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Episode Notes:

I recently learned about a viral TikTok trend where frozen jalapeños meet Sauvignon Blanc. Curious? So were we!

Michael and I decided to give a go and taste-test three different Sauvignon Blancs from around the globe before and after adding frozen jalapeño slices to each... Spoiler: the results may surprise you! (It surprised us!)

We’ll share impressions of each wine, how the jalapeno alters the flavor profiles, and whether this quirky pairing/infusion is a hit or miss.

Takeaways:

• This podcast episode dives into the quirky TikTok challenge of adding frozen jalapeño slices to Sauvignon Blanc, which sparked much curiosity and debate between us.
• We taste three different Sauvignon Blancs, each with unique characteristics, before and after adding jalapenos, leading to some unexpected flavor revelations.
• We get into wine purism versus TikTok trends and the fun in experimenting with food and drink, even if it makes some wine lovers cringe.

Wines Featured in our Challenge:

Oyster Bay Sauvignon, Marlborough New Zealand

Martin Ray Sauvignon Blanc, Russian River Valley, California

Moulin Jamet Sancerre, France

Nikki's Links:

Follow me on Instagram to get the scoop on upcoming episodes and to see pics and video of our Jalapeño + SB challenge!

The wine that I make, Sollevato Sangiovese is available to be shipped to most US States. (Use the code PODLISTENER for 10% off.) It's a delicious, medium bodied, aromatic red wine that is perfect with pizza, pasta and your charcuterie spread!

Enjoy some of Nikki's favorite products from our Sponsors:

You NEED some delicious California Olive Oil from our awesome sponsor American Olive Farmer. Use code SipWithNikki for $10 off your order!

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Questions? Comments? Guest requests? nikki@sipwithnikki.com

Put a jalapeno in here.

Not.

Can you put ice? Is this one of those things?

No, no.

Just the teeny tiny bit of frozen that is thawing from the skin of this jalapeno is like hurting my heart thinking about the dilution in the wine. But I'm going along with it. And I'm not being a wine douche, all right. I'm being a TikTok influencer.

So great for you.

Hello, welcome to this week's tip with Nikk Lamberti coming to you from Sonoma County, California. And I want to start off with a shout out to all of my international listeners.

I was looking at the metrics of who was listening just today alone, and while I can't see the specifics of who you are, I can see where you are. And the Netherlands is binge listening to Sip with Nikki today. Lot of listens there. So if that's you, I see you.

And as of today, we actually have listeners in 46 countries.

And one of the things that I'm excited about with this new club SIP membership that I'll be rolling out is once we get this private Facebook group together where we can all interact, we can actually see each other and I can meet you and we can have some fun and some live streams and some FaceTime. So I'm really looking forward to that.

And the best way to know when that is rolling out and to become an inaugural member and receive all the benefits that come along with that is to visit sipwithnikki.com resource. You can sign up for my mailing list there and I'll even send you a welcome downloadable PDF of all my favorite wine tips.

But specifically wanted to shout out Spain.

Mexico, India, Singapore, the Bahamas, Brazil, Algeria, Portugal, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Norway, Colombia, Ireland, South Korea, Argentina, on and on. So just want to say thank you to those of you far and near. Of course, all of my friends here in the US I see you and I appreciate you as well.

So this week we are diving into a TikTok challenge. And when I say we, it's my other half, Michael and I. I.

And last week I came across this jalapeno in Sauvignon Blanc challenge, this viral TikTok phenomenon. I'm not big on TikTok and neither is Michael, as you will hear in just a moment. In fact, he couldn't even remember the name of it.

So, yes, we do show our 50ish age true gen Xer selves in this episode. But more importantly, I learned about this from the Wine Enthusiast magazine. And their social media.

And there is this thing going around this summer where people are slicing frozen jalapenos, dropping them in sauvignon blanc, and enjoying. And I'm not gonna lie, I was curious.

Now, these types of things generally hurt my heart a little bit, adding anything into wine besides wine, because I'm a purist, and as a winemaker and a wine educator, those things can seem a little gimmicky to me. But I love jalapeno, so I'm not gonna lie.

I was curious, and I wanted to.

See what all the buzz was about.

