9 great wine pairings for duck (updated)

Pinot Noir is the go-to wine with duck, and for good reason. Its lush fruit complements the meat in the same way as fruit like plums and cherries. But duck can be cooked many different ways, which means there’s plenty of opportunity to experiment.

The best wine with duck depends on how it’s prepared - roasted, confit, or cooked in wine, like my recipe for duck casserole with red wine, cinnamon and olives.

The common factor is that duck is a fatty meat that tends to need a wine with some sharpness and acidity to cut through and some ripe fruit to contrast with the rich flesh.

Here are the wines I think work best, plus my pairings for 10 popular duck dishes.

Pinot Noir

Whether it’s a fine old burgundy or an exuberant full-bodied pinot from California, Chile, Oregon or the Central Otago region of New Zealand, Pinot Noir is almost always going to make people happy. (See this pairing for example.) If you’re roasting a wild duck or serving it plainly cooked you might want to go for a more delicate red burgundy*. If you’re serving super-rare duck breasts or duck that has some kind of Asian spicing (e.g. Peking duck), a sweeter, riper style might work better. Whatever. Think Pinot.

Merlot

Having made the point about acidity, I have to admit that Merlot, which often lacks it, goes rather well with duck, especially in Chinese-style pancakes with hoisin sauce. A Pomerol would be heaven.

Barolo

Barolo has the same affinity as Pinot and is a good wine match for simply cooked roast duck without too much in the way of powerful sauces or vegetable accompaniments

Tuscan reds e.g. Chianti

The Italians tend to cook their duck longer - often braising rather than roasting it. Chianti matches particularly well, especially if the sauce contains tomato and olives.

Bandol and other Mourvèdre

The dark, intense smokey notes of Mourvèdre are fabulous with duck, especially cooked with a red wine sauce. Or smoked duck as in this highly successful pairing of tea-smoked duck with Bandol.

Madiran and Marcillac

Tannic Madiran comes from the same area of the south-west France that produces foie gras - and therefore shedloads of confit duck. It’s delicious as you can see from this pairing but I’m not sure I don’t prefer the lighter, more rustic Marcillac. Or a Cahors

Beaujolais

Serious ‘cru’ Beaujolais like Morgon can be delicious with duck if you’re looking for a fruity, cherry-flavoured contrast (though its fruit may be wiped out by a cherry sauce). Particularly good with cold duck or duck rillettes, paté or terrines.

Late harvest riesling

If you’d rather serve a white with duck, an off-dry German spätlese or other late harvest riesling can be a delicious pairing. Especially if the duck is cooked with apples.

Gewürztraminer

Brilliant with duck curries, especially Thai red curry or a Thai-spiced salad like this Thai roast duck and watermelon salad. Also good if duck is served with fruit such as quince or oranges as in this smoked duck salad or duck à l’orange.

Wine pairings for 10 popular duck dishes

Let’s look at this the other way round, duck first!

Peking Duck - A classic Chinese way of cooking duck. The crispy skin and tender meat is often served in pancakes with spring onion, cucumber and hoisin sauce. Pair with a full-bodied pinot noir from e.g. New Zealand’s Central Otago region, a merlot or an Argentinian malbec.

Duck à l’Orange - An old school French favourite combining duck with a bitter orange sauce. It’s a great dish to pair with gewürztraminer or a spätlese or other off-dry riesling but a ripe grenache or grenache-based southern Rhône red would work equally well. If you were daring you could serve a Sauternes!

Duck with apple sauce
A traditional British way of serving duck which actually goes best with a dry German or Austrian riesling though I suspect most of your guests would expect a red wine like a burgundy or other light pinot noir.

Duck paté or rillettes
Like other charcuterie duck paté goes particularly well with Beaujolais and other light reds like cinsault or pais especially if they could be classified as ‘natural’.

Confit de Canard - A French classic of slow-cooked duck legs, sometimes served on its own, sometimes in a cassoulet. It originates from south-west France so try a wine from the region like a Cahors, Madiran or Marcillac with it.

Thai Red Duck Curry - Spicy and coconut-rich. The perfect match for an exotic gewurztraminer which mirrors the dish’s own spice 

Tea-Smoked Duck - A Chinese delicacy where duck is marinated, smoked over tea leaves and twigs, then roasted to achieve a distinctive flavour. Pair with: Bandol. The slight smokiness picks up on the smoke in the dish.

Roast Duck with Plum Sauce - A popular dish combining roasted duck with sweet plum sauce. Try a red wine that has some sweetness of its own such as primitivo or zinfandel. (Look out for the description appassimento which indicates the wine has been fermented on dried grapes or skins, giving it extra sweetness and intensity.) Australian shiraz would work too.

Bao Buns with duck - These soft buns filled with spicy duck are likely to be one of a selection of dishes in a relaxed, casual restaurant which might mean you just reach for a beer. Duck-friendly pinot would obviously work too.

Magret de Canard - A French dish featuring seared duck breast. It depends a little on what sauce is served with it - quite commonly fruit like cherries. Pinot noir again is a reliable go-to but a fuller-bodied cru Beaujolais like a Morgon would be a great match too. Or try a Belgian Kriek (cherry beer) 

Photo of crispy duck with pancakes by vsl and duck confit by nelea33. Both at shutterstock.com

The best food pairings for Lambrusco (updated)

If you’re wondering why I’m devoting a post to Lambrusco you obviously haven’t tasted the real thing!

Forget the weedy, sickly-sweet lambruscos you may have tasted in your youth - most authentic lambrusco is seductively crimson, frothy and totally dry.

