Sommelier Pairs Fast Food And Wine

[burger crunching]

Oh man, I think I got a piece of paper.

But don't worry about it, this wine pairs perfect

with the Subway rapper.

Hey, I'm sommelier Andre Mack,

and today we're gonna look at 11 different fast food meals

and I'm gonna show you how to pair wine with each of them.

It doesn't really matter if you're having a steak dinner

or you're having a double quarter pounder with cheese.

Ultimately the goal is picking the right wine

to go with the right food.

[upbeat music]

Pairing wine with fast food?

I think it's fun,

I think it's that contrast of high and low,

and, you know, who doesn't like good cheeseburger?

Wine, in my opinion, belong on your table

next to the salt and pepper shaker.

It's a condiment.

When you think about wine pairing,

there's two different kind of ways;

You can match like flavors with like,

or you can match two opposite flavors.

It's really kind of a personal taste.

It doesn't matter what kind of food you're having,

you wanna have the perfect wine to go with it,

so that the first bite tastes as good as the last bite.

So first step we have McDonald's.

We have a double quarter pounder with fries.

Oh, look at that.

This is bringing me back to my youth.

So let's look at the burger first.

I'm thinking toasty, there's onions,

so I'm thinking like more pungent, strong flavors,

pickles for acid, cheese.

So right off the bat, I'm looking at all these things,

and for me, my mind goes to, what's a hamburger?

A hamburger is just chopped steak, right?

So I'm thinking Brunello di Montalcino,

Italian steak wine, completing the perfect happy meal here.

It is located in Tuscany, Italy.

Brunello is actually made from the Sangiovese grape.

Sangiovese is pretty tannic.

You're looking at something

to really kind of help break down the solids in the beef.

So you want to look for something

that's really really kind of stringent and tannic,

and this wine works perfectly.

So raspberry, tart cranberry, cherries, freshly paved road.

That's a good thing.

I think a bad choice with something like this

is going with something like all the way sweet

or something very high in alcohol.

I would probably stay away from pork.

These are just rules.

I wouldn't limit yourself to just those rules.

All right, so now we're done with the burger.

We're gonna move on to the fries.

I love the contrast between sweet and salty.

So I'm gonna do a little bit of Riesling here.

Riesling is a grape generally growing in Germany.

This is Kabinett, so this is kind of the entry level,

with just a kiss of sweetness

to kind of help subdue the saltiness of the fries.

There's six different levels

when you're thinking about German Riesling

that have to do with sugar,

the amount of sugar that's left in the wine.

Kabinett which we have here is kind of the entry level.

So it just adds a little bit of sugar, a kiss of sugar.

A tell tale sign of Riesling is petrol or kerosene.

So it slightly smells

like you're standing at the gas station.

Kerosene is definitely not bad,

this is a great thing,

just kind of a byproduct of the grape.

And then it smells like a little bit of tangerine,

I'm getting like a little bit of ginger.

Oh, that's beautiful.

You have a little bit of this acid

to kind of foil the saltiness,

and you have this sweetness to kind of lift everything up.

It's not glowingly or extra sweet.

To me it kind of elevates the experience

of having a McDonald's French fry.

All right, so we're at Taco Bell now

and I've been told this is a crunch wrap supreme.

I've never had one of these before in my life.

I've only seen it on television.

I'm not a fan of hot lettuce.

I definitely taste meat,

I taste cheese with some tomato, cumin and chili.

It tastes like a hard shell taco

that's been wrapped in a tortilla.

And then there's some tacos here.

Well, this brings me back to my college dorm room.

It's the richness of the meat, kind of fatty,

the lettuce here is cold so it's kind of refreshing.

I grew up in San Antonio, Texas,

and you know Tex-Mex and Mexican food were very prevalent.

And when I got into wine that was always a thing,

trying to figure out where to go.

And for me, I've always liked to go

to this region called Alsace in France.

So they make these bold rich style white wines

that really kind of hold up to big rich dishes.

They're low in alcohol,

and they have a slight bit of sweetness

to kind of ward off the spiciness of the dish.

Spiciness and high alcohol wine,

it just accentuates the alcohol.

So it just basically makes your mouth on fire.

But ultimately what we're looking for

is a rich style, white wine, low in alcohol,

that has some acidity to it.

Getting pears, peaches, little lilacs.

