Introduction
Taco Bell just launched its first wine called Jalapeño Noir, a Pinot Noir, get it? Is the wine any good? Should you try it? Does it pair well with tacos? What will surprise you about making the wine, especially the winery that made it? What was the stealth marketing plan behind the launch? What’s next, Big Macs and Bordeaux?
In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m going solo to do a live taste test for you.
You can find the Jalapeno Noir wine here.
Highlights
- How well did Taco Bell’s new Jalapeño Noir wine perform at its launch?
- What was my first impression when I heard Jalapeño Noir announced?
- What might surprise you about the making of Jalapeño Noir?
- Why would you usually enjoy cheddar paired with Cabernet Sauvignon?
- Is there a preferred order in which you should taste wine and food?
- What purple prose will you find on the label of Taco Bell’s Jalapeño Noir wine?
- Which winery was responsible for producing Taco Bell’s Jalapeño Noir wine?
- Why should you try Queenston Mile Vineyard’s Pinot Noir?
- What should you look out for in the tasting of Jalapeño Noir?
- Who is the winemaker of Jalapeño Noir?
- How does Jalapeño Noir compare to other Pinot Noirs from the same winery?
- Why should you use big-bowl glassware with Pinot?
- Is it worth it for you to try the Taco Bell pairing of Jalapeño Noir with the Toasted Cheesy Chalupa?
- What tasting notes can you expect from the pairing?
- Why might you find it difficult to pair wine with spicy food?
- Which types of wine can you more easily pair with spicy food?
- What flavours will you taste in Wayne Gretzky Estates Whisky Oak Aged Chardonnay?
- How do the pairings of the Toasted Cheesy Chalupa with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir differ?
- What flavours and aromas will you pick up with barrel-aged wine?
- What aspects of Jackson-Triggs Bourbon Barrel Aged Merlot make it a better pairing than Wayne Gretzky Estates Whisky Oak Aged Chardonnay?
- Why should you give high/low pairings a chance?
- What sort of changes might this wine prompt in the industry?
- How do beverages play a key role in restaurants?
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Resources
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Transcript & Takeaways
Welcome to episode 97!
Taco Bell just launched its first wine called Jalapeño Noir, a Pinot Noir, get it? Is the wine any good? Should you try it? Does it pair well with tacos? What will surprise you about making the wine, especially the winery that made it? What was the stealth marketing plan behind the launch? What’s next, Big Macs and Bordeaux?
This week on the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m going solo to do a live taste test for you. I actually do the uncorking on Facebook Live Video, and you can watch that and get the link to the wine itself in the show notes. I’ll also include where you can find me on Facebook live every second Wednesday at 7 pm, and how you can join me in a free online wine and food pairing class — that’s all in the show notes at nataliemaclean.com/97.
“It’s that time again,” I said to myself this morning.
Time to write the annual Thanksgiving letter to friends and family.
(I go with this timing rather than Christmas… better chance of being read in a less crowded market;)
“How did that come round so quickly?” I asked myself.
No answer.
These conversations often end like this ;)
Here we are, just a week from Thanksgiving in Canada.
Do you have some wines in mind for the big bird?
I’m thinking Pinot Noir, quelle surprise.
We’re just 3 episodes away from number 100. Who would you like me to interview on this show? It could be a celebrity who now has a wine label, a winemaker, a sommelier, a wine or food writer, or someone with a great wine story.
I’m going to give away 3 signed copies of my second book, Unquenchable, which Amazon named one of the best books of the year to 3 people who come up with the best ideas.
So please email me at [email protected] or tag me on social media with any ideas you have to make it fun. And there will be wine.
Okay, on with the show!
You can also watch the video chat that includes bonus content and behind-the-scenes questions and answers that weren’t included in this podcast.
Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed that discussion — my liver and arteries for you, dear listener.
You won’t want to miss next week when I’ll be chatting with Justin Taylor and Neil Hadley from Australia’s Wakefield Wines, they share some of their most memorable wine stories as well as fascinating insights and visual illustrations into why wines taste the way they do.
