The best food to pair with Chardonnay

If you’re looking for food pairings for chardonnay, you’re in luck! Whatever the style it’s a fantastic food wine. Which makes it all the more remarkable that many people still say they don’t like chardonnay. 

I always think saying you’re bored with chardonnay is a bit like saying you’re bored with chicken. There are so many different styles including some of the world’s greatest white wines.

The key to pairing chardonnay is appreciating that it’s not just one wine - it depends where it’s made, whether or not it’s oaked and how mature it is when you drink it.

I’m sharing my favourite food pairings for every style of Chardonnay - whether you’re sipping a steely Chablis, a rich Californian chardonnay, or a bottle you’ve had sitting in your wine rack for a while.

Top food pairings for four different styles of chardonnay

Young, unoaked, cool climate chardonnay


Such as: The classic and most austere example of this is Chablis but other young white burgundies would fall into this category.

Good matches:

*They’re perfect with light and delicate food such as raw and lightly cooked shellfish like crab and prawns and steamed or grilled fish. 

*If you want to serve chardonnay with appetizers think fish pâtés, fish, chicken or vegetable terrines.

*This style also goes well with pasta or risotto with spring vegetables and creamy vegetable soups.

*Finer, more intense examples such as Puligny-Montrachet can take on raw fish such as sashimi or delicately spiced fish or salads.

*Chablis is particularly good with oysters.

For more suggestions see this post on pairing food and Chablis

Fruitier, unoaked or lightly oaked chardonnays


Such as: Chardonnays from slightly warmer areas to the above but made in a more contemporary style - smooth, sometimes buttery with melon and peach flavours. Examples would be inexpensive chardonnays from the south of France, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa.

Good matches:

*Slightly richer dishes than those listed above but ones where a degree of freshness in the wine is still welcome.

*Fish pie and fish cakes (especially salmon fish cakes)

*other simple salmon preparations (simply poached or with a buttery sauce)

*chicken, pork or pasta in a creamy sauce (including in vol-au-vents!)

*chicken, ham or cheese-based salads such as caesar salad or chicken salads that include peach, mango or macadamia nuts

*mild curries with buttery sauces (such as chicken makhani)

Buttery, oaked Chardonnay


Such as: barrel-fermented, barrel aged or ‘reserve’ chardonnays, particularly top end Australian, New Zealand and Calfornian Chardonnay and top white burgundy, served within 1-3 years of purchase

Good matches:

*Similar dishes to the above but can take an extra degree of richness. Dishes like eggs benedict for example or even a steak béarnaise.

*Fine rich fish such as turbot, grilled veal chops with mushrooms

*Late summer vegetables such as red peppers, corn, butternut squash and pumpkin (pumpkin ravioli and a rich Chardonnay is very good)

*Cheddar cheese, if you’re looking for a chardonnay and cheese pairing. 

*You can even drink a rich chardonnay with seared foie gras (and indeed many prefer it to Sauternes at the start of a meal)

Mature barrel-fermented Chardonnays


Such as: Wines that are about 3-6 years old. With age Chardonnay acquires a creamy, sometimes nutty taste and creamy texture that calls for a return to finer, more delicate dishes

Good matches:

*Umami-rich (savoury) dishes such as grilled, seared or roast shellfish like lobster and scallops

*simply roast chicken such as the poulet de Bresse above

*guinea fowl

*dishes that include wild mushrooms and slow roast tomatoes

*white truffles

*Hazelnut-crusted chicken or fish

*Sea bass with fennel purée

See also

The Best Food Pairings with White Burgundy

What chardonnay doesn’t pair quite so well with

*Light fresh cheeses such as goat or sheep cheeses (better with sauvignon blanc or an aged red, respectively

*Seared salmon or tuna (better with a light red like pinot noir)

*Tomato-based dishes (better with dry Italian whites or Italian reds)

*Thai flavours (better with Alsace pinot gris or New World sauvignon blanc)

Top image © Philip Wise at shutterstock.com

Wine (and other) pairings for peaches and nectarines

Being surrounded by peaches and nectarines at the moment has reminded me what a brilliant match they are for a glass of dessert wine. And, surprisingly, even for a red!

Peaches in red wine is a popular Italian dessert that’s easy to replicate with any light fruity red as I pointed out in this match of the week.

With other peach or nectarine puddings your wine choice depends on how sweet your dessert is, whether it’s served hot or cold and what it’s served with (a good dollop of cream always helps).