It almost smells a little waxy.

Well, that's good.

There's lots of different flavors here,

but mainly what I'm focusing in on

is basically the meat that's in the tacos,

and the spices and the flavors.

That's why we wanted to choose something

that was a little bit neutral in that aspect of alcohol.

I think for most people in wine

or for this particular practice,

zeroing in on the protein

seems the easiest way to be able to do it.

And if it gives you the thing that you can focus on,

this is definitely a classic.

Next up, KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Flavor wise, you know, the saltiness of the skin,

the spices there, kind of really rich chicken flavor.

Oh, that smells so good.

It's like a...

Is that like celery salt?

So, you know, I mean, here

you can go several different ways,

but for me I wanted to do sparkling,

but I wanted to do something a little bit different.

So here I'm thinking we're gonna do

a little bit of Petillant.

So Petillant is any type of sparkling wine

that's made in the ancient traditional method.

There's no secondary fermentation,

it's all the trapped gas and it's fermented in the bottle.

And so it kind of gives this kind of really light,

kind of carbonation,

that's really kind of great with chicken.

So you can just pop it off.

That looks really fun.

It smells almost like...

I don't get many mud baths but being in a mud bath,

there's a little bit of kind of earthiness to it,

earth tones to it, cranberry, cherry, strawberry.

It gives a lot of strawberry here.

For me, bubbles work more as a scrubbing agent

to kind of help cleanse your palette.

And then also I wanted to show

that like there's sparkling red

and that you just don't have to have white wine

with something like this.

The red wine flavors really seem to kind of really mimic

and enhance the flavors of the seasoning

that's on the chicken.

And when I think about chicken, chicken skin is pretty salty

and I wanted to have something that had some acid to it.

I think this is a fun way to be able to do it.

Petillant is fun, it's accessible,

and so is Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Ah, Popeyes.

This is their spicy chicken sandwich.

There's a textual thing going on here

that's different than say something

like the previous chicken that we had before.

It's got pickles on it to give a little bit of acid,

I think there's a little bit of hot sauce

or something on there.

The real kind of flavor is coming from the sauce.

So for me here, I would actually choose Riesling again.

I know we've done that before

but I think this is a little variation of it

and this is called Spatlese,

so this is the next level up.

So this wine is gonna be a little bit more sweet,

it's gonna have a little bit more texture to it.

So we want a low alcohol wine here,

and then we want a little bit sweetness here.

So it smells slightly a little bit like cotton candy,

a little bit of quince, kerosene in the background.

Oh, this is beautiful.

This is so good.

It's definitely a little bit more sweet

to kind of combat the heat.

This is a fun pairing, I've done it before.

For a lot of people it may not be relatable

but I think what's really cool

is that you understand a Popeye sandwich,

you've heard of it before,

maybe this thing you haven't,

but maybe this will give you the chance

or kind of push you over the edge

to say, Hey, maybe I should try these things together.

So we're at Wendy's,

this is beef and bean chili baked potato,

with cheese and a little bit of sour cream.

I'm from the school of like, if it has beans in it

then it's not really chili, but to each his own.

So I've never had this before.

But I think for me and a person in my position,

this is where all the fun comes in, right?

Just like something you never had

and then choosing something

based on the flavors that you see,

and from your taste palate memory.

So I've had a big potato before, I understand what that is,

starchy, crispy skin on the outside, which I love to eat.

And when I look at like chili, you know,

I'm thinking of like fatty, rich, savory cheese,

kind of adds a little bit of kind of a textural thing.

I think for me,

I would want something that had some nuance to it,

but also had some oomph to it, some strength.

I guess the best word to describe it

is a wine that adds structure to it, Lo-fi Malbec,

So in Malbec, traditionally what you're getting

is these dark deep stewed fruits,

almost slightly abrasive in a way, jammy, over the top.

This is kind of the opposite side of the pendulum.

This is a little bit more light,

but it has a lot of those kind of great nuances

that we associate with Malbec

but not clouded by the alcohol.

So I hear like wild cherries, raspberries,

slightly smoky but not from oak, a little tobacco.

I think its sophistication

really kind of works well with the dish.

There's lots of complex flavors here,

lots of things going on.

The rule for me is I always err on the side of caution.

