The best wines to pair with squash and pumpkin

Nothing proclaims autumn more clearly than squash and pumpkin but what wine should you pair with them?

It depends whether the dish is savoury or sweet obviously but here are a few options that might help

Wines to pair with roast or baked squash

Butternut squash in particular comes in a lot of guises but is fundamentally sweet, especially when you roast it. In general I favour rich whites like oak-aged chardonnay, Rhône varietals such as viognier, roussanne and marsanne and old vine chenin blanc either on its own or in a South African Cape white blend.

If you want a red I’d go for a warming Côtes du Rhône or similar wine made from Rhône varietals like grenache, syrah and mourvèdre.

Beerwise I’d be thinking of a saison or amber ale as I’ve suggested with this fabulous baked squash recipe from Claire Thomson

Wines for pumpkin or squash ravioli

A popular dish in Italy often served with crisp-fried sage and brown butter. Again the wines above would do the trick, but you might want to make them Italian. I’m thinking a good Soave or a rich Sicilian white like a fiano though I’ve also paired a Douro white successfully with pumpkin ravioli. The same advice would apply to butternut squash lasagne and butternut squash risotto too. I’ve also had some success pairing pumpkin gnocchi with gewurztraminer so you could try that with pasta too.

Wine with pumpkin or butternut squash soup

Again I’d be looking out for those smoother richer whites - chenin blanc, viognier and chardonnay - but perhaps slightly lighter-bodied than you’d pick for a roast squash recipe. If it were a spicy soup like this pumpkin coconut and lentil soup I’d go for an more aromatic white wine like the ones below

Wines for butternut squash or pumpkin curry

Butternut squash can handle quite a bit of spice and works well in a curry, especially with coconut milk. I’d choose a pinot gris, riesling or a light, maybe Chilean, gewurztraminer. Or our friend viognier again.

Butternut squash salads

Butternut squash in salads tends to be less about the squash and more about other ingredients such as feta, pesto or pumpkin seeds. Go for a brighter, crisper white such as Italian Greco or a Falanghina.

The best wine pairings for pumpkin pie

As much about the spices that are used as the pumpkin. Personally I like a rich moscatel but consult this post for other options.

Photo by Tatiana Vorona at shutterstock.com

The best food pairings for rioja

Rioja - and by that I mean red rioja - is one of the UK’s best-loved wines and one of the easiest ones to match with food too.

As you’d expect it pairs particularly well with Spanish food especially lamb and pork and recipes that contain red peppers, pimenton, garlic and saffron.

The main thing to bear in mind is the style of the wine - whether it’s a young (joven) rioja which can handle quite robust, even spicy dishes, or an older (reserva or gran reserva) one which would benefit from more simply prepared food.

Riojas that are made in a more modern style can also handle more spice than more traditional ones. Modern Indian food with rioja is a surprising hit.

These dishes will generally work with most riojas:

* Almost any kind of lamb dish from roast lamb to tender lamb cutlets grilled over vine clippings (a local favourite in the region) to slow braised lamb shanks or even a rogan josh. Shepherds pie, Lancashire hotpot, merguez, moussaka . . . It’s hard to think of a lamb dish that doesn’t work with rioja.

* Many pork dishes especially cooked Spanish style with beans. Chorizo and morcilla (black pudding) are both good pairings for younger riojas as are jamon (ham) and albondigas (meatballs) making red rioja a good match for more robust tapas.

* Dishes with red peppers and/or pimenton or paprika

* Almost any kind of mild or medium-hot dish with chillies like chilli con carne and other chiles. (Rioja suits south-west American food and American barbecue)

* Dishes with saffron such as paella or Moroccan tagines - including, surprisingly, chicken with preserved lemon and olives and Mediterranean-style fish stews

* Older gran reserva riojas are especially good with roast game birds such as pheasant and partridge. Indian-style game dishes work well with younger riojas

* Cheese, especially hard sheeps’ cheeses such as Manchego, although a mellow rioja reserva is a generally reliable choice with a cheeseboard - unlike many reds.

See also The best matches for white Rioja

The best wine pairings with chicken Kyiv

Chicken Kyiv - or Kiev - as it used to be known - is a much loved version of fried chicken that you can also easily buy off the supermarket shelf but what sort of wine should you pair with it?

