so i’m just going to create, in my head, some sort of relationship that isn’t actually there.
Last week two things happened that i have been looking forward to for a while, 10 years in fact. i finally cracked open my first bottle of 1999 Descendientes de José Palacios Bierzo Corullon made from the mencia grape, which i recently acquired on the cheap, and Street Fighter IV was released, 10 years after the last game hit arcades (coincidence? of course it’s a fucking coincidence). So i went ahead a dreamt up an ULTIMATE FOOD MATCHUP to celebrate.

vs.

Why empanadas? To tell you the truth i like the word “empanadas”, just saying it has a nice rythm to it, and i’ve never cooked one. This one was filled with paprika marinated pork and peppers, which i thought would be more than a match for Jose Palacio.

Why Jose Palacio? Because, as i have written before, it’s good wine that can take a few years. (Read about the wines here).

So how did it go? Look at that empanada and tell me it doesn’t look damn good (it was, in fact, good so no head fake here). As for the Palacio? It started out pissed off that we bothered to open it, punchy and all over the place, and not much for drinking. After about an hour of decanting it started to mellow into menthol cigarettes and slate. later it really hit it’s stride with subdued ripe red apple, licorice and some of those nice handfuls of dirt. It is fairly heavy wine, hitting big bass notes, but still incredibly food friendly, not overwhelming your tongue with any particular flavor or sensation.

So in the end it was a draw, and a damn good one, and i can get back to Street Fighter IV in actuality.

~ by Cory Cartwright on February 25, 2009.