IFBC: Where Potato Chips and Jalapeños Met Oregon Wine

Posted on: August 27th, 2012 by

IFBC Wine Pairing with Jameson Fink from Idea Farmer on Vimeo.

As the Wine Editor for Foodista, I had the pleasure of leading a food and wine pairing adventure at the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC) in Portland, Oregon. In an attempt to break out of the “pair x food with y wine ” rut, I wanted to talk about how sweet, salty, spicy, and cheese(y) flavors play with certain types of wine.

I was flabbergasted at how wonderful this short video of my food and wine pairing session (put together by Idea Farmer for Jenn-Air) turned out. Please watch it! I think they mercifully edited out most instances of such unfortunate words, pseudo-words, and phrases from my presentation as:

  • um
  • like
  • you know

So if you want to see how Skittles, potato chips, jalapeños, and Cabot cheddar (also an IFBC sponsor) can teach you to match food and wine, all you need to do is set aside 90 seconds of your time to watch this video. Big thanks to to Chehalem for donating these three Oregon wines:

      • 2010 Inox Chardonnay: Inox is an abbreviation for inoxydable, the French word for stainless steel. So no oak! I think I may have converted a few members of the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) crowd.
      • 2010 Corral Creek Vineyards Pinot Noir: A lovely and elegant Pinot Noir from one of Chehalem’s estate vineyards.
      • 2011 SEXT Riesling: A tribute to sparkling German Rieslings called “Sekt” and named slightly differently to avoid running afoul of German wine laws. (And has nothing to do with “sexting.”) Fizzy, fresh, and refreshing. And not as sweet as you think. Your wine for counteracting the heat of jalapeños. And ideal with green Skittles. It kindled enthusiasm for Riesling, which is always a pleasure to witness.

The only thing more exciting for me than seeing this video was hearing that IFBC will be held in Seattle next year. Block off September 20th-22nd for IBFC 2013 at the W Hotel. (And there is a great deal on registration for bloggers.) I promise to bring the Skittles.

 

 

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12 Responses

  1. Sandy @ RE says:

    I wanted to attend this so badly, but couldn’t get up to Portland.

    Great post!

    Great video!

  2. I love it!

    Sometimes these wild and wacky discoveries can occur by accident. I found that girl scout cookies paired very well with a GSM after I was handed a cookie and still had a couple sips of wine. It was awesome and I even tweeted it out.

    Cheers to you for making this happen!

  3. sippitysup says:

    I was supposed to be there. But my cookbook and it’s stupid deadline got in the way. I see I missed something good. GREG

    • Jameson says:

      Greg,

      Maybe I’ll get to do something at IFBC next year in Seattle? And I can’t wait to get a copy of your book.

      Jameson

  4. sippitysup says:

    “A lot of people are reticent to drink riesling”… I know you weren’t talking about me. Because I live and eat by the riesling all summer. Except tonight when I’m drinking a pretty big Sicilian (but fruity) red. GREG

  5. Colleen says:

    I enjoyed a lot of Skittles with Riesling, and two items are normally don’t care for — jalapenos and chardonnay — became a 5 alarm fire quenched by eye candy fireman. Lead us on more winecurian adventures, Jameson. Please! =)

  6. What a great video! And, a fabulous session!

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