Venture out to the twenty gently rolling acres of Pontchartrain Vineyards on a spring Saturday night and you may find a crowd of people listening to a live band and sipping wine just a few steps from where it was grown, fermented, and bottled.
The winemaker would probably like it if you were also eating—and not just soaking up the alcohol.
“Wine is an integral part of the eating experience and shouldn’t be an afterthought,” says John Seago, the vintner at Pontchartrain Vineyards where the weekly Jazz ‘n the Vines events take place from March to June.
Oenophiles will tell you there’s something of a science to pairing food with wine, with the goal being to complement and balance the flavors on the plate and in the glass, while still allowing any complexities to shine through. Salty and sour flavors in food will make wine taste less dry, fruitier, and less bitter. Sweet and savory dishes bring out drier, less fruity, more acidic, and more bitter characteristics in wine. Sweet wines will help cut spice in food, and will also complement sugary desserts. Dry red wines are often paired with meat and seafood dishes, balancing the savory flavors in the dish.
And though Louisiana is much better known for its cuisine than for its locally-produced wine, there are a handful of vintners in the state making quality wines that pair well with Louisianans’ favorite dishes.
Seago is quick to point out, though, that flavor preferences and perceptions vary, and that consuming food and wine together is really about enjoying a gastronomic experience. So, ultimately, the pairing suggestions that follow are just that—suggestions.
The muscadine wines
Most people probably think of muscadine wine when they think of wine made in Louisiana. Much of the wine vinted in the South is made from muscadines, a native grape with tough skin that thrives in heat and humidity. Muscadines grow wild, though for wine-making purposes they’ve been cultivated into hundreds of varieties now grown in traditional vineyards.
Muscadine wine production is similar to that of traditional wine grapes, though muscadine wine does not age.
“It’s meant to be consumed early in its life,” says Devin Barringer, winemaker at Feliciana Cellars in Jackson, La. There are other differences, too. “Muscadines, unlike bunch grapes, don’t ripen at the same time so it makes it more difficult when choosing the harvest time.” He waits until some of the grapes are overripe or even falling off the vine before picking them. “I want as few green ones as possible,” he says.
Though it’s a fairly familiar drink to Southerners, Barringer admits Feliciana Cellars contends with the perception that muscadine wine isn’t high-quality, or that all muscadine wine is sweet. In fact, Feliciana Cellars makes nine muscadine wines in the same variety of styles associated with traditional wine, including dry, off-dry, semi-sweet and sweet.
“It’s something that you need to try and judge it on its own merit. I think some wine culture in the U.S. is too caught up in complexity, in the connoisseur-type mentality. But the best indicator is how it tastes when you put it in your mouth,” he says.
Muscadine wine relies on the same pairing guidelines as conventional wines.
“In general, I tell people that you can pair our wines in any conventional way, but I also make sure they know the strong fruitiness will stand up and compliment most bold Louisiana dishes,” Barringer says. “The white can probably stand up to a more savory dish than typical whites. On the other hand, our sweetest wines work well as dessert wines pairing well with any fruit related dish.”
Try the following pairing suggestions with Feliciana Cellars wine:
Evangeline: a sweet, white muscadine wine that pairs well with desserts. Feliciana Cellars suggests drinking it with peach bread pudding.
Galvez: a slightly less sweet white wine that pairs well with seafood and pasta dishes. The winery suggests pairing it with pan-seared Louisiana crawfish cakes topped with a mango or peach salsa.
Tunica: the winery’s best seller, semi-sweet red complements barbeques and roasts.
Another Louisiana winemaker, Mac Cazedessus, grows organic muscadines in Clinton for wine featured under his label, Casa de Sue, a clever adaptation of his last name.
“I learned how to make wine in Catholic school,” Cazedessus jokes. Kidding aside, Cazedessus taught himself to make wine over twenty years ago after he moved to the area from outside of Baton Rouge, where he grew up. As a kid, he learned to grow vegetables from a man who worked for his family.
