William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Open That Bottle Night - A great excuse for a Wine Pairing Weekend.  February 28th was Open That Bottle Night - I selected a bottle of wine I helped blend using barrel samples of Pinot Noir from R. Stuart winery in McMinville, Oregon. I was saving this bottle for a special occasion and knew it was likely time to open and drink. I hoped it had improved. "Blending wine is no task for mere mortals."   - William Pollard Jr.  Our Wine Pairing Weekend group decided Open That Bottle Night would be an appropriate occasion to pair our selected bottle of wine with something special as well. After some consideration, I decided North Carolina ribs would likely pair well with my special bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir. For this post I'll review the wine first, then provide the recipe, and wrap up with the results of this wine + food pairing. *Note: What is Open That Bottle Night? Wife and Husband columnists Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher invented Open That Bo...

"How can we expect outsiders to understand that we have the best barbecue in the country when we can't even agree among ourselves what good barbecue is?"  Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue - page 44. They take barbecue seriously in North Carolina, east vs. west, vinegar or ketchup, tradition vs. innovation. I see some parallel divisions in the wine industry. Have wine closures come to symbolize another split in winemaking tradition vs. innovation? That of natural cork vs. synthetic cork? photo: Nomacorc facility in Zebulon, North Carolina.