Toasting to Cinco de Mayo (and enjoying great food at iTzcali Tapas and Tequila)

Cinco de Mayo is a yearly celebration to commemorate Mexico’s victory over Napoleon III’s French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. We hope you’re planning to celebrate with friends, and if you do, we suspect you’ll have some delicious Mexican food! Now, beer and tequila may be your typical go-to for Mexican food, but wine is also an excellent choice. So what to pair with Mexican food?

“Mexican food” spans a wide variety of delicious dishes, so there are many wine options to consider here. We felt it would be best to try out some food pairings ourselves (it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it), so we headed over to iTzcali Tapas and Tequila. There are SO many good food options to choose from, and we were very surprised by their fantastic wine menu.

With the help of our wonderful server, Maria, we chose street tacos with beef birria, iTzcali nachos, and enchiladas en mole rojo. And in service to our community, we decided we’d better try 3 different wines to see what paired best (there were 3 of us!).

First dish up! Since Mexican food can have a little kick to it (or sometimes a lot), and sweeter wine classically goes well with spicy food, we chose the Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc from California. Chenin Blanc isn’t always sweet, but it very often has a little sweetness like this one did.

This delightful little wine smells like honeysuckle and ripe pears and has just a touch of sweetness to it. That makes it very enjoyable on its own, but it also pairs charmingly with both the street tacos and the nachos (both of which were AMAZING, by the way—highly recommend). With the food, the wine’s sweetness fades away and it’s smoothness really comes through. Delicious. The Chenin was a little overpowered by the enchiladas, but it would be a great tapas wine.

Our next wine: the Acrobat Pinot Noir from Oregon. This is a lighter, bright red wine with notes of cherry and strawberry. It’s fruitier and less earthy than some Oregon Pinots.

As Pinot so often does, this wine went well with all of the food we ate. It was light enough to go with the lighter foods, but substantial enough to go with the bigger foods like the enchiladas (again, absolutely delicious, HIGHLY recommend).

Last up: the Zuccardi Series A Malbec from Argentina. This is a big, dark, rich wine with dark cherries and even some hints of sweet tobacco in it.

This wine is very enjoyable on its own, but it was a wonderful addition to the nachos, and it really paired beautifully with the enchiladas, becoming even fruitier. We all really enjoyed this!

We had a truly fantastic afternoon pre-celebrating Cinco de Mayo at iTzcali, and we think you should head over there at your first opportunity to celebrate, too. You will not be disappointed.

If you want some general wine pairing ideas for your own Cinco de Mayo feast:

Fish taco: Albariño or Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand or California)

Spicy food: consider a Loire Chenin Blanc or an off dry Riesling from Germany or Australia

Carnitas or other pork dishes: Pinot Noir (Oregon Pinot Noir would be a great choice as it has a prominent earthy quality, pairing beautifully with these dishes)

Moles: Zinfandel, Malbec

Chicken Enchiladas are usually have a savory chicken wrapped in a tortilla, then smothered in chili sauce topped with a creamy cheese sauce: Argentina Malbec, Loire Chenin Blanc

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!