Wine Pairings: What wine goes with 64 hotdogs?

This past Friday, July 4th, Nathan’s Hotdog had their annual hot dog eating contest. Dating back to 1915, the annual Nathan’s hotdog contest brings the worlds biggest appetites to NYC for a 10 minute hot dog eat-off. (Photo credit: A hot dog, taken by Renee Comet, photographer, and from the National Cancer Institute. http://visualsonline.cancer.gov/details.cfm?imageid=2669)

One of the big names (despite his small size) in competitive eating, Koboyashi took the stage with 19 other competitors to take on defending champion Joey chestnut. In 2007, Chestnut handed an “under-the-weather” Koboyashi his first defeat since 2001. This time around, though, both were healthy, anticipation was high, and the world watched to see who could stuff their faces with more frankfurters!

The battle started off with Chestnut in the lead, then near the end of the time limit, Koboyashi went up a few dogs. By the contests end, we had a tie! 59 hot dogs each…in 10 minutes. What next? OVERTIME! Whoever could eat 5 hot dogs in the least amount of time would be declared champion! In a heroic display of courage and perseverance not scene perhaps since the 1980 Winter Olympics (USA vs. Russia), Chestnut gave it his all and beat Koyboyashi by just a second or two.

And so it went; USA, USA, USA!!! The championship belt stays here, in the most wasteful country in the world, for another year. I guess it’s only fitting.

While I was wtching the contest, three things came to mind. First, I thought about what a spectacle this must be to the rest of the world. Wasteful, overweight Americans battling over who can suck down the most pork or beef parts in 10 minutes. My second thought was “perhaps I should change the channel before I get sick.” It really is disgusting to watch.

But then common sense and a level head kicked in and I thought: what wine would go with 64 hotdogs? I know what I think, but I’d like to hear from some of you first.

So, if you had to eat 64 hotdogs…or perhaps you were just going to eat one hotdog, what wine would YOU pair with them (it)?