So you'll hear Michael and I tasting three different sauvignon blancs from around the world before and after the addition of some frozen jalapeno slices. And let me just say, the outcome was surprising.

So we'll share with you what the sauvignon blancs were because they were very different but all delicious. And you can find the links to all of them in the show notes.

And then you'll hear both Michael and I give our impressions after we add the jalapeno slices. And we may or may not have agreed on this one. If you try this challenge, please, please, please send me a note.

Nikkiipwithnikki.com I want to hear what you thought.

And also check out the jalapeno highlights reel on my Instagram ickylamberdie, where I'm gonna share photos and a reel slash TikTok slash video of our experience. Here we go with jalapeno and my sauvignon blanc. Question mark.

Welcome today to our kitchen. We decided to make some tacos because Nikki wanted to try this sauvignon blanc. Tinder.

Not Tinder.

What is twister? What is it called?

Tick tock.

Tick tock. All right. But it'll edit that out.

All right, start again.

Welcome to our home. We're about to do a sauvignon Blanc tasting with some frozen jalapenos, which Nikki saw on TikTok and said, let's do this. And I said, why not?

Can you say jalapeno again?

Because I just. I like how you say it. You don't say it like me from New Jersey jalapeno. You say it like you're from El Paso.

Frozen jalapeno.

Yeah.

So apparently, this is a TikTok thing. What do we even call it? Trend, viral phenom, Whatever. I'm not so big on the TikTok, but I'm working on it. But I did see them.

Wine enthusiast magazine, and they're a Wonderful Instagram that I follow. They actually posted about it, which is how it got on my radar.

And then we decided, because we had some leftovers, that we're going to make some tacos and rice with the jalapenos and the Sauvignon Blanc and then just.

Go for the whole Mexican theme for the evening with our dinner that we're about to have after we do this challenge.

We're not saying the Sauvignon Blanc is paired with the tacos. We're just saying we're going to try it because of the jalapenos.

But you could probably pair Saviour.

Right. What doesn't go well with a taco? A nice chicken crispy taco with some melty cheese.

Yeah. So we've sliced some jalapenos. I took as many of the seeds out as I could and then froze them. So apparently it needs to be frozen.

And that's my first question is why does that really make a difference? But maybe it feels more like a cocktail.

Maybe it tightens up the jalapeno and it's not so vegetable.

Yeah, vegetal. Last year there was this same kind of thing with putting the jalapeno slices in. Do you remember that? And I remember trying that.

Like, I didn't hate it. But what Wine Enthusiast talked about in their post is that.

And the reviewer who did this is it really depends on the Sauvignon Blanc, because not all ESPYs are created equally.

Everything else.

Exactly.

Liquor, wine. Oh, the terroir.

Yeah.

So I bought three different widely found Sauvignon Blancs in our local store. We've got Oyster Bay from New Zealand, Martin Ray from right here in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma county, and then we have Sancerre.

You asked me a question about Sancerre.

Which was, why is it Sancerre? And you told me it was Samyan Blanc from Sancerre. And I said, do they not grow anything else there other than Sauvignon Blanc?

They grow mostly Sauvignon Blanc. But they.

Because if you grow a Chardonnay or you grow a Pinot, then is it still called Sancerre?

That's a great question. So, yeah.

And this is a perfect example of what I have talked about with listeners, which is one of the biggest differences in labeling of Old World wines.

Which Sancerre is in France versus New World, which the other two, California and New Zealand are, is in France, they label by the place or their region. And in the other newer regions, we label by the varietal the grape? Yeah. So Sancerre is a region, but the grape is Sauvignon Blanc.

It's in the Loire Valley.

And I think, to be fair, we.

Should taste these three wines without jalapenos in them before we defiled them with peppers. It hurts my heart a little bit, but. So let's taste the Oyster Bay. Now, these are all 20, 23. And these are all. These were all about $20 or less.

Let's just taste it first. Oyster Bay, Marlboro region of New Zealand. Ooh, I like the smell of that.

It smells clean, but yet it smells a little petrol.

Yes.

Isn't it, like, usually like a Riesling or it has a little petrol?

Petrol can be Riesling too, but. Yeah. Okay, but are you getting flintiness?

Flintiness, like, from a flint?

Yeah.

