Page 15 - SYNC 10.28.15

TRICK-AND-TREAT YOURSELF
Halloween is this weekend, and we know those of you with kids are going to have buckets full of candy taking up space in your house. Yeah, your kids would eat all of it themselves, but because you’re a good parent, you won’t let them do that. Right?
So you’re going to end up eating a few pieces after tucking them into bed. It’s in- evitable. But why not take your sweets stealing to the next level? We talked with four of Little Rock’s wine experts to see what kind of pairings they could come up with for some of the most common trick-or-treats you’ll see Halloween night.
BIT-O-HONEY
Brett Bassett, Yellow Rocket Con- cepts beverage director: “Leaky Roof Smoked Pineapple and Jalapeno mead. Peanut, pineapple, chili, honey — it’s basically Thai food.”
Keegan Sparks, O’Looney’s Wine and Liquor, South on Main: “Those would be nice with a [French] Sauternes.”
MARY JANE PEANUT BUTTER KISSES
Bassett: “Those terrible orange and black wax-wrapped peanut butter things and white zin. They deserve each other.”
MOUNDS
Jonathan Looney, O’Looney’s Wine and Liquor: “The first thing that comes to my mind is an oaky, buttery chardon- nay. I would say a Francis Coppola Di- amond Series chardonnay, and I would also say Toasted Head. Going the other direction to the high end, Jarvis Finch Hollow chardonnay. That might be a re- ally interesting match.”
Jeff Yant, Cache Restaurant: “A To- kaji, it’s a dessert wine from Hungary, once called the ‘wine of the czars.’”
CHERRY AND STRAWBERRY TWIZZLERS
Looney: “Everyone thinks it’s cherry, but it’s really banana. With that, you could pull in some Cruix Beaujolais from France. That might be really curi- ous. I’ve also done straight-up pinot noir with them.”
REESE’S PEANUT BUTTER CUPS
Sparks: “A sweet sherry would be nice, maybe a Gonzalez Byass, that would be good. It has that nutty, almondy thing. I tend to match sweetness levels. That one would
be fun.”
Yant: “I’d go with a Monastrell from Spain. It’s red, it’s fruity, and whenever I’ve paired Monastrell with anything, I’ve been lucky.”
SOUR SKITTLES
Looney: “I really want to put this with a demi-sec Champagne. It’s not really sweet or dry. When I eat Skittles, I eat handfuls, so it ends up being a mishmash of soury-bad goodness, and I’m thinking a demi-sec Champagne would be inter- esting.”
Sparks: “An Australian riesling from the Clare Valley. It’s very acidic, a little bit of sweetness but more on the dryer side. I think that would be delicious.”
Yant: “A German sekt, and it would have to be vintage — 2009 would be best. It’s big; it’s effervescent; it’s got some fruit flavors in there, and the acidity would cut through the sweetness.”
TOOTSIE ROLL
Bassett: “Tercos Malbec. I almost feel like this is a deconstructed grape, boozy tootsie pop. Sold.”
Sparks: “Madeira, a fortified wine. It’s like caramelizing, burning sugar is what I think of. I think it would be really nice.”
Yant: “A Barolo. It’s big; it’s over the top; the grapes are going to stand up well. The caramel and extra sugar would stand up and do very well.”
WHOPPERS
Sparks: “I might go with a big bold California zinfandel. Turley, or Green and Red would be fantastic. They have a little sugar to them. I think that might be nice.”
tend to stay with those wines. That gives me an advantage, being in the market as long as I have, so that I can pair to the Little Rock market.”
SPECIFIC DEMAND INCREASE
A third reason for Little Rock’s growth comes from the customers themselves. With the national rise in demand for wine, bigger cities are supplying increas- ingly exotic vintages from all around the world. And when Arkansans travel and taste these wines, it leads to a greater de- mand right here at home.
“People were coming back saying, ‘Well, why don’t we have this wine?’” Lips- meyer says. “And over time, that pent-up demand led some of the larger distribu- tors to step up and deliver wines that we didn’t have before.”
That points to another related reason for growth: an increase in consumer wine education. Yant says he’s seeing more and more guests who are able to tell him ex- actly what they want.
“People used to want to drink all the big-name brands,” Yant says. “Now people are more willing to try new things, and not only that, but they also are educating me about different wines.”
WHAT’S IN THE FUTURE?
Little Rock’s size and location in the South mean that the wine market can only grow so much bigger. Lipsmeyer sees
Little Rock’s potential for improvement being less about quantity and more about quality.
“Now that there are key players who understand the scope, or syllabus, of wine, they can teach that to people working in restaurants,” Lipsmeyer says. “Waiters will pick it up quickly because they’re around it all day. And that’s the key to sustainable growth. It’s the waiters who talk to the customers, and the customer gets educa- tion and inspiration as much as anything else. If the waiter can understand the nar- rative of a given wine, they can share that story with the customer, which drives the customer to want more.
“We are where we can be with the size of the market we have here. You can’t get much further ahead than the dollars that are there to buy wine.”
Both Yant and Looney echoed Lips- meyer’s sentiment, saying that it’s now the job of restaurant workers and retailers to keep the trend going.
“Guys like me, our job is to show peo- ple they don’t have to spend $100 on a bottle of wine to have an exceptional wine,” Yant says. “Going out and finding a great bottle of wine for $100 isn’t a dif- ficult task. Finding that exceptional bottle at $20, that’s why I’m here.”
“I love being part of the changes that are happening,” Looney says. “I love con- necting with the independent retailers doing really neat things with food and wine. I hope we set that tone, as well.”
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