Pairing Off: Tear open a bag of pork rinds and reach for a bottle of...

Pork rinds and fine wine.

It rolls off the tongue so easily that a country song comes to mind…well, it would if someone had the foresight to write it. Pickup truck meets Ferrari, boots and heels, a little heartbreak thrown in—can’t miss. Cody? Lainey? Luke?

Sure, pork rinds come from humble beginnings, from a time when nothing went to waste. But hipsters have taken up the nose to tail mantra and skilled artisans now turn great attention to rinds, cracklins, chicharrónes and scratchings.

The beer bacon caramel pork rinds from PigWizard in Monterey are addictive. Sweet and smoky, with a toasty savor and pops of candied meat, they tease your palate this way and that. And there is little heft remaining. PigWizard’s rinds are charming, airy beasts.

“Those are so good,” says Claire Sutton, sommelier and owner of Sovino Wine Bar & Merchant in Monterey.

So kick back, put on the ballgame, open a bag of rinds and…

“Red,” Sutton decides. “Sangiovese. Malbec.”

She points to the Sangiovese from Mesa Del Sol, which earned 91 points from Wine Enthusiast.

“It has a caramel note that will match well,” Sutton adds. “And there’s a nice spice at the end.”

While Mesa Del Sol’s wine would be a neat complement, Malbec is the more daring option. It can show more fruit with its natural sweetness.

But Sutton singles out the 2019 Malbec from Galante Vineyards.

“It’s a big red,” she explains. “The sweetness will balance because it’s a dry wine.”

On the nose it offers a stew of dark berries with hints of plum and dry leaves. A tannic impression like supple velvet peeks in the background. When sipped, fresh blackberries and ripe plums burst over the palate. Yet it is hardly a fruit bomb. In the balance are more somber notions of cured tobacco and powdered chocolate, with sueded leather building to a rich yet dry finish.

This is a wine to sit with and consider. But there are pork rinds on the table.

Galante’s Malbec has a trace of spice buried in its profile. This rears itself against the rinds as the fruit initially recoils before gaining volume on the finish. The tannins ease into the toasty impression of the puffed pork. As all of this lingers on the palate, it’s as if you had finished a grilled fruit tart with a bittersweet char. 

Which is why pork rinds and fine wine would be a chart pleaser.