So what should you eat with it? Well, in Emilia-Romagna where it’s made they almost certainly go for pork as I’ve suggested before - salumi (cold meats) such as salami, prosciutto (ham), mortadella and bresaola, porchetta (rolled pork with herbs) and Italian-style sausages with fennel.

I love the idea of it as a Boxing Day wine with cold turkey and ham.

It’s fantastic with pizza (you should definitely try it with pizza!) You could even drink it with lasagne and other richly sauced pasta dishes.

But I reckon it’s also a brilliant barbecue wine - drink it lightly chilled with grilled chicken, lamb or pulled pork or even a burger or steak. It will offset fatty meats such as duck or goose - it would be great with confit duck. And there’s no reason not to drink it with meaty or oily fish such as grilled tuna or sardines.

Cheese-wise you could pair it with hard sheeps’ cheeses like pecorino and with aged cheeses such as parmigiano reggiano and grana padano - or drink it - as you would drink Beaujolais with a terrine, fromage de tête or brawn.

You can also find rosé lambruscos which again work well with salumi and other antipasti.

And sweeter (amabile) lambruscos are delicious with summer fruits, especially peaches and nectarines

Image by Vic E from Pixabay

The best wine - and other drinks - to pair with macaroni cheese

The best wine to pair with macaroni cheese, or mac’n’cheese as our friends across the pond have it, depends how fancy - and how cheesy - your mac and cheese is.

With a homely old-fashioned recipe you might just want a simple glass of white wine (in general I prefer white to red) whereas with one made with a fine strong artisan cheddar or with lashings of cream and lobster you might go for something more extravagant.

Here are my top seven picks.

Chardonnay
Probably the safest bet whichever recipe you’re looking at. A light unoaked chardonnay for a simple creamy macaroni cheese, a posh white burgundy if you’re eating a more extravagant one with lobster or crab. Smooth dry Chenin Blanc works on a similar basis.

Dry riesling
Counter-intuitive but good - like crunching into a refreshing apple with your cheese. Here’s why.

St Emilion or one of the St Emilion satellites
Merlot works surprisingly well with macaroni cheese, I’ve found, especially if it contains bacon. It needn’t be Bordeaux, obviously but a young(ish) St Emilion does work well

Dry cider
Particularly good with macaroni cheese and leeks

Beer
A classic English ale like Timothy Taylor Landlord or an American-style brown ale is perfect with a very cheesy macaroni cheese.

Champagne
Really? Yes, especially if there’s truffle involved. (I tried it the other day with Heston Blumenthal’s cauliflower and macaroni cheese with truffle and it was spot on.)

Sancerre or a similar Loire Sauvignon Blanc

Not my usual go-to but great with this crab macaroni cheese from my friend Fiona Sims Boat cookbook.

Macaroni cheese is also often served as a side in a steakhouse but I’d still match the steak rather than the mac’n’cheese

photo ©Stephanie Frey @fotolia.com

Top wine (and other) pairings for sausages

There are very few occasions on which sausages don’t appeal but what’s the best pairing for them?

As always it depends on the type of sausage and the way they’re cooked but I personally find that beer and cider are just as good matches as wine.

Sausage and mash

The quintessential British sausage dish is almost always better accompanied by Britain’s national drink, beer than wine, especially if served with onion gravy. (The same goes for toad in the hole.)

I’d pick a hearty ale like Timothy Taylor Landlord but if the gravy is dark and intense as in this recipe for sausages with rich Guinness gravy you could even try a stout or a porter. If you don’t drink beer a hearty southern French or Spanish red or Argentine malbec would all work well.

Pork and leek sausages

Lighter sausages such as pork and leek or pork and apple pair well with cider. You could also drink white wine with them - I’d suggest a chenin blanc or unoaked or subtly oaked chardonnay.

Hot spicy sausages e.g. chorizo and merguez

Spice generally calls for wines with a touch of sweetness but with sausages like chorizo, merguez or Cajun-spiced sausages I’d be looking primarily for a red with ripe fruit: one of the new wave Spanish reds such as Montsant, an unoaked Douro red, or a shiraz, pinotage or zinfandel. Avoid reds that are heavily oaked though as oak-ageing tends to accentuate chilli heat.

Sausage casserole

It depends on the other ingredients in the casserole. If onion, apple and cider are involved I’d drink cider with it too. If the sauce is tomato-based or includes red wine like Tom Kerridge’s recipe for sausage, tomato and butterbean stew I’d go for a rustic red similar to those I’ve suggested for sausage and mash. A decent Côtes du Rhône is usually a reliable option.

Tuscan-style sausages with beans

One of the most wine-friendly of sausage dishes with which you could drink a good Tuscan (or other Italian) red as recommended with this dish of roasted Italian sausages with borlotti beans and nduja sauce from Theo Randall.

Garlicky French sausages e.g. Toulouse

Work well with southern and south-west French wines of lesser known appellations such as Marcillac. Again particularly wine-friendly if accompanied by pulses such as haricot beans and lentils, as in a cassoulet. A modest Bordeaux wouldn’t go amiss.

Venison or beef sausages

Tend to have a slightly gamey flavour that generally goes with wines that pair well with game. More robust styles of Pinot Noir such as those from Central Otago, northern Rhône reds such as St-Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage come to mind.

German-style sausages such as frankfurters and bratwurst

Definitely beer in my book. A light lager, pilsner or Kolsch for frankfurters, a slightly sweeter beer like a helles or golden lager for grilled brats. Try a crisp, dry Riesling if you don’t like beer.

Top photo by Martin Turzak at shutterstock.com