I don't know. I don't think so. It smells clean with a little bit of petrol nose to it.

Yeah. I'm sure I've had this before, but it's been a long time. People are probably listening to your description.

Like, he literally just contradicted himself. It smells clean and like petrol. Fancy word for gasoline. So you're saying it smells clean and gassy. Tell me more about that.

It's unleaded gas. It's not like a leaded gas or a diesel.

Are you being serious?

No. Oh, okay. I'm just saying I could smell the little chemically mixture that makes it smell like petrol, but it's not. It's.

But it's in a subtle, interesting way. I get that.

That's all I'm saying.

All right. How's it taste?

It tastes like a nice crisp melon ball. Like a melon.

I get a little tropical note on there, which it's typical when the Sauvignon Blanc grape is grown in a warmer region, it'll go more towards those tropical notes. And I think of these three regions, this is probably the warmest. And then Russian River, I would put in the middle.

And then Sancerre, the coolest climate. So we're tasting them warmer to cooler climate.

So we're gonna go through them first and then come back through jalapeno. Or now that we've tasted this one, what do you think is better? I don't have TikTok, so I did not download this or look at this.

There's not like a template.

I say we should smell and taste each of them first.

Okay.

And then go back.

Yeah.

Okay.

So we like the Oyster Bay, their tasting notes on their website, and also from their 90 point rating from James Suckling says, stunningly aromatic tropical fruits with bright citrus and a zesty finish. Would you agree with that?

Citrus? Whereas I said melon. Okay, James Suckling, you win again. Again.

He always wins.

Yeah.

Okay, let's go on to the Martin Ray Russian River Valley. These grapes are probably grown within 10 miles of where we are sitting in our home in Santa Rosa. This 92 points from Mr.

Suckling and it's under 20 bucks. Totally different nose. If you go back and forth between the two.

Yeah.

You don't get that petro note to it. So maybe the petros will make more from the terroir of New Zealand.

These are both clothes with screw caps. New Zealand really championed that whole initiative.

I feel the Biscossi is even maybe a little thicker. It's a little more. No, they're both the same color. So, yeah.

So to me, the fruit is a little less pronounced on this one, but it still has a front, middle, and end, which it's nice. It tastes great.

Same fruitiness like melon and tropical.

It's much more muted. It's just subtle. It's very subtle.

On their website, their notes say fresh citrus, pear and white peach. Get the pear that's a little more stone fruity, going a little more towards viognier. And then this one's interesting. Fennel. Do you get any.

Hold on.

Herb note like fennel?

No.

I do now that I'm looking for it. It's just very fresh.

Yes. This is a wine that you want on a warm day like it was today for spring.

Little more mouth coating on this one for me. A little more richness and density on the palate.

I feel like it's got a little bit more acid to it. Yeah. Yeah, that's good.

Okay. And now we're going to the coolest climate to Sancerre again, the Loire.

And generally Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre is known for being flinty, spicy, grassy. The soils are limestone. Whoa. Oh. Tell me about the. Wo. You just smelled it. What wo?

I was going to say grassy because I could smell.

Now, you already had some of this wine when you were in the hot tub an hour ago.

Because I don't smell the bromide. That's just like in my pores.

It's different when you're not in the hot tub. We opened this one first.

Okay. This one is very, very light and subtle on your mouth.

Making a gesture with both hands. He's holding them up in front of him. And then he's spreading his arms out.

This Wine is, like, literally hugging my mouth.

It sits completely different.

Yeah.

And it just stays in there, and it's great. It's very subtle, and it feels a little light. And the stone fruit that it has is just a very subtle note to it.

I think it just. In general, everything about this is more subtle.

Yeah.

Which is not a bad thing. And that's what Old World, especially Sunserre, is known for compared to New World Sauvignon Blancs. It's not as.

It's like me. It's very subtle.

Yeah. No comment.

I'm more like the Petro.

Yeah. You're, like, jumping out of the glass in the face. So do you like these three wines on their own?

Yes. I feel. I feel the French wine is dangerous.

And the second one, I feel like that should be the first bottle to be opened on, like, when you're outside.

Like, the Russian River.

The Russian River. Because it's fresh. It's got a little bit of fruit. It's not too. And then I think the Oyster Bay can be drank by itself, whereas it's weird.

