Pairing Wine With 1990s Sitcoms: Seinfeld

I am starting the second season of Pairing Wine With… with a bang: Seinfeld is maybe my single favorite television show of all time.

The Cast of Seinfeld

From L to R: Kramer, George, Elaine, and Jerry

It feels weird even describing this show. Who doesn’t know Seinfeld? The show nearly single-handedly defined sitcoms of the 1990s. Running from July 1989 until May 1998, Seinfeld followed the day-to-day lives of Jerry Seinfeld (a fictionalized version of the real Jerry Seinfeld, who co-created the show), George Costanza, Elaine Benes, and Cosmo Kramer. The four friends live in New York City, and are among the most self-centered, misanthropic, nigh-sociopathic characters in television history.

And we all loved them. Each and every one.

The show was all about “nothing,” a concept spoofed by itself when Jerry and George pitched a sitcom about “nothing” (called “Jerry“) to NBC in Seinfeld‘s fourth season. But by being about nothing, it was kind of about everything in the individual characters’ lives, which drew us in week after week.

There was never really a consistent “opening credits sequence” for the show, though most people can instantly recognize the slap-bass guitar line theme song. Instead of just playing that, I’m going to share with you one of my all-time favorite Seinfeld moments:

Seinfeld’s characters were mean, nasty, superficial nitpickers, who were always looking for (and finding) the worst in other people. But we loved them, because they made us laugh. Maybe we didn’t want to admit it, but there is a fair amount of Jerry, George, Elaine, and/or Kramer in each of us. What those four people (along with the countless recurring and guest characters) created out of the rottenness of the human soul is some of the funniest television ever.

So… the pairing?

Seinfeld delivered comedy beauty from a source rotten to the core. So, to me, the perfect pairing is with Sauternes, or with Sauternes-style botrytized dessert wine.

Sauternes wine is usually a blend of semillon and sauvignon blanc, but the common thread is always that the grapes involved are botryitzed, or infected with botrytis cinerea, aka “The Noble Rot.” That’s right, the grapes themselves are actually rotten at harvest.

But the wine they make? Spectacular. Delicious. Enthralling. Gorgeous. From rot comes beauty. Just like with Seinfeld.

Here are some botrytized dessert wines I can easily recommend:

And The Winner Of The RRV Single Vineyard Night Tickets Is…

thumbs up

Michael Rosenthal!

Congratulations, Michael!

Drop me an email at steve at nftc dot co or use the contact form to give me your email so I can pass it on to the event organizers. Your tickets will be at will call, enjoy the Single Vineyard Night!

For those who were interested but did not win, you can, of course, still obtain tickets the old fashioned way.

Tickets are $45 per person pre-sale. So get out there to this great Healdsburg event!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the second Cellar Contest! Hopefully there will be more in the future!

2009 The Prisoner

A Slight Decline, But Still Sublime

I am a big fan of The Prisoner. This is not news to anyone who previously read my rhapsodic review of the 2008 vintage. If you haven’t, feel free to, either now, or when you’re finished here.

I’m also a big fan of this wine, although it does show some dissimilarities with its immediate predecessor.

2009 The Prisoner Napa Valley Red Wine

For one thing, while Orin Swift Cellars is still the name on the bottle, a new crew owns The Prisoner. The 2009 is the first vintage bottled by The Prisoner’s new owners, Huneeus Vintners, who also own (among others) Quintessa and Faust in Napa Valley, Flowers on the Sonoma Coast, and Veramonte in Chile.

I’m not so sure the change in ownership has benefitted the wine. In fact, before finding any of this out, I had already decided I preferred the 2008. Still, this remains one of the single finest value buys in Napa Valley wine in my opinion. At $35 per bottle, you can easily do much, much worse.

In fact, don’t let my hand-wringing over the inside baseball of ownership dissuade you: this is some really, really good wine.

The 2009 Prisoner has a dark burgundy core in the glass, that lightens a bit to red at its edges. On the nose you’ll find ripe cherries, a touch of strawberry and raspberry. The nose is almost entirely fruit, and not quite as complex as the previous vintage. The wine is medium bodied, and the palate gives more of the complex aromas and flavors that are missing a bit from the nose: incredibly bright, jammy raspberry and cherry notes mingle with subtle dark chocolate and just a touch of smoke.

Soft, supple tannins round out the mouthfeel. Incredibly tasty.

Hopefully, Huneeus won’t fix what ain’t broke, and hopefully fans will be able to enjoy The Prisoner for years to come.