A friend and I were talking about St. Patrick's Day, and (of course) ended up talking about what to drink with the traditional corned beef and cabbage.

"Beer," said my (male) friend. Of course, beer is his default drink. If you aren't sure what to serve, there's usually a beer that works nicely. Actually, that's my default position, too, when it comes to beverages with alcohol in them: sometimes you just need the flavor and texture of beer to pair with the food.

Beer, preferably Harp Lager, would be a good choice. So would cider, preferably a fairly to very dry cider like Strongbow or K.

But what about wine? Neither of us could think of one, so yesterday I called one of our wine supervisors to get his opinion on what wine could be paired with corned beef and cabbage.

"Beer."

Finally he suggested that a Sauvignon Blanc would work, despite the beef. The problem, he said, was really the cabbage--you needed a wine that could stand up to that. To confirm the Sauvignon Blanc, I asked if that meant no sweetness to the wine. That stopped him. There's a dish in the Alsace region of France that combines cabbage and sausages, and that was probably close enough to corned beef that an Alsatian Riesling or Gewurztraminer would probably work.

Alsatian wines are often described as being German wine in a French style--the grapes are the same as those in popular German wines, but they're generally drier than German wines.  Sometimes a lot. And they should stand up to the character of corned beef and cabbage.

I'm keeping Harp in the refrigerator just in case, but I think I might try his suggestion, just to see how it works out.