And I would say that, like, something like oysters would be great with the Martin Ray, but the Oyster Bay, which is funny, I could drink that one by itself because it has enough taste of fruit. Like, it's almost like a subtle wine cooler, almost freshness.

And the Sancerre you would want on its own or with something like oysters.

I think the Sancerre would be good with, like, mussels. It's got a more delicate flavor to it. I feel like it's something that's like a warm. Like, this is, like, for a warm fish, somehow just a very light.

Yeah. When you look at all three of them in the glass, the hues, the colors are subtly different.

The French is darker.

The French is a little darker. The New Zealand is very pale. And the Martin Ray looks like it may have seen some oak.

Okay, so now we're gonna hit it with some frozen jalapeno slices.

So you dump them in there, or what do you do?

You just drop a couple in. And so here's what we're gonna do. Drop it in and taste it pretty quickly. Because what I understand is once they sit in there, it's like, infusing.

And the jalapeno, it's like an uncle sauce. Amps up. Let's put two slices in the Oyster Bay and then taste it right away.

Those are your two.

Look there.

It's nice and frozen. It's almost like iced jalapeno.

I'm gonna Give it a little swirl. Smells like jalapeno. Literally.

Are you supposed to drink the jalapeno like mezcal? Like, it's like the worm?

I don't know. You can be my guest. Here's a discount disclaimer. We both like heat. We both like spice. Michael makes hot sauce.

We eat.

Are these hot, though?

Hot sauce?

Have you tasted without just cutting it?

Try it. They've also been frozen for a few.

Days, so I personally think being frozen is like really cold wine. It keeps the flavors in because now it's warming up a little bit. I'm getting a little bit of spice in the back of my throat.

You just had a bead of sweat.

Trickle down your forehead.

It's not hot.

Hot, as you said. Let's taste it again and really concentrate. It's not bad. I'm not offended by it. No, it makes it more like a cocktail.

Yeah.

I like a jalapeno marg, a spicy margarita.

So you put a jalapeno in your knife. Can you put ice? Is this one of these things?

No, just the teeny, tiny bit of frozen that is thawing from the skin of the jalapeno is, like, hurting my heart thinking about the dilution in the wine. But I'm going along with it.

And I'm not being a wine douche.

All right.

I'm being a TikTok influencer.

So, so great for you. All right, Ready for number two?

Yeah. I liked it. I liked it. It was subtle. All right, two slices into the Martin.

Ray, and then we wait 15 seconds. Let's go.

So we didn't wait 15 seconds on the other.

I know.

I'm going to make a rule now.

No, you got to be consistent. You would suck in a chem lab somehow.

Yet I passed it to become a nurse. Thank you.

Cool.

Okay. My first thought is it made it salty.

It changed the wine more on the California Sauv Blanc.

Yeah.

I was gonna say it almost made it seem like it had some sweetness. It's funny that you said salty.

I got salty.

You're always salty. I like that one less. For whatever reason, it changed the wine more.

It flattened out the back end of this wine.

Yeah. Changed the acidity or changed the finish or something. Whereas the first one was yummy. So not loving it in the California Sauvignon Blanc.

All right, now we're going.

I'm just gonna do one. Let's do. Or you wanna have two?

No, we gotta be consistent.

You didn't slice the jalapenos consistent I.

Really tried my best.

No, no, just let me.

Okay.

And now we're gonna put it in. What? Originally, the Sancerre was the most subtle of the Sauvignon blancs. Subtle on the nose, subtle on the palate, not meaning simple.

Still a complex wine, but just subtle nose.

In my mind, I think it's gonna be better with the first one just because this one had so much. It was fruit to balance it. Citrus was the biggest and most prominent on the first one.

I do love how they smell with the jalapeno, and it's very interesting. All of them. I like it now.

That one brought up more of the fruit and it's still good.

I don't hate it. No, I don't hate any of them. I'm not appalled.

I think from all of them, the one from California got changed the most by the jalapeno. They played against the flavor of the pudding.

Not as well together. Not horrible, but, yeah, interesting. I want to taste this.

Russian River Sauvignon Blanc doesn't pair well with jalapeno, which is interesting, but I think the French one, it works.

