Wine with a Southern New Year's Day Meal

This was all a novelty to me. When I moved south, or perhaps earlier than that, when I was first indoctrrinated into what people eat in the south on New Year's Day, I was quite amused. This food is somehow supposed to bring good health and good luck for the upcoming year (obviously, it never met 2020).

What is this dinner? Well, it's a combination of some sort of pork as a main dish, along with cornbread, greens (collard, turnip, or mustard), and this dish that I thought was certainly a joke called Hoppin' John. If you've never experienced Hoppin' John, it's a combination of black-eyed peas (of field peas, I am told), onions, and more pork (depending on who you ask, that could be fat back, bacon, ham chunks, or I suppose even the pork part of spam (I think there is some pork hidden in spam).

This is not exactly among the top 10 healthiest dinners the world has ever know, so health and fortune, both in terms of luck and money must follow. Otherwise, it's not worth it.

I think the world blew it in 2020, though. It must have been in the wine pairings. There can be no other explanation. So, let's get it right in 2021.

We start with cornbread. It's not exactly healthy, but it's good stuff. It's dense and flavorful and usually has a little bit of crust for texture and it's a great way to end your holiay binge eating. It needs some substance to go with it and although this is not my normal recommendation for much of anything, an oaked Chardonnay will pair well. 

Moving on to the collards, if we have to. How do you pair with that? They are slow-cooked mystery vegetables, or at least they should remain a mystery. They have some substance and while they're not necessarily, they taste fatty. We need substance and structure. Let's pair oaked Chardonnay with this as well.

Hoppin' John, oh Hoppin' John, whatst wine would you like? it's another heavy dish often infused seemingly with butter as is the rest of the meal. Butter in a wine? Hmm? Oaked Chardonnay that has gone through full malolactic fermentation should do the trick.

And, let's close with the pork. If it's slow-roasted pork as I understand the tradition to be, the wine should be white and full-bodied. How about an oaked Chardonnay.

So, there we have it. I knew that we had this heavily-oaked Chardonnay for some reason. In 2020, we all tried to get fancy and drink a medium-bodied red like Pinot Noir or Malbec. Yes, it tasted good, but it brought us COVID, murder hornets, political ads, and for those of us living in Georgia, a double does of political ads. It must have been the wine selection that did it.

So, in 2021, against my judgment for any other reason, I think it might just be an oaky, buttery Chardonnay.


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