Thanks, Mr. T and morningflyer. The wine salt is an interesting item to work with.
Mr. T - You mention pork belly which is something I haven't thought of though I suppose it's possible. I think that would depend on how the belly will be prepared and served. For a braised belly it might work fine, but other preparations might not fare to well. When you say you have a belly in the cooler waiting to be cold smoked in a couple weeks I assume you're curing it with pink salt or cure #1. If that's the case, I not certain that the wine salt would add any benefit, but I really don't know since I've never considered doing it.
Regarding the wine, I think a nice full bodied late harvest semi-sweet Spatlese or Riesling Kabinett would work very well with the belly. A Gewürztraminer or Pinot Gris should work well also.
In as far as quantity is concerned, 1 tbs. of the salt per 5 lbs. of meat is a good starting point. All you really need is a very light, but thorough, sprinkling. With experience, you'll learn to adjust a little up or down as desired.
Ther sugar in the recipe is plain granulated cane sugar. I've made a few half batches experimenting with different wines and sugars-brown, turbinado, and palm. As far as the sugars are concerned, there's not much discernible difference.
The base recipe call for thyme alone, but it's also very good in a combo which includes sage and rosemary. For pork, the inclusion of minced fennel leaves by themselves or in combination with other herbs yields excellent results.
As a word of caution, you don't want to start playing around with too many variables and lose sight of the original objective. It's pretty easy to hit a point of diminishing returns.