Wine for Polish food?

[msolinger]

My family serves traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner and I have been tasked with finding the right wine. The main dishes are:
potato, cheese, and sauerkraut pierogies
cabbage and noodles
and kapusta, a slow-cooked cabbage dish.

Any advice?

[Kcwhippet]

Welcome to the WineBoard, msolinger. Unfortunately, Poland has very little history of wine consumption, except for the upper classes. Even today, the best wines produced there are fruit wines, mainly somewhat sweet cherry wines, and a white wine (I think Seyval Blanc) mixed with honey. However, with the foods you're serving, I think a dry white wine would work well. Something like a low, or no oak Chard like Toad Hollow would work, or a French Chenin Blanc. If it were me, I'd look for a really good Polish beer like Okocim, Warka or Zywiec. That's what was served when I was growing up.

BTW, what about all the other great Polish Christmas foods, like veal in sour cream sauce, baked trout or pike, roast chicken and even burglar's pie? How about the red borsch with uszka? I see the pierogies, but none with lekvar (my favorite as a kid). I used to love golomkis (stuffed cabbage or stuffed peppers), too - yum.

[This message has been edited by Kcwhippet (edited 12-19-2006).]

[Innkeeper]

That was a great response from KC. I'm surprised there is no meat, but if that is your preference, no sweat.

I would go with a red that goes with comfort food. Not talking about something soft which I abhor most of the time. Bogle's Old Vine Zinfandel would be my choice.

OK, now I get it. It is a traditional Christmas Eve dinner, therefore no meat.

[This message has been edited by Innkeeper (edited 12-24-2006).]

[msolinger]

Thank you so much!
Merry Christmas