“I loved planting things—watermelon, tomatoes. I told my wife when we got married that if she didn’t want to live in the country she shouldn’t marry me,” he says.
Try the following pairing suggestions with Casa de Sue wine:
Noble: a full-bodied, dry red muscadine wine that pairs well with red meat and game.
Jambalaya: the winery’s most popular variety, made with muscadines and blueberries. The sweet flavor works well with spicy dishes, like jambalaya and boiled crawfish.
Allons Dansé: a sweet blush wine that pairs well with light dishes and desserts, such as cobblers and bread pudding.
The traditional wines
At Pontchartrain Vineyards in Covington, owner and winemaker John Seago grows traditional wine grapes most people think of when they reach for a table wine at the grocery store. In addition to what he grows, Seago buys grapes from other parts of the country, like California and Washington’s Yakima Valley. The combination of homegrown and imported grapes allow Seago to produce a full spectrum of table wines, from dry reds to crisp whites and even a sweet rosé.
Try the following pairing suggestions with Pontchartrain Vineyards wine:
Zydeco Rosato: an off-dry summertime rosé that Seago says is “really easy to get along with and doesn’t deal with too many subtleties.” It will wash down the spice of jambalaya and boiled crawfish. Zydeco also pairs well with intensely seasoned dishes like gumbo and blackened fish.
Roux St. Louis: an off-dry, crisp white wine with fruit flavors. As a slightly sweet wine, it also pairs well with spicy dishes. Seago suggests pairing it with barbecued shrimp.
Le Trolley: a medium-bodied, dry white wine with tropical notes. Because it’s dry, it pairs best with dishes that aren’t overly spicy or seasoned, like raw oysters or mild seafood dishes.
The fruit wines
Fruit wine has a long history in Louisiana, and it’s one that Henry Amato hopes to capitalize on at his winery in Tickfaw.
“We wanted to make wine for Louisiana people,” says Amato, who opened Amato’s Winery in 1994. “In this area, years ago, everyone had five and ten acre farms, and everybody had a patch of strawberries. And at the end of the year, everybody made their fifty to a hundred gallons of wine. It’s not like that anymore. All the small farms are gone.”
He and his wife Jessie make ten types of wine from the muscadines, blackberries and blueberries they grow, in addition to Belle Chasse navel oranges, Southern peaches, cranberries, and Ponchatoula strawberries. Amato sells much of his wine at the Gretna Farmer’s Market and the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival. He also offers free tastings of the wine he’s made for as long as he can remember.
“I’ve never remembered not making wine.” He was raised making strawberry wine, but the soft-spoken man laughs when I ask if he’s using a family recipe. “No, wine making is not a recipe. It’s not a formula. Each year the fruit is different. You’ve got a different sugar level, a different acid level, and you have to check all of that before you actually start making your wine.”
Try the following pairing suggestions with Amato’s Winery wine:
Strawberry: Amato’s Winery makes three types of strawberry wine: sweet, semi-sweet and dry; each pairs well with grilled fish and boiled crabs. Serve the sweeter wine if your dish is spicy.
Blueberry: The semi-sweet blueberry wine pairs well with game dishes like duck or venison.
Peach: Because the peach wine is sweet, it goes well with spicy dishes like boiled crawfish or with dessert like bread pudding.
Next time you sit down to dinner, consider uncorking a bottle of Louisiana wine. The winemakers—and your taste buds—will thank you.
Details. Details. Details.
Feliciana Cellars
1848 Charter Street
Jackson, La.
(225) 634-7982
Casa de Sue
Tasting Room In the Cajun Village
6470 Highway 22
Sorrento, La.
(504) 559-9766
Pontchartrain Vineyards
81250 Louisiana 1082
Bush, La.
(985) 892-9742
Amato’s Winery
12415 West Black Cat Road
Independence, La.
(985) 878-6566
