Although I hadn't even tried buffalo sauce up until last year (horror!), I am now obsessed with its tangy heat. Generally speaking, I don't eat much meat, which makes it difficult to enjoy the stuff. But I recently discovered these little bites of crunchy pretzel that are drenched with a zesty buffalo sauce flavor. To celebrate the occasion, I paired the zippy snack food with a bottle of 2009 Ferrari- Carano Fume Blanc from Sonoma County ($15).
The Fume Blanc is a crisp, fruit-forward white with delicate hints of melon, lime, vanilla, guava and grapefruit. It's almost like drinking a summery fruit salad, which is always enjoyable in a well-made wine. The complex fruit notes played well off the fiery pretzels, and the drinkability of the wine made it an excellent match for the salty snack. It was a fresh pairing that was richly flavorful, but not overly heavy, which is certainly a bonus during the body-conscious month of January.