In the meantime, if you missed episode 5 with Dr. Edward Miller, go back and take a listen. You’ll learn about the health benefits and risks of drinking wine, though not from eating tacos. I’ll share a short clip with you now to whet your appetite.
If you liked this episode, please tell one friend about it this week, especially someone you know who’d be interested in whether the new Taco Bell wine is worth trying.
You’ll find links to the wines and cheeses we tasted, where you can find me on Facebook live every second Wednesday at 7 pm, including this evening if you’re listening to this podcast on the day it’s published, and how you can join me in a free online wine and food pairing class — that’s all in the show notes at nataliemaclean.com/97.
Thank-you for taking the time to join me here. I hope something great is in your glass this week, perhaps a wine that pairs perfectly with a cheesy taco!
Transcript
Natalie MacLean 0:00
It’s very elegant presentation. The back label stuff. Someone was drinking too much Pinot Noir. This isn’t just a wine you’re holding. This is what happens when you paddle out to meet the ever crashing wave of time and hang tin inside the barrel of creation. Stay with me. This is a pairing made by fate. Wow, a little bit too much Pinot Noir there, but we often get purple pros on the back label so why not just go for it all the way patients gave the toasted cheesy chalupa its sumptuous depth of flavour and crisp lowering texture, persistence suffuse this wine with notes of wild strawberry cheery and beetroot it gave it spice. It made it smell vaguely of leather, and it turned it awesome. So take your time and enjoy them together. Fate never tasted so good. That label purple prose never had it so purple. But you gotta love it. You’re going to do something serious.
Do you have a thirst to learn about wine? Do you love stories about wonderfully obsessive people, hauntingly beautiful places and amusingly awkward social situations? Oh, that’s the blend here on the unreserved wine talk podcast. I’m your host, Natalie MacLean. And each week, I share with you unfiltered conversations with celebrities in the wine world, as well as confessions from my own tipsy journey as I write my third book on this subject. I’m so glad you’re here. Now pass me that bottle please. And let’s get started. Welcome to Episode 97. Taco Bell just launched its first wine called Halla Pinot Noir. It’s a Pinot Noir. Get it? Is this wine any good? Should you try it? Does it pair well with tacos? What will surprise you about making the wine especially the winery that made it? And what was the stealth marketing plan behind the launch? And I have to ask what’s next big Maxim Bordeaux. This week on the unreserved wine talk podcast. I’m going solo to do a live taste test for you actually did this uncorking unboxing on Facebook Live video and you can watch that video and get the link to the wine itself. in the show notes. I’ll also include a link as to where you can find me on Facebook Live every second Wednesday at 7pm. Eastern, and how you can join me in a free online wine and food pairing class. That’s all in the show notes at Natalie maclean.com. forward slash 97. It’s that time again. I said to myself this morning. Time to write the annual Thanksgiving letter to friends and family. I go with this timing rather than Christmas better chance of being read in a less crowded market. How did that come around so quickly? I asked myself, no answer. These conversations often end like this. And here we are just a week from Thanksgiving in Canada do have some wines picked out for the big bird. And thinking Pinot Noir. What a surprise. Or just three episodes away from number 100. Who would you like me to interview on this show? It could be a celebrity who now has their own wine label? a winemaker, a sommelier of wine or food writer or someone with a great wine story to tell. I’m going to give away three signed copies of my book unquenchable, which Amazon named one of the best books of the year to the three people who come up with the best ideas. So please email me at Natalie at Natalie MacLean calm or tag me on social media with any ideas you have to make it fun. Okay, on with the show.
