Which wine pairs with Teddy Bears?
Which wine pairs best with Teddy Bears?
There is an answer. At least conceptually.
The idea of the “Teddy” bear comes from President Theodore Roosevelt. He was on a hunting trip, and one of the party - Mr Parker - assured Roosevelt that they would have bear meat for dinner on their return. Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to bag any bears on the trip, and so an unfortunate, small black bear was captured, clubbed, strung up to a tree and Roosevelt was invited to shoot it. Which he refused to do, as it wouldn’t be sportsmanlike.
The incident caught the public imagination, especially in a cartoon titled “Drawing the line in Mississippi”. It spawned the softer idea of the “Teddy” Bear, notwithstanding the fact that Roosevelt ate vast amounts of bear meat. And indeed the poor original bear was still killed. Only with a knife, not a gunshot. (Curious fact: for all Roosevelt’s folksy, outdoorsman image, his own Bowie-style hunting knife came from the jeweller Tiffany’s).
This fact must have been known to Marcus Braun, a Hungarian emigré, and Roosevelt fan. A while after the Teddy Beat incident, Braun sent Roosevelt a bottle of wine - a Blaufrankisch - from his homeland (actually now part of Slovenia). He assured the President that it “goes very well with bear meat”.
I haven’t been able to confirm or deny the truth of this pairing yet. Although I’ve done some research.
I tasted this excellent Blaufrankisch yesterday with my friend Måns of Handpicked Wines in Sweden. Måns has tried bear meat and assures me it was quite revolting. And would not try it again. But we did both agree the wine was delicious.
Levelling up
If anyone is ever foolish enough to make a computer game called “wine fettler” then surely yesterday I completed a level and get to power up to the next one.
These are two Finnish pudding wines I tried (again with my chum Måns and his Finnish colleague). They’re both from Ainoa, Finland’s leading specialist producer of fermented fruit wines. And they’re utterly fabulous. The blueberry and raspberry wine on the right is a little drier, and possibly more versatile. It would be outstanding with cheese. The Cloudberry one on the left is rather sweeter. I’m not sure what I’d pair it with. Probably a sexual partner and bath.
Wine and words and pictures
This pairing probably means Cloudberry wine is not ideal for fans of “kalsarikännit”. (Pronounced “kal-sarri-shen-it”.) It’s a unique Finnish word which translates to "drinking at home, alone, in your underwear". The term is often loosely translated and anglicised as "pants drunk".
Finnish doesn’t travel well. It’s said the only word in Finnish that’s been adopted widely by other languages is “sauna”. Even though most people assume that’s Swedish. (The Swedish for sauna is actually bastu.)
This is one of the things Finnish shares with Welsh. Which also has only one word that’s been widely adopted by other languages. Penguin. As in pen = white and guin = head.
The Swedish for penguin is pingvin. Which a few of us have fiddled with to in creating Pinvino, a wine recommendation app, newsletter, and community of like-minded wine fans in Stockholm.
This is our logo. Inspired at least in part by the negative space logos of Avinoam Noma Bar. Look closely, you’ll know when you see it…
If you liked that… you’ll love this
A couple of subscribers have asked if I’d be willing to do some sessions on wine writing. And the answer is, yes, I’d absolutely love to.
On Thursday 19th September we’ll be back to our live taste-and-chat sessions for paying subscribers. But I am looking at options for a live monthly wine writing get together, perhaps on Sundays?
Like the sound of that? Then…
…and we’ll set a date for the group.
Remember. If you’ve been forwarded this by a friend, thank your friend and then…