If you’re not familiar with the dish it’s a deep fried chicken breast stuffed with garlic butter so it’s more about the garlic than the chicken.

That pushes me towards a white wine or sparkling wine rather than a red. Here’s what I’d choose

A crisp dry white wine like a Chablis, aligoté, albarino or Picpoul de Pinet, even a pinot grigio (preferably one from the Trentino region of north-east Italy)

Sauvignon blanc, especially from the Loire e.g. Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé

A dry champagne or champagne-style sparkling wine, especially a blanc de blancs (100% chardonnay or other white grapes). Sparkling wine is always great with deep fried food.

If you fancy a red wine with chicken kyiv I’d be inclined to go for a Beaujolais or other gamay or an inexpensive red burgundy

A light lager or pils

Top image by Alexander Prokopenko at shutterstock.com

Top food pairings for cider (updated)

Cider has been going through the same quality revolution as beer did a few years ago. In the last 12 months I’ve tasted more interesting ciders than I have in the last 12 years.

So it’s a shame we don’t take it more seriously as a partner for food especially as many are now bottled in handsome-looking full-sized bottles.

There are many different styles, obviously, but here are the type of foods I think pair best with cider and some avenues that I think might be worth exploring:

Creamy or cider-based sauces

This is cider’s natural territory and the most useful type of dish to think to think in terms of (rather than focussing on chicken, pork or seafood which can be prepared in so many different ways). The sort of sauces you find in Normandy which, of course is cider’s heartland.

Think also of chicken casseroles or pies cooked with cider and sausages with cider (any dish cooked with onion and apples is an obvious match. Try this West Country Chicken Casserole with cider, apple and celery).

Creamy pasta bakes

Same reasoning as the above

Quiche

Especially quiche lorraine and leek quiche

Creamy vegetable or chicken soups - onion, mushroom, celery, fennel, leek . . .

Creamy risottos with similar flavourings

Ham and other cold cuts

Hot or cold. Cider is a good partner for boiled or roast gammon (and can also be used in the cooking liquid) and lovely with fat chunks of ham cut off the bone. It’s also good with other pork-based products like patés, terrines and rillettes (without too much garlic) and brawn or jambon persillé, Melton Mowbray (and other) pork pies and Scotch eggs.

Salads

Particularly those based on chicken, ham or cheese with a light creamy dressing or with apple as an ingredient though this smoked mackerel salad with pickled cucumber (below) was a winner with a traditional Spanish ‘ancestral’ cider.

Salmon

Try a dry cider with smoked or cured salmon like this dish with pickled apple and a dill emulsion I had in Norway last year. 

Brittany/Normandy style savoury crèpes

A terroir-based match. I particularly like buckwheat pancakes filled with ham or spinach and cheese and a Normandy cidre bouché (literally cider with a cork or sparkling cider)

Roast pork, especially with apples

Roast pork belly is great with cider. Especially with black pudding. Roast chicken too as you can see from this pairing.

Cheese

A great area to explore. Camembert and Camembert-style cheeses are the outstanding pairings but Cheddar and other English territorial cheeses such as Cheshire and Caerphilly, semi-hard cheeses like Gruyère, Beaufort and Appenzeller are all good. Pick a drier, lighter cider with goats’ cheese and a slightly sweeter one with washed rind cheeses like Pont L’Eveque and Stinking Bishop (neither of which should be too far gone) or a mellow, creamy blue like Barkham Blue. Cooked dishes like cauliflower cheese work with cider too.

More speculative matches

Pheasant and other feathered game

This is more speculative territory but I have a feeling more rustic, dry unfiltered ciders would go with dishes like pot roast pheasant with apples in much the same way as a gueuze. It works with a pheasant terrine as you can see from this Match of the Week so why not?

Mild curries

You could also try a medium dry cider with spicy Indian snacks or with a mild curry like a korma

Sweet and sour pork

So long as the ‘sweet’ element wasn’t too sweet and the cider had some sweetness of its own.

Basque style dishes with pimenton (paprika) and peppers

The Basque country either side of the Spanish border is also a big cider drinking area so it stands to reason they must drink it with Basque cuisine. Definitely worth trying.

Apple or apricot-based cakes and puddings

With sweeter ciders. I suspect they would work well with bread pudding and gingerbread too.

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