Alright folks, this is what you’ve been waiting for. We are pairing Taco Bell’s do jalapeno Pinot Noir with their toasted cheesy chalupa. So as I said, this is a live taste test test taste I guess it’s works either way between this new wine that Taco Bell launched. It’s an Ontario winery who produced it and their extra toasted cheesy chalupa taco. Oh, it smells so good. Oh my goodness, I’m so have you tried the new cheesy chalupa, or the wine? I suspect not the wine because it’s sold out in 11 minutes from the wineries website and in less than a day from Taco Bell. That is how popular it is. But I hear more is on the way. So let me give you some background first on the Taco Bell project if you will, because I’ve spoken to both The winery and people from Taco Bell to get some background on what this was all about. Kudos to whoever named this wine, jalapeno Noir. It’s a Pinot Noir jalapeno Get it? That is so clever. It’s from cheesy chalupa states, they have to tell you don’t go to Niagara searching for cheesy chalupa states you will not find it nor will you find a taco bell winery. I’m going to tell you who made this wine. But I just think that is so clever. But there’s more surprising things about this one I have not tasted it. So this is going to be a live tasting. I have not tried this wine before. I have tried wines from this winery though before and the marketing is brilliant. So my background I used to work at procter and gamble on the food brands like Crisco Pringles, Duncan Hines, etc. came from, you know, an MBA prior to that. So I am absolutely fascinated by the marketing. I think it’s genius. And I’m hoping that this holds up and it doesn’t fall apart in the mouse so to speak. Alright, Lorraine is here from North Toronto. When I first heard about this wine, I thought it was a joke. I did too. I thought, Oh, yeah, this is clever. Just like you know, you see that meme on the internet. That’s got Chateau car Bordeaux, you know, as in Bordeaux, car Bordeaux for a Boxed Wine. So I thought something like that. Or at least if this is real, they’ve probably used some sort of Boxed Wine or international blend or whatever. But I was really surprised that they went not only with an Ontario wine, but it’s a single vineyard Pinot Noir. Now in the hoity toity Fancy Pants world of wine. Single vineyard expression of Pino is quite specific coveted, usually a mark of quality to be extra thorough. I am also going to taste test this with a buttery Chardonnay from Wayne Gretzky. Heck, it’s hockey player stuff, right? You think tacos and beer tacos and wine or tacos in a margarita back tacos. Not just wine but Pinot Noir. Why not Cabernet, and we’re going to try that. We’re also going to try the Jackson Triggs, bourbon barrel aged mirlo. I didn’t have a Cabernet on hand, you know that. I teach this in my wine and food pairing course. And if you’re curious about that, speaking of marketing, you can sign up with Natalie maclean.com forward slash class to take a free one to find out more about that. But in my full wine and food pairing classes, we go into wine and cheese pairing. And the classic pairing for cheddar is often a Cabernet Sauvignon, you know because they both have very strong, pungent flavours. There’s a lot of salt in the cheese, a lot of deeper nuances. And then in a Cabernet, you get the tannins and the BlackBerry and the black fruit and everything else. So like a full on full on kind of combination. And so it’s curious why they didn’t choose a Cabernet for this a Pino.
Unknown Speaker 8:03
Anyway,
Natalie MacLean 8:04
as I do with all of my wine and food pairing classes, we always try the wine first, then we go to the food, have a taste of that, then back to the wine to see how the food changed our perception of the wine and or the wine of the food. And that’s a quick taste test you can do at home anytime. Like take a piano a cab anything and taste it first, then try a bit of the cheese then go back to the wine, you will be amazed what happens to your perception of the wine. The wine hasn’t changed, but you have and your taste buds have. So they went with single vineyard Ontario local for a local promotion and Ontario based promotion that is smart. But here we have the label which looks like sort of tuxedo fancy you’ve got the black and the white and a bit of gold. It’s very Luxe. It’s not sorry, cheesy. I mean, it’s very elegant presentation. And the back label stuff is just someone was drinking too much Pinot Noir. This isn’t just a wine you’re holding this is what happens when you paddle out to meet the ever crashing wave of time and hang 10 inside the barrel of creation. Stay with me. This is a pairing made by fate. Wow, a little bit too much Pinot Noir there, but we often get purple pros on the back label so why not just go for it all the way. Patients gave the toasted cheesy chalupa its sumptuous depth of flavour and crisp lowering texture. Persistence suffused this wine with notes of wild strawberry cherry and beetroot it gave it spice. It made it smell vaguely of leather. And it turned it awesome. So take your time and enjoy them together. Fate never tasted so good. And that label purple prose never had it. So purple. I put you gotta love it. You’re gonna do something serious I mean, in terms of prose, and drumroll please. Don Dawson has guessed the correct winery. It is queenston queenston Winery, which is a little boutique micro winery. I’ve described their Pinot Noir with the technical term amazeballs none of this is pay promotion. By the way, I want to clear that up in case anybody’s wondering. There’s no paid whatever with Taco Bell with queenston or whatever. But I order queenston Pinot Noir for my personal pleasure. That’s my go to wine. So anyway, there you go. That’s all the free promotion you’re going to get. So let’s try the jalapeno Knorr.
