Celebrating Cinco de Mayo with Nachos and Pink Bubbles

When I realized that it was Cinco de Mayo a few days ago, I became obsessed with the idea that I should have some Mexican food on that day. Yes, I know, I do have my priorities straight. I did however know that I would get home rather late, so it had to be a quick and easy recipe, more of throwing some stuff together rather than cooking. I am not well versed in the art of Mexican, or even Tex-Mex, cooking and have no idea if this is at least somewhat authentic, but I finally decided on a recipe for Nachos.

The typical pairing for this type of food would of course be… beer. Not wine. However, I am exploring wine pairings here, so I went out on a limb, and popped a bottle of Lucien Albrecht Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé.

This is a sparkling wine from France, but we cannot call it champagne because it is from the region of Alsace rather than the region of Champagne. I really don’t want to get sued by the nice winegrowers of Champagne, as they are really not playing when it comes to their rights for this name. So to make it easier, I usually just call my sparkling wine “bubbly”. Because that’s what I usually buy. Bubbly from some other region in the world, not from Champagne. Simply because I feel that if I did, part of my hard-earned money would go towards paying for the name on the bottle rather than what’s in it…

This Crémant is made from Pinot Noir grapes and has a lovely soft salmon color. The flavors are of red berries, particularly strawberry, and the bubbles provide a pleasantly creamy mouth feel.

And this wine was also a real winner as far as the pairing is concerned! The spicy and salty flavors of the nachos really brought out the berry flavors of the wine. There were some pretty hot jalapeños in that dish, and the bubbles really doused the burning feeling on the tongue after each bite, which was a rather interesting sensation. See? Who needs beer any more?!