When Hardy Wallace of Dirty South Wine and Murphy-Goode Winery’s winner of “A Very Goode Job”, tells you he is organizing a wine and fast food pairing, people listen. They may giggle at the thought, but they listen all the same.

If you have ever met Hardy you would know that the party is wherever he is. He is the party. His bubbly optimism gets everybody fired up, me included. So I was all for having friends come by for some Popeyes Fried Chicken and wine.

Eric called in our order (two orders of the Tailgater, which meant 48 pieces of chicken). When he arrived to pick up the food, he was told by the manager that ours was the third big call-in order of the night – what’s going on? Eric told him of the wine pairings going on all over the country – the folks at Popeyes had no idea, but they were tickled by the thought. And the business.

Arriving home laden with a ton of fried chicken (both spicy and mild), mashed potatoes, rice and beans, slaw and biscuits, we wondered if we had gone a little overboard with our order. How would 13 people eat all of this? Not to fear my dears.

With 13 friends attending, we also wondered how we could keep everyone’s wine glasses straight. E suggested wine charms, but my thought is that after a few tastings, you forget whose charm is whose. I thought it might be super cute to use sale tags with our friends names written on them. How cute does this look? And you can buy 100 of them for a song. I’m thinking they might be fab for placecards or napkins rings, too. Take a look:

Now Hardy gave us a wine list compiled by experts for this pairing, but because I have problems playing by the rules or got lazy (probably the latter), I only found one of the recommended wines. But if you decide to do your own pairing, the wines we used might be a touch more accessible for the average joe (like me).

With everyone in place and after tasting the fabulous caramelized onion, olive and arugula tart that Miss Lisa brought, we commenced our tasting. First pour:

Everyone felt that the Pinot Noir tasted smoother with the spicy chicken, but was boring with the mild chicken. John and I started to wonder if we could use mashed potatoes as a palate cleanser. We weren’t sure, but the thought made us laugh – a lot.

Next up was a 2007 Ravenswood Vintners Blend Petit Sirah. Consensus – it made the chicken taste too spicy. Ok, everyone, get some mashed potatoes to cleanse your palate and lets move on.

Number three wine was a 2007 Georges Duboeuf Moulin-A-Vent Beaujolais. This was my favorite of the evening and I’ll be serving it at Thanksgiving this year. Our crew agreed it was good with the mild chicken as well as the mashed potatoes and slaw (there was cilantro in the slaw – brilliant!!)

Chioke brought a 2007 Rietvallie Red Muscadel from South Africa for us to try. John thought it tasted like maple syrup. So maybe it would be good for a chicken and waffles pairing. I thought it would be swell with chocolate cake.

At this point, we have tasted four wines and my dining room is resembling something akin to a carnival crossed with the floor of the NY Stock Exchange. I’m online twittering and checking out the party at Hardy’s pad in Napa and my darlings are hollering their comments to me as I type. It was chaotic hilarity. I think someone even threw a cork at me. As long as no one puts an eye out, it’s all good.

Our number five wine came to us from Tracy – a 2008 Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio. We felt that this wine intensified the spicy chicken flavor – in a good way.

Number six was a 2008 Le Craie Vouvray. Teague mused that this wine would be what you would pick for a picnic. Online tasters agreed.

There were other wines after that, but we were all so stuffed with chicken, biscuits and mashed potatoes that we just drank. And laughed. And checked in on the party at Hardy’s. Someone in Napa is playing guitar in front of the webcam, so we wondered if they were still eating, too.

A great time was had by all and I will leave you with some fun photos from our soiree.

Put together a wine tasting for your friends – they will love it. And if you use fast food, you don’t have to cook! Bonus!

xoxo, Patti