Mary Cressler and Sean Martin created a barbecue sauce they hoped to never sell. Their new Vindulge Red Wine BBQ Sauce is perhaps the lone glimmer of a good thing to emerge from the wildfires that plagued Willamette Valley vineyards in 2020.
Cressler, a sommelier, and Martin, a pitmaster, are the co-founders of Vindulge, an Oregon-based brand dedicated to grilling, barbecue and beverage. Their Vindulge blog is an excellent resource for recipes and backyard entertainment ideas.
In the aftermath of the Eagle Creek fire that hit the Columbia River Gorge in September 2017, Cressler and Martin spoke with the owner of a winery near Hood River. The winery owner was concerned that he had smoke impacted wine on his hands.
The winery owner agreed to collaborate with Cressler and Martin on making a commercial barbecue sauce with the problematic pinot noir. The Vindulge duo, after all, were old hands at whipping up barbecue sauce recipes for their catering business, blog and “Fire + Wine” cookbook.
Mary Cressler and Sean Martin, co-founders of Vindulge.Photo by Del Munroe
Cressler and Martin got to work creating a barbecue sauce that would feature the pinot noir. They had just finished trials with a co-packer when the winery owner shelved the project by deciding to release the wine. “We hoped it was now the barbecue sauce we would never have to promote,” Martin said.
Three years later, Cressler and Martin were sitting on their back deck when they spotted the beginnings of a wildfire near neighboring Ruby Vineyard in Hillsboro. They prepared to dust off their mothballed recipe just in case.
The Vindulge Red Wine BBQ Sauce emerged from those 2020 wildfires. Working with 560 gallons of smoke-impacted pinot noir made by a winery in the Laurelwood District American Viticultural Area, Cressler and Martin produced 3,200 bottles of barbecue sauce. The 12-ounce bottles have a suggested retail price of $10.
I grew up near Kansas City, Missouri, in a family that reveres Arthur Bryant’s original sauce with a religious fervor, shunning those who even mention the likes of KC Masterpiece and other pretenders. This is also how I know I’m related to Ted Lasso.
Vindulge Red Wine BBQ Sauce in its natural habitat -- on a suburban grill. It has a suggested retail price of $10. Photo by Michael Alberty
So I approached the Vindulge Red Wine BBQ Sauce with some apprehension and incredibly high standards. It felt like I was about to cheat on Mr. Bryant.
Vindulge’s sauce is a tomato and vinegar-based affair that doesn’t readily identify with a particular region, like Kansas City or eastern North Carolina. Martin said he thought of it as a “Pacific NW-style” barbecue sauce in which Willamette Valley pinot noir is the main ingredient. “We didn’t want this to be gimmicky, so the sauce is approximately 46% pinot noir,” Martin said.
I tried the sauce on a grilled chicken breast. I liked the tomato influence, and the two vinegars added some twang. The paprika and cayenne pepper adds a nice spicy kick without coming close to inducing sweat beads on the brow.
The trial by fire wasn’t over for the Vindulge sauce. In our family, the acid test for a barbecue sauce is tasting it separately from the meat by mopping it up from the plate with a slice of Wonder Bread – a fine old Arthur Bryant’s tradition.
The Vindulge Red Wine BBQ Sauce passed the test with flying colors. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and spicy, with some nice acid backing everything up. You can detect the red wine, which adds a touch of earthiness and tart red fruit.
What put this sauce over the top for me was its texture. With every taste, you get these crunchy little roasted garlic and onion bits that are worth the price of the bottle all by themselves.
I now have two bottles in my refrigerator, which will be hidden behind the lettuce when the family visits. If you would like a bottle for your refrigerator, go to Vindulge’s website to place an order. Or you can purchase bottles at Bennett Urban Farm Store, Ruby Vineyard or Smith Berry Barn, all located in the Hillsboro/Scholls/Laurel area.
To try before you buy, Martin will be showcasing Vindulge’s new sauce and grilling American Waygu beef samples from Idaho’s Snake River Farms at Zupan’s Markets in Lake Oswego from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4.
vindulge.com or mary@vindulge.com.
-- Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine
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