Food Pairings for Your Wine Club Order

While wine-making is an art, wine pairing is an art in itself too. Like any true love story to unfold, both parts need to equally communicate with each other. The same is true for pairing wines together. Luckily, we’ll provide you a cheat sheet to meet your match.

Tanglewood wine is made with locally-grown Michigan blueberries and pairs similarly with fresh, local ingredients. A little context on blueberry wines: blueberries offer a more intense and deep flavor than grapes do. They are much higher in antioxidants than other grape-based wines. The health benefits of Tanglewood’s wine are even greater because our wines are made with no artificial flavors, or fillers. Also, the polyphenols in blueberries protect against heart disease, cancer, dementia, and other diseases. 

During the fermentation process, the fruit is converted into alcohol. The riper the fruit, the higher the amount of sugar; therefore with ripe fruit, there may be more sugar present in the alcohol. If there are more than 10 grams of additional sugar per liter, the wine is classified as sweet. Another sweetness factor is determined by the skins, stems, and seeds of the fruit (called tannins)—which influence how sweet you perceive the wine. 

So you just received your monthly Wine Club shipment: let’s start meal planning! When pairing wine with your meal, it’s important that the wine you’re putting on the table is sweeter than the meal. It should also have the same flavor intensity as the food. For example, white wines pair well with lower-intensity meats like fish or chicken and red wines pair better with bold-flavored red meats.

Blue Silk Pairings

Blue Silk uses 15lbs of fruit per gallon, with no water or flavoring added. This produces a very rich wine with an intense flavor. Blue Silk is also warm fermented on the blueberry skins, allowing more color, flavor, and antioxidants to be released in the wine. 

It’s almost summer, you know what that means … BBQ Season! 

Some of our favorite barbecue recipes include: Citrus barbecue chicken, brisket, and the classic and beloved BBQ pulled pork sandwiches. On the side, a homemade Mac and Cheese will complement the rich flavors. The smoky flavors of the barbecue, salt, and fat of the meat complement the rich body of Blue Silk. 

Invite the neighbors over to enjoy the BBQ aromas and the sweet Blue Silk will help provide the laughs. 

Traminette Pairings

Traminette is a white wine with subtle sweetness. Generally, white semi-sweet wines are aromatic and have a crispy, fruity flavor. They are not on the high sugar spectrum of 35 mg, but their low-mid range of sugar offers the palette an oaky and buttery flavor. Overall, Traminette complements well with rich ingredients.

Traminette = pasta night, and who doesn’t love pasta night?! 

Make your favorite Fettuccine Alfredo recipe and indulge in the flavor combination of the crisp fruit and rich cream. 

If you’re not in the mood for pasta, seafood dishes are also an excellent pairing. Cook your favorite fresh fish such as a Michigan white fish, in a bath of butter and your mouth will be drooling for a chilled refreshing glass of Traminette.

Sangria Pairings

Tanglewood Sangria is refreshingly sweet and aromatic, packed with fruit at every step of the process. We start with a blend of strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, aronia, and grape wines as the base. We then add fresh peaches, mangos, oranges, strawberries, and pineapples to infuse the wine with a fresh sangria kick straight out of the bottle.

Sangria is a refreshing fruit-forward wine that gives balance to a meal and the citrus pairs well with spicy meals. 

Pour a glass of Sangria on ice, and grab your favorite taco ingredients and turn on some jams. It’s important to celebrate Taco Tuesday every week and luckily your Wine Club shipment included a bottle of Sangria to make one of the toughest days of the week worth celebrating. 

Just imagine: a spicy-chorizo taco topped with guacamole and pico de gallo playing off of a cool sip of Sangria on a hot summer day!