Wine That Loves Pizza

Not too long ago, Elizabeth and I were at Cost Plus and came across a bottle of wine called "Wine That Loves Pizza."  While I admired the lack of pretension, I laughed once and moved on. But Elizabeth had heard good things about the wine and asked if I wanted to try it. I took a closer look. Besides being an attractive, sleek-looking bottle, the back label provided a crib sheet of sorts, listing why this wine pairs well with pizza. I would be lying if I didn't admit the price also caught my eye: it cost $3.97. 

Last night our friend Murph stopped by to have pizza with us. I cooked two mini pizzas from Trader Joe's - their Bella Napoli pepperoni pizza. I used to eat these frequently a few years ago and then, for no particular reason, I stopped. I returned to them a month ago and cannot understand why I ever stopped eating them: they are great. They come four to a pack and one makes a great snack or appetizer; a couple make a full meal. 

I also rolled out some fresh dough from Fresh & Easy and bisected several meatballs that were left over from the day before. I used Fresh & Easy pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella, and for the last couple minutes of cooking I added some chopped parsley. I had gone easy on the sauce and heavy on the cheese and the whole thing was good but a bit too bland, so I added several slugs of Louisiana hot sauce to my slices. 

I expected my first sip of the wine to be lousy, like the Charles Shaw I loathe. (A friend of mine told me that Two Buck Chuck is hit-or-miss and sometimes you will get a good bottle, but it's yet to happen for me.) But this was actually delicious. It's got very little depth (not terribly surprising for a $4 wine) but plenty of flavor, and not the too-sweet flavor of cheap wine. Most importantly, it indeed complemented the pizza. 

There are a few other varieties of this wine (Wine That Loves Roasted Chicken, Wine That Loves Pasta with Tomato Sauce, Wine That Loves Grilled Steak, etc.) I will definitely try the rest of them.