Text Ilkka Sirén

Now before you go all “oh no he didn’t”, consider this for a second. Pairing food and wine was never meant to be an impossible task. If we start breaking things into molecular level we risk being bored to death by our own curiosity. I’m here to tell you: keep it simple. For me finding a good food match for wine is an exciting thing and the rules are, there are no rules! Yes, sometimes it can mean you have to take one for the team and try something you probably wouldn’t normally associate with certain wines. In this case a cheeseburger and port wine.

Let me make something absolutely clear. I love port wine. I taste all kinds of wines all the time, and beers, and ciders, and spirits and pretty much anything with some <oomph> in it. But nothing comes close to a good port wine. It’s just an incredibly delicious liquid. There is many great food combinations to match with port. Although it’s mainly associated with desserts I think it is much more gastronomically versatile than that. I admit this burger-port match was at first just a semi-intentional attempt to provoke. I have heard people talking about matching things like juicy pepper steak with port. I thought why not something even more casual, like a hamburger. There was a voice inside my head saying this is not going to work. But I have learned to suppress that instinct.

I didn’t want to dance around it. I knew if this was going to work it had to be a cheeseburger. And not just any cheeseburger, a DOUBLE cheeseburger. Port wine and cheese is a well-known combination and one that I enjoy very much. I have always liked more the extremely tasty combination of sweet and savory, rather than going sweet with sweet. Making burgers is usually a bit devil-may-care but choosing good ingredients is essential for this match to fully succeed. Good beef with a touch of black pepper. Proper cheddar cheese, none of that pre-sliced crap. Additionally I made my own chipotle mayo to bring some nice spiciness to the mix. Pickled red onions for the acidity to give the burger some much needed zing. Always keeping in mind the very definition of a good burger: you have to be able to eat it with your hands.

For the port I chose Ferreira LBV 2009. I wanted something approachable but with some good backbone. This wine is insanely flavorful. I love the mouthfeel, the texture and the upfront fruit with a spicy finish. The wine for this task can’t be no wallflower. It needs to have some character and this wine has just that. Not only is it good value for money, it’s also a very good example of a good LBV port.

So, how was it? Was it good, really? Yes it was. It might not be the fanciest combination but it was one of the most delicious wine and food combinations I’ve had in a while. If you like cheeseburgers (who doesn’t, right?) and port wine (duh!) you will like this combination. If the burger is well made. Just put a gag on your inner wine snob and enjoy something simple but very tasty food. The idea is to lower the bar for experimenting with different foods. That said, you should always keep the bar high for quality. Try it and if it’s not for you, try something else. In the end it’s all about having fun.