SUB-ZERO WINE BLOG

I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Jersey City, New Jersey, that was a scene right out of a Martin Scorcese film. Practically ever neighbor on my street was a member of my extended family, and so there were many parties and dinners together with dozens of people all the time. We were a very social family. But even when we had quiet meals at home the table was always set with a carafe of wine—invariably red wine—straight out of the fridge. It was on the table like a condiment, alongside the salt and pepper, the oil and vinegar, and the crushed chili pepper flakes, and its role was supporting character for whatever else was on the table. In other words, there was never talk of food-and-wine pairing. We never once asked Nanna if the Carlo Rossi “Burgundy” was a good match for her chicken alla parmigiana. It would have been superfluous—not to mention pretentious. The philosophy I inherited from my Italian ancestors is that wine and food belong together, and so long as one accompanies the other, a meal can’t be anything but better than those two pleasurable necessities served separately. As for the risk temperature of the red wine being pulled out of the fridge, our meals were—and remain—notoriously lavish and lengthy, so the vino usually lingered long enough on the table to come up to a comfortable cellar temperature. Needless to say, we knew nothing of Sub-Zero wine refrigeration back then. Now we know better.