The best wine and beer pairings for savoury pies

We Brits don’t need much encouragement to eat pies—they’re a staple of comfort food culture. But when it comes to enjoying a drink with your pie, the question arises: which is the better match—wine or beer? The answer, as always, depends on the type of pie you’re talking about and the flavours it brings to the table.

Steak pies with gravy
Almost always better with a strong ale or porter in my opinion.

Steak pies with red wine sauce
Should work with any full-bodied red. I normally tend to favour Languedoc or Rhône-style reds but a new world red like a malbec or an Australian shiraz would work well too

Chicken pies with a creamy filling
I’d go for an unoaked or subtly oaked Chardonnay, old vine Chenin Blanc or any other smooth dry white. Cider and perry also work well with chicken pies.

Pies with a tomatoey filling
Whatever the other ingredients I generally find cooked tomato works better with wine than with beer - I’d suggest an Italian Sangiovese or a Tempranillo-based red like Rioja, especially if there’s chorizo in it.

Cheese and spinach pies
I generally prefer crisp whites such as Sauvignon Blanc or even a more neutral white such as a Picpoul de Pinet with a light vegetarian pie like this but a light red like a Beaujolais would be delicious too.

Fish pies
Pair with the same sort of wines as creamy chicken pies.

Cold pies
With a classic pork pie I’d always go for an English bitter. A cold game pie however is a great match for a good red burgundy or Pinot Noir.

Photo © Richard M Lee at Shutterstock

Which beers are best for Burns’ Night?

Although we naturally think of drinking whisky on Burns’ Night, beer is just as appropriate a pairing, especially for haggis. And with Scottish beers like Brewdog and Innis & Gunn in wide distribution it’s not too hard to find a homegrown one.

Popular suggestions when I asked some of my fellow beer lovers on Twitter included Fraoch heather ale, Innis & Gunn original and Traquair House Ale or Ola Dubh for the cheeseboard. Beers aged in whisky casks obviously kill two birds with one stone.

If you’re prepared to stray outside Scotland a tasting a couple of years ago suggested that strong Belgian beers like Chimay Bleu and Westmalle Dubbel are the ideal match. Two dark Orkney beers, Dark Island and Skullsplitter did well too.

Here are some other suggestions:

@TheBeerCast Got to be @WilliamsBrewery Fraoch, goes beautifully with haggis - nothing I’ve tried has worked better

@goodtastefood Williams Bros have done an amazing imperial Fraoch, at 10% I believe

@R_McCormack heather ale

@timcarlislewine brewdog and innis & gunn obv. Also Fraoch Grozet from orkney brewery

@FairgroundComms as a non whisky drinker, Innis & Gunn Original goes brill with the flavours of a Burns’ Supper - whisky kick & no dram in sight!

@rowanmolyneux Harviestoun Ola Dubh

@Caledonianbeer all a matter of personal taste but Deuchars is excellent with spicyness of haggis. For traditional go Caley 80 :)

@lucychippindale how about Schiehallion Craft Lager from the Harviestoun Brewery?

@BeersManchester @HarviestounBrew Schiehallion hits just about any spot I can think of!

@ChefTimAnderson Traquair House Ale/900/Jacobite. Also anything whisky cask-aged, of course! Possibly @HarviestounBrew Highland Park Ola Dubh.

@beeradventcal Glen Garioch or Glen Spey barrel-aged Imperial Brown Stout from @kernelbrewery. Poetry in a bottle.

@BrewdogBristol Paradox Isle of Arran

@ilikeotters Dogma Scotch Ale, or Cairngorm Wildcat, a lovely malty caramel ale

@emmaorussell something from Allanwater Brewhouse - Bridge of Allan Brewery! Keep it Scottish :-)

@Kingsbarnsdist check out @standysbrewing!

@howlingcow McEwan’s 90 shilling!!

@indiespiritbath i would recommend @TopOutBrewery‘s dark abbey beer, its a cracker!!

Rose Murray Brown (@RoseMurrayBrown) of the Scotsman recommended a relatively new brewery @edenbrewery near St Andrews which you can read more about here

You might also enjoy this post I wrote on a crazy Burns Night with Brewdog a couple of years ago and find this article on Scottish beer I wrote for the Guardian useful.

Any other Scottish beers you think would hit the spot with haggis?

Image by Marcelo Ikeda Tchelão from Pixabay

5 great pairings for an IPA

Of course it depends what type of IPA or India pale ale you're talking about. A relatively light style will lead you in a different direction from a huge, hoppy double IPA, but these I think would be my top five . . .

1) Curry
Loose term but as a general match for mild-medium hot Indian food I don't think you can beat an IPA. A lighter, more refreshing style though.

2) Beer-can chicken
The spicy rub calls for a bit more ooomph than a straight pale ale. A generously hopped IPA hits the spot

3) Pork belly
And other roast pork joints of course. Brilliant with a slightly richer style like Goose Island

4) Chargrilled steaks
Again, particularly suits the richer, American styles. (So do burgers, of course.)

5) Mature cheddar cheese
Sometimes causes problems for red wines but not for strong hoppy IPAs. (They're great with proper artisan cheese toasties made with sourdough bread too.)

Image by Nina Firsova at shutterstock.com

The best wine pairings for hachis parmentier

Que boire avec hachis parmentier? Or ‘what wine should I drink with hachis parmentier?’ - the French answer to shepherd’s and cottage pie.

I’ve been down in the Languedoc this week and decided to have a crack at one of France’s favourite comfort foods, not least because we’d rashly bought a huge tray of potatoes from a local grower who turned up at the door. The distinguishing feature of hachis parmentier, which makes it irresistible to potato lovers like me, is that it has two layers of mashed potato, one on the bottom as well as one on the top.

The middle would have traditionally been filled with leftover pot-au-feu or chopped roast meat moistened with stock (I used freshly minced beef) so it has less of a gravy-ish taste than a shepherd’s or cottage pie but is still quite meaty and savoury. There’s usually quite a lot of garlic - there was in mine - and parsley.

The French of course would drink French wine - what else? - but any robust, rustic dry red would do. We drank a rather indulgent natural wine called El Niño from Casot de Mailloles in the Roussillon (the 2011 vintage) which was absolutely delicious but I’d be happy to drink a hearty red from almost anywhere in south or south-west France or an inexpensive Bordeaux come to that. You couldn’t go wrong with a Côtes du Rhône Villages, Côtes du Roussillon or Costières de Nîmes, for example.

Sometimes hachis parmentier is made with confit de canard (preserved duck) with which you could also drink the wines I’ve suggested but also a pinot noir or a Beaujolais.

For my suggestions for shepherd’s pie click here.