Once the wine is too heavy or too big for the dish,

there's like no going back,

like you can't really enjoy it together.

But this is great.

This feels more uplifting, compliments those flavors,

it's not heavy, but it all finished clean.

And I feel like I can be ready for the next bite.

I like this combo, I think it's great.

But this is where all the fun comes in,

is that you can tweak and choose different wines.

Like ultimately, what would be a fun thing for me

is to have six different wines here.

It's not a sprint to find the best wine

that you could ever find,

it's all about being experimental

and being open and trying different things, right?

'Cause, you know, variety is the spice of life.

So next up, Little Caesars pizza, pepperoni.

I can smell the cheese,

kind of like there's some burnt cheese.

The big thing I smell is pepperoni.

The kind of spiciness, the meatiness of it.

So here we're gonna do a little Barolo,

which is actually known as the king of all Italian wines.

So this is Nebbiollo from the Piedmont region.

So Barolo is an amazing, amazing wine.

This is all 100% Nebbiolo.

You can even look at the wine,

the wine seems almost brickish in color.

That means that the wine has some maturity to it,

so it is old.

So that's gonna lend a little bit more complexity to it.

Tell tale signs for Nebbiolo is tar,

rose petal, wild berries.

I feel like what's interesting about using a wine like this

that's pretty complex for something that's just simple,

you know, dough, cheese and pepperoni meat on it,

it's just kind of a cool kind of contrast.

I think it just enhances the straightforward flavors

of just having a pizza,

it makes it a little bit more exciting.

But this is always a fun combo,

you know, you have the saltiness and...

Another pizza.

This is kind of a really weird pairing.

Like Barolo is really, really expensive,

it is called the king of wine for a reason.

I think this is kind of the ultimate pizza wine,

so even if it was like, you know, the most upscale pizza.

But this is a beautiful pairing,

I feel like comparing the high with the low

is like a really kind of fun contrast

and a really great thing to kind of play with

when doing something like a food and wine pairing.

I recommend this.

All right, so next up is Panda Express.

This is orange chicken, noodles, fried rice and egg rolls.

I have never ever had this before in my life.

Not overly sweet, not clawing, but like good flavor,

like seasoned well.

There is a little bit of kind of chili flakes in it

bringing a little bit of heat.

From that, I kind of know where to go.

So for me I would select a Gewurztraminer,

a dry Gewurztraminer, meaning that the wine is not sweet.

Gewurztraminer is a grape,

Gewurz means spicy,

Traminer is like the base grape,

so it's a spicy traminer.

You're just talking, like a floral spice.

This wine sees a little bit of time

on the skins, collecting color,

and when we pour it it'll be kind of orangey.

We're having an orange wine with orange chicken.

Wow, this is like tangerine,

there's ginger, lychee.

It's a very lean, low acid.

This is bone dry, which really kind of works well

with the sweetness of the chicken here and the heat.

To have an orange mine with your orange chicken,

I pulled it off.

You're damn straight I pulled it off.

We're at Dunkin' Donuts,

and this is a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit.

This is the American breakfast on a bun.

So we have egg, and then we have cheese.

Oh, that looks awesome, sausage,

And for me generally, I'm a weird dude,

I like to put jam on this.

No mayonnaise, no nothing, just jam.

Jam to me just kind of ties it all together.

And since I don't have any jam here,

I'll pull a little Pais out.

This may be a grape that many people aren't familiar.

It's a grape that's been cultivated in South America

and actually migrated up through Mexico into Texas,

and also into California.

It has electric raspberry color.

Here, I really get a lot of strawberry.

Now this is like a light to medium body grape.

This is really beautiful, wow.

You guys should fight over this wine when we leave.

It's what we want here.

We don't want something that would overpower the dish.

We want something that's lean,

we want something that's crisp and has acid.

And then for me personally I like that strawberry flavor

that you get from using jam, that's not overly sweet.

And that kind of brings the dish to the pinnacle,

at least for me.

You should all try it.

I think Subway is up next.

This is the Italian big, meaty and tasty.

We have salty meat,

you have lettuce to kind of give a little bit of texture,

there's onions, tomatoes that give acid, there's cheese.

For me I would wanna choose

an Italian wine to go with this, Chianti.

So it's one of the most classic and iconic Italian wines.

Think about like the red sauce places, tomato sauce,

those things that are really high in acid.

