Which wine pairs best with salad?

Asking which wine to pair with salad is a bit like asking about what wine to match with meat or fish. There's no single answer. It depends on the vegetables you use, what other ingredients it contains and what type of dressing you use.

That said, salad is normally a light dish so a full-bodied wine - white or red - is almost certainly going to overwhelm it. Unless you’re talking about steak and salad in which case it’s a question of matching the steak not the leaves. Or salads for a barbecue when the marinades used for the meat will probably have more of an impact than the dressings.

The problem ingredient in salads is vinegar which can throw wines off balance, accentuating the tannins in serious reds and making whites seem excessively sweet. You can get round this by including a bit of cream in the dressing or whisking in some meat juices, especially the juice from a roasted chicken. Rice and cider vinegar are also less harsh than wine vinegar

Other tricky ingredients are raw onion or garlic, best dealt with, I find, by pairing them with dry whites or rosés that have a high level of acidity.

Wines that have an overtly fruity character tend to match well with salad especially if it contains fruit such as peach or apricot (try a fruity Chardonnay, Colombard or Viognier) or cherries (good with a fruity red such as a Gamay or Pinot Noir)

If there’s more than one salad on the table good all-rounders are fruity whites such as Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc and fruity rosés

Wine pairings for 10 popular salads

Chicken caesar salad
Reasonably easy so long as it doesn’t have too much of an anchovy kick. A lightly oaked Chardonnay is a good match, a slightly fuller-bodied one if the chicken is chargrilled. Oaked Sauvignon Blanc and dry rosé also work well

Greek salad
Here the dominant ingredients are feta and olives which tend to work best with a citrussy white. Sauvignon Blanc - or Rueda - is fine but why not try a Greek Assyrtiko?

Salade Niçoise
The locals would drink dry Provençal rosé and I can’t think of a better match. Although Cotes du Rhône rosés are quite a bit cheaper.

Spinach and bacon salad with blue cheese dressing
Ah. Blue cheese dressing. Very tricky! I’d personally go for a soft red like a medium-bodied Merlot but you could equally well drink a white. What’s needed I think is a slight touch of sweetness - a German Kabinett Riesling should fit the bill. Or an off-dry one from New Zealand or Washington State

Goats cheese salad with asparagus or beetroot
Goats cheese overrides all other ingredients when it comes to salads, even powerfully flavoured ones like asparagus and beetroot. Sauvignon Blanc is the classic match and hard to better, I find.

Warm pigeon, duck or chicken liver salad
Once you introduce meat into a salad I reckon you’re better off to think in terms of reds than whites. Pinot Noir is the obvious pairing but Loire reds and other light-bodied reds from e.g. south-west France work well too.

Thai beef salad and other Asian salads
Great with Australian riesling as you can see from these matches of the week here and here. Gruner Veltliner is another good pairing

Seafood, prawn or shrimp salad, crab salad
Perhaps depend more than any other salad on the dressing. If the salad is built round some super-fresh shellfish like crab or prawns (shrimp) I’d go for a crisp minerally white like a Sancerre, Albarino, Picpoul de Pinet or Italian whites such as Pecorino and good quality Pinot Grigio. If you’re using a 1000 island dressing off-dry riesling should see you through. For tomato-based dressings see below.

Tomato-based salads
Raw tomatoes are supposed to pose problems for wine, tomato salad even more so though I’ve never found it much of a problem. Dry rosé, crisp whites and Sauvignon Blanc generally hit the spot though I generally go for an Italian white like a Verdicchio with a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad or pappa al pomodoro

Pasta salads
More often than not these are dressed with mayonnaise and are therefore quite mild in taste. I’d go for a smooth dry white like a Soave, Gavi, unoaked Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc

And here are five more:

Crisp duck salad with Fielding estate riesling

Layered tomato and egg salad with Verdejo

Pork, chilli, coconut and gapi salad with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Rocket and parmesan salad with dry amontillado sherry

Smoked duck and blood orange salad with Chilean gewurztraminer

And don't forget, beer and cider pair well with salad too, sometimes better than wine!