A warm peach pie or a peach cobbler, for instance, needs a sweeter wine than a classic French peach or nectarine tart served at room temperature. But in truth with peaches and nectarines you can’t go far wrong. 

Summer fruits and sweet wine - what could be better?

Fresh or simply poached peaches or nectarines

Great with a light Moscato d’Asti or a still muscat like a Muscat de Frontignan. Other off-dry sparkling wines such as demi-sec champagne work well too, especially with white peaches

Peach sabayon

Can be served warm or cold and may include some kind of booze which could provide a steer (or do away with the need for an accompanying wine altogether) but Sauternes or other late harvest Sauvignon Blanc is a reasonably safe bet

French style peach or nectarine tart

Frankly any light dessert wine you enjoy - Sauternes, other late harvest sauvignons and semillons, Coteaux du Layon and other Loire dessert wines, late harvest Chenin, South African straw wine, late harvest riesling . . .

Grilled peaches or nectarines

As in this recipe with Greek yoghurt and honey. I’d go for Moscato or muscat again. 

Peach melba

The raspberry sauce muddles the situation here. You want a sweet wine with a high level of acidity like a late harvest riesling

Peach sorbet

Super-cold, near-frozen peach liqueurs, if anything

Hot peach or nectarine desserts like peach pie, peach cobbler, upside-down cakes or crumbles

Intense late harvest sauvignons like those from New Zealand ought to cope as should a late harvest chardonnay but I’d also consider a chilled peach-flavoured liqueur like Archers or Southern Comfort which tend to handle warm and hot desserts better than wine.

Peaches and nectarines can, of course also be used in savoury dishes, particularly salads, with rich cheeses such as burrata and with ham, pork and duck.

I’d be inclined to go for a lush Italian white like a Greco di Tufo with peaches and burrata though this pairing with a ‘bianco’ style white vermouth was sensational.

With salads I’d be inclined to go for a lush white with some tropical fruit flavours - a Viognier or a Colombard, maybe.

With ham and peaches I’d probably drink a rich beer like a saison and with duck and peaches an off-dry pinot gris.

Photo by LuAnn Hunt on Unsplash

Sashimi, ceviche and crudo: what wine to pair with raw fish (new post)

Raw fish has become increasingly fashionable over the last few years, not just in Japanese, Peruvian and Mexican restaurants but in many other ones too.

But what type of wine should you pair with dishes like carpaccio, ceviche, crudo, sashimi or a tuna tartare?

First, it depends on the type of fish more than the way it’s cut. Scallops, seabass or prawns for example are going to be lighter and more delicate in flavour than salmon, tuna or mackerel but it’s the dressing or dipping sauce that is most likely to determine the match.

That will mainly depend on the origin of the dish. Italian raw fish dishes tend to be simply dressed while Japanese and other Asian ones can have much more complex nutty flavours.

As a big raw fish fan I’ve given a lot of thought to the subject. Here are the wines I serve at home and look out for on restaurant wine lists together with my favourite pairings for specific dishes

Generally reliable choices

Dry white wines and the keyword is dry, particularly if you’re talking sashimi.

Most white wines are described as dry so let’s be more specific. Young, fresh, unoaked, modest in alcohol, not overly fruity (so not a New Zealand sauvignon blanc I suggest unless there’s a punchy dressing). High in acidity. Pure and simple, rather than complex.

Good examples are albarino and alvarinho (sometimes labelled as Vinho Verde), Muscadet, Picpoul de Pinet, Petit Chablis, a good pinot grigio from Trentino or the Alto Adige, carricante from Etna in Sicily, grüner veltliner from Austria and koshu from Japan.

Ultra dry Provence, Corsican or Languedoc rosé - so pale it’s almost a white - also works well

as, of course, does chilled sake

Italian style crudo or carpaccio dressed with olive oil and lemon

As you can see from this post sauvignon blanc and similarly citrussy whites pair well thanks to the olive oil rather than the citrus which can cancel out the lemon in the wine. Zesty Italian whites such as Greco di Tufo, passerina and pecorino are also good options as would be Greece’s assyrtiko and Crete’s Vidiano.

As suggested above you could also could try a pale Provence or Corsican rosé

An orange dressing on the other hand can take a more aromatic wine as this pairing of sea bream carpaccio with Hugel Gentil, a blend of riesling Riesling, Muscat, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer demonstrates. Or dry riesling on its own. See also ceviche below.

Japanese-style raw fish

At its simplest this might just involve soy sauce and wasabi but could well be a more complex dressing or dip involving mirin, miso or sesame oil. Either way there’s an element of umami that indicates that sake - chilled rather than warm - would be a particularly good pairing.