We're matching the classics here today,

classic Italian sub, classic Italian wine.

So this is a light to medium body red wine,

I'm getting lots of tart cherries, raspberries, oregano.

Wine and really act as a seasoning agent,

so something like oregano

jumping out of this particular wine,

in my mind classically go on an Italian sub.

So the flavors are really starting to match up.

I think you can't lose with this particular combo,

and Chianti is value driven and affordable.

Why not do it?

Oh man, I think I got a piece of paper.

I got some paper here, but don't worry about it.

This wine pairs perfect with the subway wrapper.

Ah, so next up, Burger King, the home of the Whopper

in this case, I believe this is an impossible Whopper.

This is a plant-based meat

with all the [indistinct] of a Whopper.

I'm gonna look at this plant-based burger

in the same way that I would look at it

as a traditional Whopper.

It's cooked on the grill the same way,

all the other flavors are the same.

Instead of using something like a Cabernet

I wanted to go to the Rhone valley.

And so this is Syrah, this is from the Cotes du Rhone.

Now this is from France.

Syrah is like this kind of meaty, peppery style wine

that's really beautiful and expressive,

and I thought that would pair really well with the smoke.

And this is a great example about how the items are cooked

can change the way that you pair wine with it.

McDonald's burgers are cooked on a griddle, on a flat top,

and that's something different.

Versus this is done on a char broil grill,

which leaves the grill marks,

there's some smokiness to it.

The burnt marks kind of leave

a little bit more texture to it,

and it's just done in a different way.

And so for me, I think this wine can stand up

to something with a little bit more oomph to it.

It always remind me of like Lawry's Seasoning Salt.

Meaty, fleshy, white peppercorn, dried raspberries.

Got really great mouth-feels, not really overpowering

but it's got really great mouth feel, great tenance.

Medium finish, for all of you wondering

like what does the impossible burger taste like,

it tastes like a Whopper in this sense.

I feel like it has all the elements

that, I don't know, I wanna say 'trick your brain.'

But this is a great pairing, I think this is great.

Even with a regular Whopper or impossible Whopper,

syrah from the Rhone valley, it's a great pairing.

And finally my happy meal.

So we have the filet of fish, which is one of my favorites.

I actually worked at the fish station, if you would,

when I was 16 at McDonald's.

So filet of fish profile,

you get this tartness from the tartar sauce,

there's relish so there's a little bit of sweetness to it,

you have this fried fish product,

so you have the little kind of crunchy exterior.

Inside it's very warm and moist.

Flavor wise, I think to most, is probably the tartar sauce,

and the fish,

you know, a little bit of that ocean if you would.

So my hack meal is why don't we elevate it

and step our game up.

So I wanna add a little bit of osetra caviar here,

little fish eggs that kind of bring everything over the top.

It just makes it easier if we just dump it all

on the top here like this.

Yes, we're pairing with caviar.

And then ultimately we complete everything

with a little bit of champagne here.

This is a little Krug half bottle.

This is kind of well above over the top,

this is in a different stratosphere here.

I feel slightly dirty by eating this.

So this is what I'm gonna eat.

So this is like toasty, bread coming right out of the oven.

I think this is kind of contrast in flavors.

Like generally speaking,

when you think about pairing wine with caviar,

the problem with that is that most white wines

that you would pour with it or serve with it

they start to taste tinnie.

So generally most people's go to is champagne,

where it has the bubbles that kind of offset that.

This is so good.

Oh, that's decadent, that's amazing.

So this is our grand finale,

and I guess really what it means to me,

it's kind of a celebration of the history of my career,

you know, from where I started to kind of where I ended up.

It is definitely over the top,

but I think also it's something that one should experience.

It's kind of funny in a lot of different ways,

that you take something that is pedestrian

as a filet of fish from McDonald's,

and putting one of the world's most expensive

ingredients on it and enjoying it together.

I had a great time today,

actually more fun than I really thought I was gonna have.

Fast food and wine is worth it,

you bet your sweet ass it's worth it.

[upbeat music]

You ever see the girl

that was at the the Knicks game

who was dipping her chicken nuggets into her soda?

Who does that?

You guys do that?

Anybody here do that?

[Man] You wanna try it?

No, I'm not doing that.

I'm not doing that.

[Man] All right, it's done.