Unknown Speaker 10:46
Okay,
Natalie MacLean 10:48
well pours nicely Cool. All right, so I’ve got my big glass for Pino nice sort of, huh, Ruby? Sort of? Oh my gosh, that is the signature queenston Pino that I love. It’s making my mouth water, like the toasted cheesy chalupa did earlier. Alright, let’s give it a try. What does it smell like? It smells divine. It smells kind of like the back label. Maybe I’m just under the power of suggestion here but I don’t think I’ve tasted enough wines in my time in 20 years of writing about wine. So I do get the spice the dark spice a little bit of cranberry some wild raspberry. Huh? Creekside is the winemaker. It’s Rob powers at Creekside and Creekside owns queenston. Fabulous winemaker of 20 years, one of the most respected producers in Canada. So again, kudos, I gotta say, to Taco Bell for going with this little boutique winery instead of like a huge company to make this wine. Beautiful, beautiful nose. Okay. Wow, this good. I wanted to hit this wine. I wanted to hate the whole bearing. This is only 25 bucks. So other pianos from this winery and elsewhere tend to be higher priced. I don’t know how they got it down to 25. But they did. Admittedly, the ones that I’ve purchased in the past around 40 are more complex, but this is not a simple line. It’s beautiful. It’s silky. It’s medium bodied. It’s got that dark spice little cherry berry action on the side. It’s that the acidity sweating my appetite literally. Hmm. Love the glass. Where’d you get that from? Okay, try to stay on topic here. Laureen. And kidding. Again, no pay promotion here but zalto I like it because it’s nice and light. But for the Cabernet and Chardonnay, that will be taste testing later, I’m going to go with more of that tulip shaped glass. So you want a big bowl for Pinot Noir to capture the aromas. Jen was this wine available from Taco Bell or available the lcbo. So Jen, the story is that it was only available from Taco Bell in select locations in Hamilton and Toronto. It’s sold out in less than a day. And it was available from the queenston Winery website and it’s sold out on there in 11 minutes. Now they are making more, but I find that just incredible, just incredible. People are obviously curious and needing a wine for their tacos. But you know, I’ve long believed to in what I call shabby chic combos, you know, jeans and rhinestones, dress it up, dress it down. And as you know, you might have caught one of my segments on CTV is the social that’s the afternoon daytime show. That’s kind of like the view. And we’ve done fast food and wine pairings before and they really work. Because what’s happening here is we’ve got a lot of bright fruit, juicy fruit sort of mouthwatering acidity and let’s see how that interacts with what I expect to be the richness of the cheese and the fat, the salt, and so on. Okay, so I’m going to taste this I’m going to take a bite of that I’m going to taste this again. And I’m going to come back to you and here we go with the toasted cheesy chalupa smells. Oh my god. So good.
Unknown Speaker 14:10
All right. Huh?
Unknown Speaker 14:17
Well, that’s good. I haven’t had Taco Bell in 20 years, not because I’m a snob.
Natalie MacLean 14:22
There isn’t one close by. I just don’t think about it. But that’s really good. You know, that works. It’s not the best wine pairing I’ve ever had. But it sure as heck doesn’t fight. And the acidity really helps with the salt and the fat and the richness of this cheese. It’s baked on to the outside so it’s crunchy and yummy. I don’t know I want to experiment with these other two wines because I am thorough with my research my liver for the people. So we are going to explore a couple of other pairings. But I think that kind of works. Again, let me be thorough here. What happens to the one
Unknown Speaker 15:01
Okay, huh?
