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How To Pair Wine with SPAM Musubis!

 

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For my birthday in August, my friend Malia of Shoyu Sugar made SPAM musubis for me!! I remember eating SPAM a bit when I was a kid. My mom mixed ground SPAM with American cheese and white onions and we made hot sandwiches with it. I actually really kind of liked it. But it wasn’t until I had Malia’s musubis that I understood what kind of magic you can make with this meat. 

I won’t go into the history of SPAM or how deeply embedded it is in Hawaiian culture. Suffice to say, SPAM musubis are a common snack food in Hawaii. When she can get the ingredients, Malia makes them with soy sauce, ginger, and sugar (follow her online to get the full recipe!) which is apparently the most traditional flavors used. Previously, we paired these with Hawaiian sparkling pineapple wine! You can read about that awesome pairing here. Given that is not a super common wine in Turkey (i.e. not at all available!) or really elsewhere off Hawaii, I wanted to see what other kind of wine might pair well. 

What did I consider when trying to think of wines? Well one, the marinade ingredients are essentially teriyaki sauce so I did some Googling to see what pairs well with that. I also know that Malia has a generous hand with the ginger. So, I was looking for wines that could stand up to the ginger but not overwhelm and for reds, wines with low tannins. I cast a pretty wide net because sometimes things can surprise you. There were a lot of misses! But, in the end, I also found a fair number of wines that worked. 

Famille Bougrier “V” Vouvray Grand Reserve AOP, 2020

Famille Bourgier was established in 1885 and is now in the hands of the family’s sixth generation. The “V” Vouvray Grand Reserve AOP was an off-dry Chenin Blanc with loads of honey and ripe stone fruit on the nose. Mouth-filling with pleasant acidity to off-set the residual sugar, low alcohol (11.5%), a creamy texture, and notes of honey and apricot on the palate. 

This went so well with the musubis! The unctuousness of the wine played well with the fattiness of the SPAM and the wine’s flavors nicely complimented the teriyaki and ginger flavor of the marinade. 

Josmeyer Pinot Gris Grand Cru Brand, 2015

Domaine Josmeyer, established outside Colmar in 1854, is a multi-generational winery run today by sisters Céline and Isabelle. They have 90 plots spread over 24.4 ha, all of which they farm biodynamically. Grapes for this wine come from two small plots in Turckheim’s Grand Cru Brand from 40+ year old vines. The Pinot Gris is pressed whole bunch followed by spontaneous fermentation followed by aging in the fine lees.

Wowza this was something! Honey, white fruits, and stone fruit aromas wrapped around a citrus core with the suggestion of flower petals. Like the Vouvray, this was an off-dry wine but with much higher alcohol at 14%. Not that I noticed the alcohol though so perfectly balanced was it with firm acidity and ebullient stone fruit and pear flavors complimented by almond blossom, marzipan, and honey. A 2015 but still so very youthful.

Also like the Vouvray, this did well with the musubis as the flavors nicely complimented the teriyaki and ginger flavor of the marinade and the acidity helped cut through the SPAM. 

Mélanie Pfister Grand Cru Engelberg Gewurztraminer, 2016

Mélanie Pfister is the 8th generation of her family to run the Pfister wine business. In 2018, she turned all the domaine’s vineyards towards organic farming. 

Engelberg is a south-facing hillside vineyard that has recorded wine history back to 884! A thin topsoil lays over limestone. Mélanie farms less than two acres here, all located in the prime mid-slope zone of this exceptional northern grand cru. She ferments her Gewurztraminer in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats then ages it on the fine lees for two years. And if the last two wines were off-dry (the Pinot may have been fully sweet, I could not find stats for it) this most assuredly was a sweet wine with about 24 g/l of residual sugar.

WOW. If I ever have to do a blind tasting, I hope at least one of them is a Gewürztraminer (or Gewurztraminer if we’re being Alsatian). This was so characteristically Gewurztraminer in the nose, there was no mistaking it for anything else. Intense rose petals, with honey, ripe apricot and peach, and sprinkles of all those lovely gewürtz-y spices. A fulsome mouthfeel and moderate alcohol (13.5%) buoyed by bright acidity. Spicier on the palate with nutmeg and allspice, sun-warmed ripe white peaches, and orange blossom honey.