The best wine matches for tomatoes

Although not the problem they're generally made out to be tomatoes do have an influence on a wine pairing.

Being quite acidic, especially when dressed with a vinaigrette, you want a wine that has a good level of acid too - and not too much, if any, oak.

I find it easiest to think in terms of uncooked and cooked tomatoes when deciding on a wine match:

Tomato salads, fresh tomato sauces and salsas and soups like gazpacho work well with crisp dry whites and dry rosés. With a classic French tomato salad I’d go for a Picpoul de Pinet or a dry southern French rosé, especially Provençal rosé. A light style of Sauvignon Blanc or a Côtes de Gascogne or Côtes de Duras works well too. With panzanella (Italian-style tomato and bread salad) you might want to go for a crisp Italian white like a Verdicchio

With pasta with a fresh tomato sauce like this one with prawns I’d go for an Italian white such as Pinot Grigio. Albarino is a good match with gazpacho.

With more intensely flavoured cooked dishes made with tinned, roast or dried tomatoes - especially if combined with grilled vegetables like aubergines or meat as in a lasagne - I think reds tend to work better, especially Italian reds such as Barbera d’Asti, Chianti, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and simple Sicilian reds. Other Sangiovese-based reds are good too.

Stuffed tomatoes are good with lighter southern French reds such as Côtes du Rhône Villages or Côtes du Roussillon.

You may of course be looking to match lighter cooked tomato dishes such as courgette and tomato gratins or tomato tarts. These can take almost any kind of dry Mediterranean whites, light reds or rosés - like uncooked tomato dishes. Tomato fritters (a speciality from Santorini) are fantastic with the local Assyrtiko.

What I wouldn’t pair with tomatoes are big tannic reds, classic reds like Bordeaux or oaky Chardonnays except, in the case of Chardonnay, with a tomato tatin that has acquired an edge of sweetness.

The best wines to pair with crab

Crab is one of the most delicious kinds of shellfish and the perfect foil for a crisp white wine. But there are other crab dishes that pair better with a fuller-bodied white or even a red.

In this post I’ll dive into my top wine pairings for different preparations of crab, including popular dishes like 

• Dressed crab
• Crab bisque
• Thai crab cakes
• Deep fried softshell crab

As always, it’s not just about the crab but how it’s prepared and the other flavours involved...

Top wine pairings with crab

Dressed crab

You want to be able to taste the delicate meat so I’d suggest a classic Chablis or fine white burgundy such as Puligny-Montrachet. (The same would apply to fresh crab sandwiches or a simple crab salad though I might well pick a Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé for the latter, especially if it included asparagus. See also this match with 17 year old Muscadet!)

Linguine with crab

Quite a spicy recipe that usually includes garlic and red chilli and occasionally lemon. You could drink a citrussy (rather than a herbaceous) Sauvignon Blanc or a dry Kabinett Riesling with it but I’d go for a good quality Pinot Grigio, Soave or Albariño.

Crab bisque

Rich and luxurious this recipe normally contains cream and cognac as well as having a dominant flavour of brown crab meat - a good opportunity to crack open a seriously good barrel-fermented Chardonnay with a couple of years’ bottle age. White Rhône and Languedoc blends of Roussanne, Marsanne and Viognier work well too.

Thai crab cakes

My choice would depend on whether I was having these as a snack on their own or as part of a Thai meal. If it was the former I’d go for a dry Riesling or a Loire Sauvignon Blanc. With the latter I’d look for a wine with slightly more sweetness such as a Pinot Gris or a spätlese Riesling. Witbier is the other great pick as you’ll see from this Match of the Week.

Maryland crab cakes

The classic American crab cake, much richer than the Thai ones, but with a spicy kick. Unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay would be the safe choice but I’m not sure I wouldn’t reach for an Albariño.

Crab, saffron and leek quiche

Saffron is the key in this Rick Stein recipe. I love Viognier and Viognier blends with saffron-infused dishes so I’d go for that.

Deep-fried soft shell crabs

Sometimes these are served with a strong punchy dressing but I think, if you want to appreciate the delicate flavour of the crab, it’s better to serve them relatively simply. As with other deep-fried foods they go fantastically well with champagne and other sparkling wines.

