Help with a wine for Gumbo

I'm cooking a Cajun Seafood Gumbo (shrimp, oysters, crabmeat and Andouille Sausage) on Friday night and would love some advice regarding the best wine to serve. I think the Gumbo will be spicy but not out of hand. I was actually thinking of pairing it with an Austrian Gruner Vetliner, but I have almost any kind of wine you can name, so if you have any suggestions they would be welcome. Thanks very much for your help in advance.

Gruner might work.

Any tomatoes in the dish?

For red, try Zinfandel.

Great question about the tomatoes and I should have mentioned that there are NO tomatoes in the dish. Does that suggest anything?

[Robin Garr]

I'm cooking a Cajun Seafood Gumbo (shrimp, oysters, crabmeat and Andouille Sausage) on Friday night and would love some advice regarding the best wine to serve. I think the Gumbo will be spicy but not out of hand. I was actually thinking of pairing it with an Austrian Gruner Vetliner, but I have almost any kind of wine you can name, so if you have any suggestions they would be welcome. Thanks very much for your help in advance.

Bob, as I'm sure you know, if you dine in Cajun country you'll most likely quaff a cold beer in a long-neck bottle, and the wine list is likely to consist of "white, pink and red."

I find that a nice but not horribly expensive sparkling wine works with gumbo and other Acadian fare, though, and if it's on the spicier side of the spectrum, the much-maligned Italian Lambrusco (even mass-market brands like Cella or Riunite) works surprisingly well. This is a case where the food improves the wine as much as vice-versa.

I like the beer idea and had not thought of it because I'm so automatically aimed at wine--could be fun to try to search out something esoteric in that vein. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hello Bob, it looks as if you just found our little corner of the wine world, so let me be first to say welcome.

[David M. Bueker]

Welcome!

As a fan (and cook) of gumbo on a regular basis (and to whoever asked...it ain't gumbo if it's got tomato in it) I have found zinfandel to be a decent match (as long as the gumbo is not too spice), and gewurztraminer to also work ok (especially if the gumbo is spicier).

First, make a roux...

One key question...do you start your roux with bacon fat (I hope so...)? If you do then Northern Rhone Syrah works well also.

Thank you David. Of course, I hate to say it but Paul Prudhomme (and a few others) would disagree with your comment that a gumbo has to have tomato in it, but since I'm not Cajun I'm not getting into that fight

And I appreciate the comment about the bacon fat going with a Rhone.

What's your thinking about the Gruner Vetliner? Or about the beer? Just curious...although I have a feeling my wife is going to come down on the wine side when it comes to a choice.

Bob, there are many styles of seafood gumbo, the main difference being whether cream is added at the finish or not.

I've had many a gumbo and find for my palate that Beaujolais, Pinot Grigio and Alaskan Amber work the best for a red, white and beer.

[Jenise]

Bob, another opinion: my hubby and I dined in Nawlins one night on gumbo and ordered four different wines by the glass to try with the dish. Best I remember it was a non-tomato gumbo, very dark with chicken and shrimp. Hands down the best wine with the food was a steely sauvignon blanc. The biggest loser: chardonnay. Among whites, I think a gruner would be excellent for the same or even better reasons than the sauv blanc had. We also had two reds in the middle, and I don't remember what they were except that the fruitier one, like the chardonnay, was the least appealing.

Jenise:

I love doing research the way you do it. Sounds like it's coming down to a choice between the Gruner and the Beer--maybe I'll offer the guests the choice and let them decide. I had a feeling chardonnay would be a big mistake, and I'd prefer a white with the fish since that will dominate. Thanks.

[David M. Bueker]

No, no. Gumbo cannot have tomato. If I ever put tomato in gumbo I would be cast out by my south Texas/Louisiana/Mississippi in laws.

No, no. Gumbo cannot have tomato.

I disagree. My Cajun relatives routinely use tomatoes in their gumbo, as do I. I like to use Roma tomatoes (6-8). Some people don't put okra in their gumbo -- now that is a sin!

The debate my tomato question created reminds me of the questions about chili--tomato or no? meat or no?

I've had gumbo with and without tomato--equally pleasing; sans tomato, unequally stupendous! If anyone tried to pass a non-okra-infused dish as gumbo I might have to take up my weapons...

[Jenise]

Jenise:

I love doing research the way you do it. Sounds like it's coming down to a choice between the Gruner and the Beer--maybe I'll offer the guests the choice and let them decide. I had a feeling chardonnay would be a big mistake, and I'd prefer a white with the fish since that will dominate. Thanks.

Bob, I'm not just being self-indulgent, it's how I learn. But it's also how I have a good time. Yes, offer your guests a choice--that's the most fun, anyway.

Jenise: Where are the San Juans??

Right now Washington, but about to be annexed by Canada.

Jenise: Where are the San Juans??

When I first got here I couldn't figure out how Jenise could be gazing into our next-door-neighbor Colorado's San Juan Mountains and keep talking about ocean views!

How [spicy] hot is the Gumbo?

Either way...beer is the "wine" I'd choose.

Jenise: Where are the San Juans??

When I first got here I couldn't figure out how Jenise could be gazing into our next-door-neighbor Colorado's San Juan Mountains and keep talking about ocean views!

Not to worry, Cynthia....I didn't know which San Jauns she was refering to either. Lots of San Juans around the world.

You should see the whales off those San Juan islands...

[Jenise]

Bob, as everyone has said, Northern Washington. Smack on the coast, almost at the border. Maybe I should change my location to "the Pacific Northest Westest." If I grew grapes in my yard they'd be Puget Sound appellation.

[David M. Bueker]

The beer with gumbo thing is just as inauthentic as wine. If we're talking deep south alcohol is frowned upon in all its forms, so the real accompaniment is unsweetend iced tea.

And okra may be a required ingredient, but only if you can get good okra. Bad okra may be the most hideous vegetable in the world.

No beer? Louisiana drinks its fair share of alcohol:

Total per capita alcohol consumption in gallons of ethanol by State, United States, 2003.
U.S. total = 2.22 gallons

1.99 or below:
Alabama
Arkansas
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
New York
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Utah
West Virginia

2.00-2.24:
California
Connecticut
Georgia
Iowa
Maryland
Michigan
Mississippi
Nebraska
New Jersey
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Texas
Virginia
Washington

2.25-2.49:
Alaska
Arizona
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Louisiana
Maine
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Missouri
New Mexico
Oregon
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Vermont

2.50 or over:
Colorado
Delaware
D.C.
Florida
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
North Dakota
Wisconsin
Wyoming