Feliz Navidad: Taco’s and Wine

Well, it’s the day before Christmas and I am sure most were expecting a small note on what to drink tomorrow and what goes well with turkey etc. But, in keeping with our tradition of being somewhat other than the norm, we decided to give a heads up to our south American buddies and do a wine tasting with Mexican tacos – just for a bit of fun (the turkey and wine pairing will happen at home, tomorrow, with friends and family!)

So, what exactly is a taco? Effectively it is a wheat or flour tortilla (much like a bread) that is stuffed with any number of items but usually a choice of meat (fish, pork, beef, chicken), salsa, lettuce and various sauces and spices to give it a little kick. On the side you can also have some spiced up guacamole (avocado) and, on the whole, the taco is eaten with the hands.

Having managed a Mexican restaurant when I first graduated from college I know that really the best thing with a taco is either a nice, cold cerveza or a salty and savoury Margarita, and having tried tacos over a decade ago with some pretty poor quality Mexican wine, I thought it best to try them again but with a sparkling, white and red.

Heading to one of Hong Kong’s newest and most basic (but probably the best for tacos) Mexican restaurant Mr. Taco Truck, we opted for five tacos consisting of Pollo (Chicken), Carnie Asada (Beef),  Fried Fish, Carnitas (Roast Pork) and Al Pastor (Spicy Pork) and went with a Champagne, a New Zealand Pinot Gris and a Spanish Tempranillo Crianza.

It was an interesting (but hardly enlightening) experience. The food at Mr. Taco Truck is always good and it’s always easy to over-order as tacos, although they might look small, are very filling and starting with the Al Pastor (it has a mild spicy kick but nothing that warrants an order of milk on the side) we tried all the wines with it and found the best pairing to be the Tempranillo – not surprising really as it is a dish of Spanish heritage and the wine went very nicely together with it.

Moving onto the Pollo taco, we thought that the best choice would be the Pinot Gris, and we were right. The slightly off dry nature of the Pinot Gris really worked complimentary to the pico de gallo and the avocado in the guacamole. The Champagne fared well too but our first choice was the Pinot.

The Carne Asada had a lot of pepper on the beef and this, strangely enough made the pairing with the Champagne surprisingly good, although it must be said that overall, the Tempranillo was the best together with the Carne Asada.

After this things started to get a little hazy and it’s at this time that you realize that you actually hate the Gypsy Kings and that “Black Magic Woman”, although a legendary song from the legendary Carlos Santana can only be heard once or twice at most during one sitting of Mexican food.

With two tacos and six glasses of wine to go we found ourselves asking ‘donde esta la cerveza’ but we soldiered on and ploughed into the Fried Fish taco. Expecting this to go nicely with the Pinot Gris just goes to show that more often than not, expectations are not reached and this wine left a strange finish when combined with the fish. The best pairing was the Champagne and we can highly recommend this!

Finally, stuffed to the brim and half cut, we dived into the last taco of Carnitas and found this taco to be the most versatile. Maybe it was the copious amounts of alcohol prior to the final taco or maybe it’s just the versatility of pork but we found all three wines went very well with this taco and our tasting notes say; Champagne pairing – good; Pinot Gris pairing – very good; Tempranillo pairing – good.

There really is a plethora of flavours and tastes in a taco and whether or not wine is a good pairing with this style of food is not fir us to determine after just one tasting with only three wines. It must be said though that there is absolutely no reason why one should not pair tacos with wine – they are both food and drink at the end of the day. We did find out though that cilantro goes nicely with Champagne and that the parsley went nicely with the Pinot Gris.

Next time you are feeling Mexican, give a glass of wine a try with the food. It may open up a whole new taste sensation to you and, even if it does not rock your world, it’s still something different to try when you are out for dinner.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays for this festive season and, if the hangover is not too painful, we will be back on Boxing Day for more stories about how to get more out of wine than just the mundane boring pairings that people usually associate with this great grape product.