Crab in black bean sauce

Always a tricky one as black bean sauce is so pungent but I came across a brilliant match at the Four Seasons hotel in Park Lane where chef Tak of Lung King Heen, the Cantonese restaurant at the Four Seasons Hong Kong was cooking for a week to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

His version was the best crab in black bean sauce I’ve ever eaten - deep and aromatic in flavour, sweet but not cloying. It was matched with a decent but not exceptional Mud House Pinot Noir from New Zealand and the pairing was spot on. I suspect you’d need a fuller, richer Pinot with most commercial black bean sauces.

Image by Larisa Blinova at shutterstock.com

Wines to match different pasta sauces

What wine should you pair with your favourite pasta?

As you might guess it depends on the sauce rather than the pasta shape. From rich and meaty ragùs to zesty herby pesto, each sauce has its own unique character that suggests a different wine pairing. That said I like to pair Italian wine with pasta wherever possible as it suits it so well and isn’t too full-bodied or alcoholic.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the best wine pairings for six popular styles of pasta sauce, from the classic tomato-based marinara to creamy Alfredo and beyond. Each sauce calls for a different approach: think crisp whites to cut through the richness of a carbonara, or a bold red to stand up to a hearty Bolognese. 

What Wine to Match with Different Pasta Sauces

Creamy pasta sauces

To offset creamy sauces (eg carbonara or fettucine alfredo) think Soave, Bianco di Custoza, Pinot Bianco, Sicilian whites and lighter Chardonnay or Chardonnay blends.

Spaghetti Carbonara. Image source: Engin Akyurt

See also six of the best wine matches for spaghetti carbonara

With baby vegetables (primavera) or herbs (verdura): try a crisper Italian whites such as Falanghina, Vermentino or Arneis. Or a Loire Sauvignon Blanc.

With mushroom pastas serve Soave, Bianco di Custoza, Lugana or Chardonnay, or a light Merlot or Pinot Noir.

Seafood pasta sauces

Seafood (spaghetti alle vongole, spaghetti with mussels, linguine with crab) need crisp dry whites such as Frascati, Verdicchio, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Muscadet or Picpoul de Pinet. Crab or lobster sauces can take a fuller white such as a good quality Soave or Chardonnay.

The best wine pairings for spaghetti alle vongole

Photo by tofuprod licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Red or tomato-based pasta sauces

Tomato-based sauces include fresh tomato with basil: crisp dry whites such as Pinot Grigio or Verdicchio.

Cooked tomato sauces such as napoletana or marinara): Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or a light Sicilian red.

Meat-based sauces e.g. bolognese, spaghetti with meatballs, sausage-based sauces are a logical partner for Sicilian and Puglian reds (especially Primitivo), Sangiovese, Rosso di Montalcino and inexpensive Barberas. Zinfandel is good too.

Six of the best matches for spaghetti bolognese

Pesto and other cheese-based sauces

Dry whites such as Gavi, Soave or Verdicchio are best with green pesto - you could also try Sicilian whites and lighter Chardonnays).

With red pesto I’d go for a medium bodied red such as Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Sangiovese or Merlot. It’s a colour thing as much as anything

With cheese-based sauces such as four cheese and Gorgonzola): try crisp dry whites such as Verdicchio, light Chardonnays or light reds such as Teroldego or Merlot.

Spicy pasta sauces

With hot spicy sauces such as arrabbiatta, aglio olio e peperoncino (garlic, oil and chilli) and puttanesca (anchovies, capers and olives) try either a sharply flavoured dry white wine or a rustic Italian red: a Primitivo or Sicilian red or a Zinfandel

The best wine pairings for spaghetti puttanesca

Photo by being0828 licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

With fashionable cacio e pepe (pecorino cheese and black pepper sauce) I prefer a light red like a frappato as you can see from one of my matches of the week.

Pasta sauces with pulses

Tuscan reds such as Chianti work well with pasta with beans or lentils (Pasta e Fagioli) or try an earthy, neutral white such as Orvieto or Vernaccia di San Gimignano)

Top image by Brent Hofacker at shutterstock.com