The Sancerre is nice, I think, too. If you're, like, out on the beach and you were going to make, like, a spritzer or a cocktail, this is just a fun twist on it.

The last thing I want to do is go back now that the jalapenos have been sitting in there for a few minutes of each, just taste it one more time and see if it is stronger. So back to the New Zealand Oyster Bay. Smells great.

I love how it smells.

I like that it smells like jalapeno gas.

I like it doesn't seem exponentially stronger to me after it sat in there. Still pretty much the same, you guys. He's, like, literally now pulling out the jalapenos and just popping them in his mouth like a chip.

Yeah.

This man has Mexican blood coursing through his veins. Do you think it got stronger when it sat longer?

No, not on that one.

Do you still like it?

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, me too. I agree. Let's taste the Russian river now that it's infused.

God.

I like. I really do like how it smells, but I love how jalapenos smell.

Yeah, Donut.

Same impression.

It changes the swain or just coming from this one, it's this one. I feel it just doesn't.

They're competing a little bit with each other. Where in the New Zealand they melded.

It's not as playful. It's not as playful.

Oh, look at you.

Yeah.

Nice. All right. And Sancerre, now that it's infused a bit. Ooh, it smells much stronger. Jalapeno on the nose.

The jalapeno really took over in the last few minutes.

I singed my nose to smell it from the cloth.

Are you okay?

Yeah. Smoky.

Are you crying?

No, it just got me on that for some reason. It really infused in this one or something because I can really smell it.

That would make sense since we were both in agreement that this had the most subtle notes to it.

And it still tastes great, though.

Most influenced by it, but in a good way. We agree.

Yeah.

Conclusion.

I think the French wine battled strongly against it and was able to play nice with.

The French are always battling.

Yeah.

Can you hear the people, which is funny.

Singing the songs of angry men.

We're cutting this out.

Don't worry about it.

Hey, it's not an episode if I don't sing. Sally sang Sip Spotlight on last week's episode.

Good job, Sally.

We didn't even say Sip Spotlight. Hey, Michael, what are we doing right now?

Sip Spotlight. Is that what you wanted?

Yes.

Hold on one more time. Ask me again.

Michael, what are we doing right now? Now you have to do the sips by light. There's that little half note down. One, two, three.

Sips by light.

Sips by light. This was fun. I am not offended by the concept. I might even do this if it's fun and festive, especially if you're having a Mexican themed party.

Yeah, but I'm like a Grinch about it. Like a jalapeno Grinch, because I don't even like jalapeno in my margaritas. Everyone wants to put, like, spice in margaritas.

And I'm like, you love jalapeno, period.

I love jalapeno, but not on a beverage.

No, but are you grinchy about this? It's a neck or an enhancement.

I don't think it puts, like, rocket thrusters under it to make it elevated any. I don't think it does anything like that. I just think it's just different.

It looks pretty too. It looks cool in the glass.

Yeah.

I don't hate it. It was fun. Thanks, TikTok. Thanks, wine enthusiast.

I wonder, in a sensory taste into how that would play.

Let's get Hobie on it.

Yeah.

Dr. Hobie.

Yeah.

To be continued.

Cool.

We won't even tell them there's jalapenos in it.

Let's go eat some tacos.

Cheer.

So there you have it, singing and all. Sorry. Not sorry. The tacos were in fact delicious and the pairing was really fun.

And surprisingly, it seemed like for once Michael and I were actually on the same page with our impressions for this. So I'm excited for you to give it a try and I'd love to hear what you think.

Send me a note nikki sipwithnikki.com remember in the show notes I'm going to put the link to all three of the Sauvignon Blancs as well as my Sip with Nikki website where you can sign up for the mailing list to be the first to know when Club Sip rolls out so you can join the party and we can get to know each other a little bit more.

Beautiful, medium bodied, spicy fruity red wine that belongs on your table with pizza, pasta, charcuterie. But don't be putting any jalapeno in there please.

You can purchase@solevottowines.com and I can ship to most states in the US and make sure you use the discount code podlistener for 10% off your order. Whatever you do between now and next week, especially if that includes frozen jalapeno and your Sauvignon Blanc, I hope that you sip well.

It.

Sam.