Quirky Wine Pairings: An Origin Story
Pairings Portland opened in March of 2013. Our intention was a place to feel at ease, relax, play and explore. Our color choices, chalk wall scribblings and overall manner offered a comfy zone for the kid in you.
Soon thereafter, 2 lovely gals were sitting, enjoying wine, and observing when one said out loud to me, "Was the Princess Bride your favorite movie?" My response was, "No, I've never seen it".
Following the gasps in the room, said young lady came up to the bar with her hands on her hips and said, "OK, we're bringing you a copy of the movie tomorrow, and we're not coming back until you watch it." "OK, fine," I said.
The movie sat on the mantle at home for three weeks. Then, one of my favorite friends & top wine buddy (who happens to sell wine to Pairings), pops in our home, sees the movie on the mantle and says, "That's one of my favorite movies!" "Oh, I've never seen it," I said. More gasps.
Before barely a day had passed, she returns with a bottle of wine in hand. Placing it on the mantle she says, "When you watch that, drink this."
At this point it was hopeless. I could no longer resist. I opened the bottle, poured a glass and turned on the movie. The wine was the '09 Riofavara Spaccaforno (which means "broken oven"). It's a Sicilian red made from Nero d'Avola.
As the movie begins, the bald Sicilian character (Vizzini), sets the stage as an engaging character that seduces me into the film, but he's also kind of annoying. After a few minutes, I kinda wanna kick 'em, but at the same time, I'm seduced into wanting more.
The wine had an incredibly seductive, rustic, engaging nose. Yet, there was a roughness to the wine that made me want to push it away. So I did. Once I pushed it away, within a couple of minutes, I wanted more. Kind of exactly like the character Vizzini in the movie.
As I laughed my way through the movie and drank most of the bottle of Spaccaforno, I was hit with the inspiration of Pairings (at least part of it), becoming about pairing wine with things other than food that we love and enjoy.
In December of 2013 we offered a 5-wine Princess Bride flight, with wines paired to each of 5 lines from the movie. I think there’s been 7 or 8 Princess Bride events since.
Pairings to characters from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones & Marvel Superheroes have repeated! Weekly flights feature a quirky pairing several times each month. We have a podcast in the works called “The Wizard of Wine Pairings” including segments paired to movies, the weather, food, astrology and on the spot pairing with our co-host naturopath. So as you can see, once we started making quirky wine pairings, we’ve never looked back.
Do you have an idea for a quirky pairing? A show, movie, album, feeling, scenario, etc? Send Jeff an email at jeff@pairingsportland.com or submit via the comments box on the home page! We’re always looking for our next quirky pairing.
