Quick Bites: Fine Swine Wine

In North Carolina, beer and sweet tea have long been the libations of choice to go with the state’s famous pit-smoked barbecue—but who says they are the only choices? Now wine lovers have a custom-made option, courtesy of Childress Vineyards.

It all started in 2005, the year after former NASCAR driver Richard Childress opened his winery in Lexington, North Carolina. The management team from Lexington’s Barbecue Festival—the much-lauded annual event dedicated to the favorite local cuisine—approached Childress about making a wine to pair with barbecue. Childress agreed, and his longtime friend, Lexington-born artist Bob Timberlake, signed on to design the label—which always depicts a pig in some whimsical form. The result was Fine Swine Wine.

Like the label, the wine changes every year depending on the vineyard’s harvest. According to Childress winemaker, Mark Friszolowski, the blend is typically complex (for the 2009 vintage, he used Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and a trace of Petit Verdot), with a hint of residual sugar. “It’s like sweet tea with a kick,” Friszolowski says.

Whatever the blend, the wine is carefully crafted to complement the tangy vinegar-based “dip”—as it is locally known—that defines Lexington barbecue. You can buy Fine Swine Wine at the barbecue festival; Childress produces a limited amount each year, especially for the event. Bottles that don’t sell at the festival are sold in the winery’s shop, and disappear quickly.

Lexington has been the capital of ’cue since Jesse Swicegood and Sid Weaver began selling barbecue pork out of tents downtown in 1919. Today the tradition continues in more than twenty barbecue restaurants, where hardwood-smoked pork is served chopped or minced—never pulled. If you go, be sure to ask for some of “the brown,” the flavorful crunchy crust that forms on the outside of the pork shoulder as it cooks. Make it a point to visit in late October for the barbecue festival, where a minced-pork sandwich topped with red slaw (made without mayonnaise in these parts) and washed down with a glass of Fine Swine Wine will have you eating high on the hog.

Childress Vineyards, off US-52 in Lexington, (336) 236-9463, www.childressvineyards.com