Make a healthy chili! Perfect for the colder weather, spicy chili is an easy way to use up leftovers. However, spicy peppers can be hard to pair with wine. They usually make wines taste bitter and tannic. To offset the heat, an off-dry wine would be an easy solution but off-dry wines tend to be white. This hearty dish calls for a hearty red wine. When trying to pair a spicy dish, think low tannins with rich fruit. The perfect combination of this is a California Rhone-style blend which is Grenache/Syrah/Mouvedre mostly.
My pick for a spicy turkey chili is Cline Small Berry Mouvedre from Contra Costa County in California. This wine has low tannins and hints of plum, tobacco and eucalyptus-mint. This bottle retails for around $35.
If you are looking for something at a lower price point, Smoking Loon Syrah is a good bet. Retailing for only $9, this syrah has hints of strawberry and blueberry with touches of rosemary and sage.
