Extreme Wine/Food Pairing as Marketing

So will it be red or white tonight with that dish of alligator on a bed of sautéed earthworms, crickets, and scorpions? What do you want to pair with that appetizer of tarantula and rattlesnake fricassee?

Call it extreme wine pairing, or call it gross, but it certainly attracts attention, which is what Redwood Creek seems to want. They call it "Taste for Adventure" and along with Gene Rurka, biologist and exotic-foods chairman of the Explorer's Club, they are serving up dinners of the strangest and scariest things that most American's are ever likely to see along with a tastefully merchadized selection of Redwood Creek Wines. Yes, this is for real.

There's a cute little article out there which describes some of the menus which include scorpions, tarantulas, caribou pate, elk stroganoff, roses, orchids, rattlesnakes, crickets and alligators. Unfortunately they don't give much advice or information on the wine pairings.

If you ask me, I'll take a crisp Pinot Grigio with the insects, Pinot Noir with my alligator, and a nice Niebbolo with that elk stroganoff. Variety is the spice of life.

Posted by: Alder on December 14, 2004 4:41 PM: Tweet; Share this post elsewhere: Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit; Filed under: Wine News

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Comments (4)

Tom Wark wrote:

12.14.04 at 9:08 PM

Alder,
Do you think this is what happens when you have a PR firm on retainer with not much to talk about?

I think though that sparkling wine is best paired with insects, though I understand this pairing is not what's traditional.

Cheers.

Alder wrote:

12.14.04 at 10:18 PM

Hmm. Champagne and grasshopper legs.... Yep, definitely a match. This is what happens when a winery decides to spend more money on marketing than they do on growing the grapes.

Lenn wrote:

12.15.04 at 11:29 AM

Either of you guys had any of the Redwood Creek wines? I see their ads everywhere...which means I won't buy the wine...

Plonk is my guess.

Alder wrote:

12.15.04 at 11:31 AM

Nope. I have the same reaction. They have a very slick website though, pretty well designed.

Alder