The following is an excerpt from the new book Big Macs & Burgundy: Wine Pairings for the Real World, on shelves now.Â
Just as thereâs a wine for every food, thereâs always a perfect bottle for whatever youâre binging on-screen. Dystopian visions of the future call for pours with ancient complexity (try The Handmaidâs Tale with Italyâs Lacryma Christi, the âTears of Christâ), while laugh-track sitcoms demand a more crowd-pleasing grape (Friends goes down like dental gas with Pinot Grigio). If youâre revisiting Orange Is the New Black, try making your own pruno, the fermented fruit wine also known as prison hoochâall you need is some live yeast, crumbled bread, fruit, juice, sugar, and a toilet (though a one-gallon plastic jug will do). And the only thing to drink with The Crown? Her Majestyâs favorite Bollinger. The right wine can pair with your latest streamer like an oenophilic soundtrack.
KILLING EVE & Russian Krasnostop Zolotovsky
Krasnostop Zolotovsky is a Russian red as big and chewy as a Cabernet Sauvignon, as green-bell peppery as a Cabernet Franc, and as violent as TVâs most endearing sociopathic Russian assassin, Villanelle, with all the nail-biting tension of a game of cat and mouse with MI6.
$$ Domaine Burnier Krasnostop Zolotovsky, Natuchajevskaya, Russia
STRANGER THINGS & Blue Wine
For eighties sci-fi fantasy, try a porthole to the upside down of blue wineâthe Demogorgon of the wine worldâmade by filtering white wine through the pulp of red grape skins. Mostly from Spain, the wines are a shade of Cookie Monster formaldehyde and among the stranger things you will ever drink, with a mild, sweet taste fit for Eleven.
$ Marqués de Alcantåra Blue Chardonnay, Spain
PEAKY BLINDERS & Egri Bikavér
(Bullâs Blood of Eger)
The darkest, thickest, bloodiest red wine produced today should only be consumed with the darkest, bloodiest show still on television (it also goes great with Game of Thrones, if youâre one of those holdouts still waiting for the right moment). Hungarian Egri BikavĂ©r, or Bullâs Blood of Eger, is a spicy, crimson-hued ferocity of a wine named for the unlikely victors of a medieval battle whose intimidated foes surrendered after mistaking all the red stuff around their opponentâs mouths as evidence of a blood sacrifice (they were just drunk). Like the Shelby brothers, itâs scary good.
$ St. Andrea ĂldĂĄs Egri BikavĂ©r
SUCCESSION & First Growth Bordeaux
As cousin Greg might say on Logan Royâs yacht, when youâve got fuck-you money, the only wine worth drinking is First Growth Bordeaux, preferably with at least twenty years of age. Left Bank Bordeaux has five top ranks of quality called growths, and the firstâand bestâof them consists entirely of the legendary elixirs of the global elite known as Lafite-Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, Haut-Brion, and Mouton-Rothschild. Theyâll cost you significantly more than an HBO subscription, but probably not your soul.
$$$ ChĂąteau Lafite Rothschild, Pauillac
NARCOS MEXICO & Mexican Wine
As hot as it is, Mexico still sits geographically just below the 30th parallel, right at the edge of quality wine production on both sides of the equator. Itâs a great place to grow Tempranillo that manages to smuggle flavors like dark chocolate, burnt espresso, and charred beef into the same bottle with stewy black fruits, scratchy tannins, and full-on black pepper.
$ L.A. Cetto Sierra Blanca Tempranillo, Valle de Guadalupe
EUPHORIA & Skin Contact Wine (Orange Wine)
Racy HBO teen dramas are the province of skin contact, or white wines fermented on their skins, a process usually reserved for reds. These copper-tinted rule breakers are commonly known as orange wines, and theyâre full of tannin-charged emotions and sensuous, fleshy flavors like ripe apricot and exotic oolong tea.
$$ JoĆĄko Gravner Ribolla Venezia Giulia, Venezia Giulia, Italy
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE & Col Fondo Prosecco
Col Fondo, or officially Rifermentato in Bottiglia, is sour beer in wine form, which sounds laughable, and thatâs mostly the point. But thereâs something giddily drinkable about this natural wine from Prosecco with more tarty cheek-suction than Keira Knightley. Made in a similar method to pĂ©t-nats, they also have a little less fizz than typical Proseccos, making it a bit easier on you if they happen to go up your nose.
$ Caâ dei Zago Col Fondo Prosecco, Veneto, Italy
THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL & Kosher Wine
Itâs actually a bottle of Kiddush wine that starts it all, the night her husband leaves her on Yom Kippur. Midge polishes it off in the subway on her way to revealing her inner funny woman (and boobs) onstage for the first time. Kiddush wines, meant for blessings and breaking fast, can be a bit sweet for most wine drinkers, so for a meeting with Mrs. Maisel that wonât give you a sugar hangover, go with a wine thatâs simply kosher. Wineries the world over are now producing serious bottlings that are plenty dry and just happen to satisfy the requirements of Jewish law. Many come from Israel, but great versions are also made in places like California, Spain, and France.
$$ Hagafen Cellars Prix Reserve Merlot
Reprinted from Big Macs & Burgundy: Wine Pairings for the Real World by Vanessa Price with Adam Laukhuf. Photographs by Michelle McSwain. Illustrations by The Ellaphant in the Room. Published by Abrams Image, an imprint of ABRAMS.