Blueberry-Glazed Ribs Paired with Ravenswood Vintner’s Blend Petite Sirah 2008
October 14, 2010
I’m going to cut to the chase, this was the best food and wine pairing I have put together yet!
The other bonus was that it was also one of the easiest to put together.
For this reason, I would like to issue a call to action:
You need. to make. this recipe!
The recipe for Blueberry-Glazed Ribs came from my usual source, Foodandwine.com. I’d love to think that Food and Wine were paying me for all these endorsements, but alas no. I’m a very visual person and Food and Wine always have the best food photos, it’s not too often that I choose a recipe without one, and the photo for the Blueberry-Glazed Ribs looked awesome. So I figured why not? For side dishes, I just threw some baked potatoes and corn on the grill. What’s easier than that!?!?
I was going to pair this dish with a Zin but changed my mind at the last moment due to my thoughts that the hot sauce in this recipe might possibly clash with the higher alcohol content of a Zinfandel.
When (and I will) make this meal again, I think I’ll give a Zinfandel a try, but saying that, the Ravenswood Vintners Blend 2008 Petite Sirah was one of the best food and wine pairing’s I’ve ever tasted. Seriously. EVER.
Just to backtrack for a second, I think I’d like to add a small disclaimer here…
I taste a vast amount of wines each week, some make the reviews, some don’t. I’ll never badmouth a wine, if I don’t like it I won’t review it. Likewise with my food and wine pairings, if the recipe was terrible, I wouldn’t even waste my time by writing about it, and your time by having to read about some Englishman’s crappy meal.
However if the wine pairing was awful (which I should hope should never happen) I would actually tell you about it, all in the name of “wine education.” 
Just wanted to throw that out there…
The "Petite" in Petite Sirah alludes to the size to the size of the grapes’ small fruit. Petite Sirah has long been an important blending grape, primarily for its deep color and fairly intense tannin and body. It is the variety most often chosen to blend into Zinfandel for added complexity, body, and to tone down the tendency of Zin’s toward "jammy" fruit
The Ravenswood Petite Sirah showed lots of fruit-forward plum and blueberry up-front, and blackberry and pepper toward the end. Smoother and more subtle than most other Petite Sirah’s I’ve tasted. The finish was admittedly quite short, but expected for a wine at this price point ($10), however it was a perfect match with this meal. If the wine had been any bigger and richer, it would have overpowered the sage and thyme infused blueberry-glaze completely. As it was it complemented it perfectly.
It’s tough to find a Petite Sirah at this price point, but the Ravenswood is a decent example and readily available from most retailers.
Once again: You need. to make. this recipe!
I’ll rate this as another Ultra–Perfect Pairing
My Food & Wine Pairing Guide is something that everyone can use at home, and it makes each meal a fun interactive way to analyze how a wine matches with a particular recipe.
Bad Match
The interaction of wine and food when tasted together has a negative impact on the senses. This is common when the food item is high in acidity, salt, bitterness, or spiciness.
Refreshment
Many times wine serves simply as a satisfying refreshment to accompany a certain food choice. The refreshment match may be appropriate when the food severely inhibits a good or synergistic wine choice.
Neutral
These pairing situations are average and pleasant, but are missing an element of individuality and thus cannot provide a superior gastronomic experience.
Good Match
In this situation, you have found a wine that matches the food item’s basic components (sweet, sour, bitter, salty) and overall body.
Perfect Match
This essentially means the combined effect of the wine and the food paired together is superior to the sum of the individual parts.