Natalie MacLean 15:06
All right. There we go. You know, I do think that’s a good pairing. And I thought Pino is going to be too light. To light for this. It’s just going to get overwhelmed. But it’s like you’re reading it with a cheese dish. There is a bit of beef in there. But the flavours are fairly mild in the taco. They’re not like fiery spice jalapeno, and that cherry berry liveliness and especially the acidity, it does what a good food pairing should do. So if you had the wine on its own, or the taco on its own, they’d be good. But together, that’s where the mouth magic happens, right? That’s where you are lifted onto a cloud of new sensual pleasure. There’s more purple prose for your back label, but they do make the other better. And what happens when you have a good wine and food pairing, it’s just like everything else in wine and food. You don’t say she ate so quickly on one or the other? Because you’ve got a different taste, and then a different taste, and then the combo taste combo deal. It just makes for a more interesting palette of flavours. It is the difference between just listening to the cello or just listening to the drums versus having the whole orchestra play in your mouth. All right, getting carried away with my own descriptions. Is the food spicy? Not really. I mean, well, it’s all relative, isn’t it? I love really spicy food. Really hot, spicy food makes me go red, like I’m going now. But that’s not from the taco. So it’s all in a spectrum. If I were to put this on a spice scale, I’d say it was mild. There’s interest. There’s a tiny little kick there that keeps it interesting. It’s certainly not bland. But the taste I get more than spices cheese and I love cheese cheddar, especially melted cheddar, crispy cheddar.
Unknown Speaker 16:56
All right,
Natalie MacLean 16:57
Tracy the mild sauce is tricky. Yes. So this does have mild sauce. You know like a Big Mac has sauce this sauce though. I’m not finding it’s not sweet, as sweet as maybe in a Big Mac which I also haven’t had in 20 years. So you’re not getting a lot of sweetness that would clash with the Pino which is nice. For me the sauce is more like a male so that’s good. Gilman I have problems pairing wine with spicy food they normally do a disservice to the wine in most occasions. Yeah, Gilman. I agree. And that is especially for really spicy food like vindaloo Indian dishes or Tex Mex that’s off the charts. But this is pretty mild. In those cases. Goemon I always say sweet needs heat. So take an off dry wine with your extremely hot or spicy food like an off dry Riesling or something that has some sweetness to mellow out the heat. What you don’t want is a dry tannic huge red wine usually with a very spicy hot dish. What would you typically pair with cumin and chilli powder? Good question Tracy. So again, I look for things like off dry. I go with the whites on spicy foods. I find reds you can get some problems with the tannins. You know that free mouth feeling you can get when you eat walnuts or overstate tea. You don’t want that when you’ve already got a lot of heat in your mouth. You want something that’s cool. So you chilli or white wines that maybe has some sweetness to soften the perception of acidity and so on. Okay, we are going to persist we are not done in the interest of science. We’re keeping it real here. I have got Wayne Gretzky’s whiskey barrel aged Chardonnay, which I raised at 90, it just came out in vintages this weekend and let’s give this a try. Wayne Gretzky does not make the line. In fact, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this wine go to his different charities I think their Children’s Foundation, again turning the tables and hey, you know, what are these the M times? Crazy times right? So why not go high low with our parents? Why not flip the wine world on its head? No one’s getting fancy few of us are even getting out to restaurants as much as we like or at all. So why not have some fun at home with pairings like these? Right? Why not? So here’s the Wayne Gretzky, whiskey barrel aged Chardonnay. So we taste the wine first we go to the chalupa and then we come back to the wine and see what’s happened.
Unknown Speaker 19:35
Hmm. I love that
Natalie MacLean 19:37
buttery round rich so I’m looking to see if the buttery round richness will go with the cheesiness. Cheesy. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 19:47
Huh.
