The Naked Dog Meets Its Match

Hot Dogs and Champagne. Why do these words sound so unharmonious? Is the food of our national pastime too humble in the presence of high society’s favorite libation? Or is it that we place wine with bubbles on too high a pedestal?

Probably a bit of both, but in fact they do go great together. Ask loyal readers Danny and Maura Walker. Danny wrote to me during the summer after I reviewed a bunch of domestic sparkling wines. Almost apologetically he confessed that he enjoyed Gloria Ferrer sparkling wines from Sonoma County with chili dogs—chili dogs from The Varsity, to be precise.

I wrote back that I was not surprised at all by the unlikely combination. The saltiness of the dogs together with the zippiness and acidity of the chili make for a wonderful match with the acidity and bubbles of the sparkling wines. In a way, it’s not much different than briny caviar or Bluepoint oysters with a shot of Tabasco served with Champagne.

Desperate for a column idea…I mean eager to explore the depths of this odd food-wine coupling, I proposed that the Walkers meet me at Atlanta’s favorite hot dog stand, The Varsity, for a groundbreaking taste test. I would bring five bottles of sparkling wine from around the world and we would taste them with a variety of hot dog preparations. I didn’t get past the free hot dog part before Danny eagerly said yes.

To lend a little credibility to this experiment, I invited Gina Hopkins, owner and wine lady for Atlanta’s Restaurant Eugene. A proponent of healthy eating (Hopkins works with her husband, chef Linton Hopkins, to improve the quality and nutrition of lunch at the school of her two children, Linton and Avery), Hopkins believes any diet should have room for a chili dog once in a while. Everything in moderation, right? She enthusiastically agreed to participate.

So on a sunny Friday afternoon in October the four of us met in the carhop lot of The Varsity on North Ave. I brought five chilled bottles wrapped in tin foil to conceal the identities of the wines. I chose a dry sparkler from Sonoma County, a cava from Spain, a subtly sweet pink bubbly from France’s Loire Valley and an affordable bottle from Champagne, France. I couldn’t resist adding a ringer into the mix, so I threw in a bottle of 1996 Taittinger, Comtes de Champagne (a regal and respected wine that retails for about $140) just to see how far we could take this beauty-and-beast tasting. After we popped the corks and poured a sample of the first wine, we ordered up a potpourri of hot dogs—naked dogs to slaw dogs and everything in the middle.

As we got down to business, one thing became immediately clear: you can get away with a lot in the parking lot of The Varsity. As police cruisers and veteran carhop servers circulated through the area, not an eyebrow was raised as we stood behind my station wagon gnawing on chili-cheese dogs and sipping sparkling wine in our plastic champagne flutes. The other thing that was clear was that hot dogs do indeed marry quite well with all things bubbly.

“These folks are right on,” said Hopkins, referring to the Walkers’ predilection to franks and bubbly. “Sparkling wine works great with hot dogs, but the trick is in the toppings.” And, of course, she was right.

Although we did not know the identities of the wines during the tasting, we generally agreed that the Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc from Sonoma found a friend with the yellow dog (hot dog with mustard), the chili dog and the chili-cheese dog. However, the slaw dog made the wine noticeably bitter. To a lesser extent, the 1+1=3 Cava Brut from Spain performed similarly with mustard and chili, but it was not nearly as bitter with the slaw.

So what do you serve with a slaw dog? Well, if you have a wine with some sweetness, that could be your best bet. There was some consensus that the Bouvet, Excellence, Rosé from the Loire with its berry qualities and slight sweetness left a pleasant fruity/floral aftertaste.

As for the wines from Champagne, the less-expensive Joseph Perrier, Cuveée Royale, didn’t really find a home with many hot dog combos, although Hopkins and I thought it went smashingly well with the mustard dog. The winner for overall frankfurter friendliness had to be the $140 Taittinger. It was the favorite on several cards with the chili; it was good to great with mustard; and out of all the drier sparklers, it tolerated the slaw the best. And for good measure, Maura thought it went great with the greasy-but-yummy onion rings.

Now, I’m not sure if Taittinger will be changing its marketing campaign to make room for our designation of “The World’s Greatest Hot Dog Champagne,” but our relatively scientific experiment showed that a great wine can hold its own regardless of what you serve with it. But truly what our pleasant research in friendly confines of The Varsity parking lot illustrated was this: you should never make assumptions about any food-wine combination or take either of the two components too seriously. We’d all enjoy our food and wine a little more if we could focus on the fun and lose the pretense.

1996 Taittinger, Blanc de Blancs, Comtes de Champagne, Champagne, France

• $140

• Two Thumbs Way Up

• Whether its hot dogs at The Varsity or canapés at a swank affair, this is one sparkler you make sure you get your share of. Balanced flavors of lightly yeasty dough with a punctuation of lemon-lime and elegant, pinpoint bubbles.

2002 Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs, Napa/Sonoma/Mendocino/Marin counties, Calif.

• $35

• Two Thumbs Way Up

• Lots of floral and apple aromas and an assortment of delicate flavors like lemons, limes, green apples and a brisk acidity that somehow matches nicely with mustard. Goes great with “yellow dogs,” but would be fabulous with spicy crab cakes and grain mustard sauce, too.

Champagne Joseph Perrier, Brut, Cuvée Royale, Champagne, France

• $36

• Two Thumbs Up

• Dry almost to the point of dustiness, but with very Champagne-like yeasty dough aromas and flavors with those one-of-a-kind chalky mineral notes. Great with naked dogs or Beluga caviar, whatever the situation dictates.

1+1=3, Brut, Cava, Spain

• $14

• One Thumb Up

• Very rich floral aromas and flavors with abundant bubbles, this sparkler had straightforward lemon flavors with a touch of baked bread. It had a touch of sweetness that makes it work with items like slaw dogs or curry chicken salad canapés with a chutney garnish.

Bouvet, Brut Rosé, Excellence, Loire Valley, France

• $14

• One Thumb Up

• A beautiful-looking, rich pink wine with plentiful bubbles, it had a unique mineral-strawberry flavor with subtle, sweet cream quality. Overall a simple wine, but with enough fruit flavors and sweetness to match marvelously with a slaw dog or hand-dipped, chocolate-covered cherries.