If you’ve got a selection of sashimi in front of you with high quality fish, a daiginjo or junmai daiginjo sake would be a great choice but the dry white wines I’ve outlined above would also work. Or try a brut nature champagne I.e. one without any ‘dosage’ or added sugar.

More full-flavoured dressings and marinades could take a richer white like a white grenache or a fuller style of grüner veltliner as in this pairing.

There are also Japanese flavours - yuzu and sesame - in this dish that went particularly well with a sauvignon-semillon blend.

See also what to drink with sushi and

8 foods you might be surprised to find pair brilliantly with sake 

Ceviche and Tiradito

Ceviche - and tiradito - which is basically a variation on ceviche have brighter zestier flavours than Italian or Japanese preparations. Often involving tropical fruits or fruit juices like mango along with chilli and fresh coriander.

As I discovered on a trip to Chile a few years back they tend to pair with with sauvignon blanc, particularly Chilean sauvignon which has a distinctively citrussy flavour of its own.

Or, if you’re averse to sauvignon, try a crisp vinho verde which paired really well with this trout dish which was cured in verdita, a Mexican drink  made from lime and pineapple juice, jalapeno pepper, coriander and mint.

Citrus - in this case lime which is a common ingredient in ceviche dressings - can also steer you towards Australian Riesling as it did with the salmon dish above or, channelling the South American vibe, Argentina’s Torrontes as in this scallop ceviche I also succesfully paired it with Friulano, an aromatic white wine from Italy, earlier this year. 

If the ceviche includes fruit like mango you could even go for a fruity rosé like this one.

Finally, Chile’s Pisco sour is brilliant with ceviche - the only downside being it’s nigh on impossible to get the local limon de Pica, which are are actually rather more like small lemons than limes, in the UK. However I suggest a way round it here.

Poke

Poke - which originates from Hawaii - is historically based on raw fish but the poke bowls that have taken off more recently include vegetables and other ingredients that make them more like a raw fish salad than a hero raw fish dish. As a result you can go for a brighter fruitier wine than with raw fish on its own. A New Zealand sauvignon blanc, say, or a fruity rosé.

See What wine (and other drinks) to pair with poké 

Does red wine go with raw fish?

Generally I’d say white is preferable but if you’re not a white wine drinker an inexpensive, unoaked young red burgundy, red Sancerre or other light pinot noir would work, especially with tuna. Avoid too much oak or too high a level of alcohol though.

What to drink with oysters

Oysters really come into a category of their own so I suggest you check out the link below for a full range of options. But the ultra dry whites I recommend at the top of this post all work well. And Guinness of course!

The best wine (and other) pairings with oysters

Top photo by norikko at shutterstock.com

What wine - if any - goes with ice cream?

It’s not impossible to pair wine with ice cream - there are wine bars which do just that - j but it’s not easy. And there are other drinks that match better.

First wine. What’s the problem? Well in addition to being sweet, ice cream is - er - icy so tends to strip the flavour out of sweet wines. One exception is unctuous sticky PX (Pedro Ximenez) sherry which is not only good with ice cream (preferably vanilla or rum and raisin) but on it.

Also if ice cream is served as part of a dessert especially a warm dessert like an apple pie or crumble it warms it up and makes it less difficult to match. In fact you’re best to match the dessert rather than the ice cream. See the best pairings for apple desserts.

But in general it’s better to turn to liqueurs which are super-sweet and syrupy themselves. For example:

Cherry brandy with a cherry (or raspberry) ripple ice cream

Apricot brandy with apricot or peach ice cream

Salted caramel liqueur with praline (or other nut) ice cream

Amaretto with an almond semi-freddo

Fragolino (wild strawberry liqueur) with strawberry ice cream

A coffee liqueur (or an espresso martini!) with chocolate icecream

And if you want to experience something really left-field try this pairing of tonka bean ice cream with Pacharan (aniseed-flavoured Basque liqueur) I had a while back.

So basically enhance the flavour of the ice cream with a similar liqueur.

It works with sorbets too - think how good frozen vodka is poured over a lemon sorbet or of sipping a rhubarb gin with a rhubarb sorbet. A lot of fruit flavoured gins (which are essentially liqueurs) are sweet enough to go with a sorbet or ice cream.

You could of course just take the view that ice cream is enough of a treat as it is and that you don’t really need a shot of liqueur on top.

Oh, go on then, if you must. I won’t tell!

Photo © MaraZe at shutterstock.com