Natalie MacLean 19:49
That works to its guts acidity. The one thing is that I feel like with the Chardonnay which is beautiful wine. We’re layering butter on butter. Now Cheese is basically water, buttery in terms of the taste, so it’s almost too similar, whereas the penal has a bite. That keeps it interesting. It’s more of a contrast pairing, whereas the buttery Chardonnay is if you like, like with like, like, just give me more of the same, please. That works. When I talk to queenston most helpful Alison at queenston. This isn’t a takedown. I thought, Okay, well, have you made a wine that has more residual sugar? Or did you really amp up the oak ageing? Or was it a blend of all the grapes you didn’t want to use for something else? And no, as I said, it’s a single vineyard expression on St. David’s bench in Niagara on the lake. They only have nine acres tiny, tiny micro boutique winery. This is actually drier than some of their other pianos. So it’s bone dry. They’re not playing to just sweet and cheap. And as I say, it’s not the leftovers. It’s deliberately made from a single vineyard. Now, as I said, I wanted to do a Cabernet but I didn’t have one on hand. So I’m doing what I consider the next best thing number low, and I’m keeping it all Canadian. So this is Jackson Triggs, bourbon barrel aged mirlo. It’s also from Niagara on the lake. So let’s give this one a try. Because classic match for cheddar is a robust read. Usually your light reds. But let’s see, let’s be scientific and beautiful nose. Oh, dark berries, dark plums, fleshy, ripe. And you can get the sort of the toffee edge with the toffee finish of the bourbon barrels. That’s trendy these days, right? Some wineries are ageing in whiskey barrels from Canada or bourbon barrels from Kentucky which is American whiskey to get that carmelized finish.
Unknown Speaker 21:59
Hmm,
Unknown Speaker 22:00
lovely. I’m sensing some tannins right up front. Bit of mouth puckering, but really lovely wine, some carmelization on the finish.
Unknown Speaker 22:10
Loving that.
Natalie MacLean 22:13
Okay, back to the marylu. That’s pretty good. I put that as first runner up in terms of pairing, not in terms of wine quality. This is very good wine again. But here’s the thing. This has that sort of bourbon caramel. So you’ve got that lovely sort of sweet edge to it. I don’t think that’s needed. I think what’s needed is a counterpoint of a biting penal law. When I say that don’t take that the wrong way, this lovely penal, but it’s got a sort of nervy edge to it. Like, you know, a good dinner party guest kind of makes comments where everybody at first might say, and then gets into the conversation because it’s really interesting. So I would put that as first runner up and second runner up would be the Wayne Gretzky, because butter on butter. makes a good pairing, but not the most interesting pairing. The colour of the mirlo is dark. This is a rich dark red robe. Love, same robe. Beautiful, beautiful nose. I also asked the folks from Taco Bell what glass to serve it in, I thought, what are they doing with glassware at Taco Bell with this wine. And they in true savvy marketing tradition told me that they leave that up to guests so you can dial it up or dial it down. So this would be dialling it up. But it’s meant to be casual. And you know, I see lots of articles by wine writers including myself, sommeliers and so on doing these high low pairings between fast food or even candy and you know, Halloween is coming up and wine so it’s not like, oh, horrors, what are they doing? I don’t know, I think democratising is too big a word, but it is broadening the welcome mat or welcome gesture to people to say, yeah, you don’t need to have filling in young with wine. It’s for everyday living like we’re getting down to being very practical these days at home. And why not? Just Why not? Right. Steve? Is the acidity of the Pinot Noir greater than the mirlo. Yes, and great point. And that’s probably also why I think the Pinot works better. The acidity, at least the perceived acidity, I’m not talking technical specs here, of the peano. Definitely more parent definitely makes my mouth water up and down the sides. So that would definitely be contributing to this pairing. Good point, Steven. And there were some surprising things they were telling me. When I asked them about this. They only made 116 cases. So of course, yeah, it’s going to sell out but still I don’t think anyone was expecting it. And the news went totally viral. It was on NPR. I listened to CDC NPR. MVC, you can kind of get a notion of my leanings here. But it was on all of the newscasts. It was on talk shows and all kinds of stuff. It’s been everywhere. And apparently, winemaker, Rob powers at queenston has been on the phone constantly taking interview questions, I think he was kind of finding it amusing that he’s been in the business for 20 years. And this is what goes viral. And you know, someone asks, well, don’t you think that’s kind of selling out your bowtique artisinal wiring? I say, No, I say if this puts you on the map, you know, all the wineries are struggling right now from COVID. And if this puts you on the map, if this gets people in the door, if this gets you more direct customers go for it. wineries have had a tough time, during COVID. So many of them had to close their tasting rooms for months, and furlough layoff people, for small wineries. They’re not in the large liquor store chains, the restaurants closed down their major customers. And so they really had a heck of a time. And there’s even estimates that up to 20 wineries in Niagara alone may close and another 45 will, I think dramatically reduced staff permanently. So it’s been difficult. So if you can get this kind of a win, and get people into your world and develop that direct consumer relationship, most importantly, so that you have a fallback for whatever happens in the future, because obviously everything is happening this year. It seems to be like Armageddon time. That’s a good thing. So I do not sniff a small boutique winery working with what we might perceive as a large fast food brand.