The pairing with the SPAM musubi here worked well for the same reasons as with the Vouvray and the Pinot Gris. 

Arcadia Roze, 2022

Arcadia Vineyards is a family-run winery located  in the heart of Kırklareli. From planting the vines to vinifying the grapes, they insist on careful production methods and minimum intervention, so that their wines can express the unique terroir of their beautiful vineyards. The vineyards are ETAP certified and farmed at least semi-organically with no pesticides or herbicides. 

For this rosé, Arcadia blend Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with a small amount of the wine having some skin contact and the bulk direct press. The pale, onion-skin pink color showed clean and brilliant in the glass. Lightly aromatic with red plums, currant, honey, linden, and black current leaf. The palate was full-bodied, weighty, and dry with 14% abv and really nice acidity. Red fruits upfront followed by a breath of flowers and tropical notes like guava and loquat.

I fell in love with this wine last year and have found it to be incredibly food-friendly, so I wanted to try it with the musubis. It was not as successful a pairing as the three whites, but it wasn’t at all bad either so I’m taking the win. 

Arcadia Pinot Gris, 2022

Arcadia’s Pinot Gris has always reminded me of a northeastern Italian ramato-style Pinot Grigio. I’ve had excellent luck in the past pairing it with Asian flavors so I took a chance that it might work here, and it did!

The first sip reminded me that there is a difference between Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio. Yes, yes, they’re the same grape. But the wines they made are distinctly different. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt such palate weight from a rosé! Round and weighty with 13.5% abv and a balancing lively acidity, the wine tasted of berries and intoxicatingly perfumed nosegays. After living in the glass for a while and warming up a few degrees the flavor profile to a wide left turn away from summer berries into luscious loquats.

Ma’Adra Öküzgözü  Carbonic Maceration, 2022

I tried a slew of reds for this but, sadly, almost none of them worked. I did manage to get two that were at least not so bad! Ma’Adra, in the northern Aegean region, is a small, family-run winery with some of the most beautifully cut terraced vineyards. Most of their wines are international grapes, which of course I find disappointing. And while one of the only Turkish grapes they work with, Öküzgözü, is one of my least favorites, I love love love the Ma’Adra Öküzgözü Carbonic Maceration. 

Does anyone remember those instant oatmeal packs that came with “cinnamon brown sugar swirl”? No? Just me? The nose here shouted strawberry jam with brown sugar swirl. Cinnamon and clove add depth and eucalyptus comes in for a fresh, botanic lift. Öküzgözü, already not an overly tannic grape, seems ready made for carbonic maceration. Flavors of crunchy red fruits and caramelized banana compliment a silky mouthfeel that slides into a medium finish. Soft acidity and medium alcohol (13.5%) add to the almost luscious feeling.

Not fabulous but not bad with the musubi. The wine’s low tannins and soft acidity and fruitiness didn’t overwhelm the SPAM.  

Paşaeli Merman Çalkarası, 2022

As I was looking for low tannin reds with good acidity, of course I had to try Çalkarası and went immediately with Paşaeli. The first winery in Turkey to really give this grape the attention it deserves and, I know I said this in my recent post about the Merman Çalkarası but it bears repeating, the 2022 is fantastic. 

This aromatic dry red wine burst with aromas of red forest fruits, cherry, pepper, and brown spices. The scent alone was mouthwatering! On the palate, spicy and elegant. Bright, juicy acidity with flavors of savory herbs, red flowers, and just a hint of dried red fruit (like bing cherries) that went down like silk. This was probably the best red pairing I managed for the musubi. 

Unrelated to SPAM but bonus if you’re reading this from anywhere near west Michigan – Tiffany’s in Kalamazoo not only carries the Paşaeli Merman Çalkarası, but has this vintage!!

A lot of the wines I tried did not work at all. Some of my initial selections were dodgy from a pairing standpoint to begin with, but I wanted to try them anyway. My conclusion: white wine worked better overall than red, and off-dry white wines were the definite winners.