Unknown Speaker 26:45
Go for it
Natalie MacLean 26:46
right. What else did they say? Yeah, this so this is the 2018 vintage it has lower sugar than previous vintages. And similar acidity and alcohol. Their oak is from New barrels because they are young winery. So they have a new barrel programme. And yeah, so I just find that fascinating. Deb, I wonder if other chains will follow suit, or if the winery plans to create another wine for Taco Bell safer burritos. So they’re holding their cards closer chest or not announcing plans, but I am sure what the success of this. Something’s got to follow whether it’s more of this wine or other wines. I mean, I got I believe when it sells out in less than a day, it’s been a success. People are getting promoted. I heard Cracker Barrel is coming out with a wine. And there’s a new book coming out. I think the writer is Vanessa price. I just heard about this. It’s called Big Macs and burgundy wine pairings for something. not normal people but for our times or whatever. So it’s on trend. And Christine says I say it won’t be long for other chains to follow. Yes. And you know the adage in the restaurant business. Maybe not the fast food or takeout restaurant business is customers will eat you poor and drink you rich. The margin is all in the drinks. It certainly isn’t movie theatres. But at restaurants Think about it. The greatest markup usually is on your alcohol, your wine, your spirits, your beer, but also your water, your tea, your coffee. All of that is where the restaurant makes back the money it needs to pay overhead and staff and so on. Restaurants are low margin business, usually three to 4%, which is just squeaking by. And so this time has been very hard for them. But it’s the alcohol and other drinks that really support the business. And I’d love this been one of the most fun tastings I’ve had. But just to recap, the Hello Pinot Noir from queenston Pinot Noir is I say a real winner with the toasted cheesy chalupa from Taco Bell. Take care.
Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed that discussion, my liver and arteries for you. There listener you won’t want to miss next week, when I’ll be chatting with Justin Taylor and Neil Hadley, from Australia’s Wakefield wines. They share some of their most memorable wine stories, as well as fascinating insights and visual illustrations into why wines taste the way they do. In the meantime, if you missed Episode Five with Dr. Edward Miller, go back and take a listen. You’ll learn about the health benefits and risks of drinking wine, though not from eating tacos. I’ll share a short clip with you now to whet your appetite.
Unknown Speaker 29:50
We’ve suspected a relationship between alcohol and breast cancer for quite a while and then kind of a big study came out in the British Medical Journal that said even an Alcohol Beverage A day increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer centres understandably a lot of concern going on. There were concerns about that study, though, because the same group had previously reported that alcohol consumption, adds years to people’s lives reduces cardiovascular disease. The more legit and more interesting thing to your audience is one, they didn’t break it down by type of alcohol and the study at all until they said, Please go back and do that. And when they did this same study show that when people drank three or more spirit beverages a day, the women had a 26% increase in the risk of breast cancer. And when they had three lines or more a day, there was no increased risk of breast cancer.
Natalie MacLean 30:52
If you liked this episode, please tell one friend about it this week, especially someone you know who’d be interested in whether the new Taco Bell wine is worth trying. You’ll find a link to the wine I tasted where you can find me on Facebook Live every second Wednesday at 7pm and how to join me in a free online wine and food pairing class. That’s all in the show notes at Natalie MacLean comm forward slash 97 Thank you for taking the time to join me here. I have something great is in your glass this week. Perhaps a wine that pairs perfectly with a cheesy taco.
You don’t want to miss one juicy episode of this podcast, especially the secret full body bonus episodes that I don’t announce on social media. So subscribe for free now at Natalie MacLean comm forward slash subscribe. We’ll be here next week. Cheers
