The best kind of wine to pair with gnocchi

As with pasta the best wine to pair with gnocchi is more about the sauce rather than the gnocchi itself. You want a different wine if you’re serving it with a creamy sauce than if you’re serving it with a simple tomato one.

Although gnocchi - which is basically an Italian dumpling - typically has a denser texture than pasta you can pair it with similar wines but to save you having to click through to multiple other posts here are the best matches I’ve found.

As an Italian dish Italian wines would be my first go-to but obviously feel free to experiment

Wine with gnocchi

Gnocchi with tomato sauce
Crisp Italian white wines like pinot grigio and pecorino pair really well with gnocchi with a fresh or lightly cooked tomato sauce. If the sauce is more intense I’d choose a light Italian red like a Chianti or even a Barbera d’Asti.

Gnocchi with a creamy sauce
Gnocchi is often served with a creamy sauce, frequently with gorgonzola though the blue cheese element is generally not that dominant. I’d pick a slightly richer white with this such as a Soave or a good Valpolicella - even a ripasso if you like a touch of sweetness.

Gnocchi with brown butter and sage
Chardonnay always pairs well with butter-based sauces so that’s a safe bet but you could try other rich whites such as an old-vine chenin blanc or a grenache gris.

Gnocchi (or gnudi) with spinach and ricotta
Back to a more delicate style of white - I’d pick something like a Gavi di Gavi or, looking outside Italy, a glass of Chablis

Baked Gnocchi
Once you bake gnocchi, particularly if it includes a meat ragu it becomes a richer dish so again I’d be inclined to go for a Barbera d’Asti or a southern Italian red like a nero d’avola.

Gnocchi alla Romana is more like polenta so it depends what else you’re serving with it. Match that rather than the gnocchi in this case.

If you’re a gnocchi fan there are some particularly delicious recipes on the Food & Wine website.

What wine to pair with curry - my top 5 picks

If you’re wondering what wine goes with curry, you’re not alone. There are probably more opinions about the matter than there are types of curry. The word ‘curry’, of course, can encompass a whole range of dishes from a mild, creamy korma to a spicy vindaloo so you need to focus on what kind you’re dealing with. In this guide to wine with curry you’ll learn:

My 5 top wines with curry that don’t just hold their own, but shine alongside your favourite curries.

Top wine pairings for popular Indian and Thai curries.

The best red wine for curry.

Wine pairings for 5 popular chicken curries.

3 things to bear in mind when you’re pairing wine and curry

*How hot the curry is. Clearly it’s easier to match wine with a mild curry than a searingly hot one.

*How many other dishes you’re serving and how hot they are. It’s easier, in other words, to think about a wine that will go with the whole meal rather than one element of it

*and what type of curry you’re talking about - Thai and Malay curries, for example are different from Indian curries with their warmer spices. And home-made curries tend to be hotter and pokier than shop-bought ones or ones made from a bought curry sauce.

Pairing wine with curry is all about offsetting the heat

What you need with curry - and this is why cold lager and lassi work so well - is a refreshing contrast to the heat of the food. A touch of sweetness helps, particularly with hotter curries as does a fresh, palate-cleansing acidity.

What doesn’t work so well  - in my opinion at least - is tannin and high alcohol which can emphasise and unbalance the spice in a curry. So although ripe fruity reds can work - especially with meaty curries like rogan josh - you don’t really want a 15% oaky monster.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that some Indian restaurants don’t have brilliant wine lists so it’s a question of what will pair best rather than what’s ideal. Here are 5 good all-rounders that I think do the job.

5 wines that almost always work with a curry

A fruity rosé

Fruity rosés have consistently come out best in the tastings I’ve done for the What Food, What Wine? competition in the past. Think Spain, Portugal or South America rather than Provence. See for example this Andhra Curry-leaf chicken that would pair well with a dry-ish Portuguese or Chilean rosé.

Off-dry riesling

Off-dry riesling generally work with chicken, fish and vegetable curries, if not with very meaty ones or ones with a powerful tomato sauce. German, Austrian, Australian and New Zealand rieslings would all do the trick.

Pinot gris

This speciality of Alsace - also found in New Zealand and Oregon - has a particular affinity with Thai green curries but pairs well with mild to medium-hot Indian curries too

Other aromatic whites

Such as fragrant Hungarian whites, dry Muscat, Sylvaner/Silvaner and Torrontes from Argentina

Chardonnay

Yes, chardonnay! Particularly fruity styles or blends with grapes such as semillon, chenin and colombard. Good with mild, creamy or buttery curries, especially with chicken. (Viognier is good with this sort of curry too.)

Incidentally you may find Gewurztraminer an odd omission from my top 5 as it’s often paired with curry but it can easily overpower milder curries. Great with a spicy duck curry though

Does red wine go with curry?

Not always but it can. I’ll probably go for a juicy, fruity but not too oaky Shiraz or a Chilean Carmenère (similar to a Merlot which would also work well). Pinotage is surprisingly good match with hotter curries and rioja crianza or reserva for rogan josh.

Wine pairings for five popular chicken curries

Chicken is one of the most popular types of curry but think about the sauce and level of heat when you’re choosing your wine

Chicken korma
A mild creamy curry that goes particularly well with viognier. Chardonnay is good too.

Chicken katsu curry
Try an aromatic white wine like an off-dry riesling or a feteasca regala from Romania, a great pairing I discovered recently  

Chicken tikka masala
A strong fruity Portuguese rosé works particularly well with this curry

Chicken Jalfrezi
Slightly hotter with a spicy tomato sauce. You could try a light red wine like a grenache with this one

Thai chicken curry
Goes well with Australian riesling, New Zealand sauvignon blanc, pinot gris or a fruity rosé. (That applies to a Thai prawn curry too as you can see from this post)

See also Six drinks you might not have thought of pairing with Indian food

Top image © I Wei Huang at shutterstock.com

The best wine and beer pairings for pizza (updated)

Should you drink wine or beer with pizza? No rights or wrongs, obviously but here are a few thoughts which might encourage you to experiment.

Italians themselves more commonly drink beer than wine, usually a light lager like Peroni but I personally like something with a bit more flavour - a Czech-style lager for example or, with spicy pepperoni toppings, a Viennese-style lager like Brooklyn.

Cider works really well with pizza too.

What about Chianti?

Inexpensive Italian reds are also ideal being moderate in alcohol and with the fresh acidity to cut through gooey cheese and tomato toppings.

I personally enjoy Chianti with pizza but you could equally well drink something like a Barbera, a Valpolicella or a Rosso di Montalcino or a simple Sicilian red*.

Italian grape varieties such as Sangiovese and Dolcetto made elsewhere in the world also work well but you might want to chill them lightly to offset the extra ripeness and sweetness.

Other good pairings would be a fresh-tasting, medium bodied red like a Merlot, a Syrah, an inexpensive Zinfandel or a young Rioja.

Can you drink white wine with pizza?

There are also times when I think white wine works better with pizza than a red. Examples include goats’ cheese and spinach pizza, pizzas topped with prawns or other seafood like this pizza ‘claminara’ and pizza bianco (without tomato).

Again Italian wines seem to hit the spot perfectly, even the ubiquitous Pinot Grigio, though other crisp dry Italian whites would be equally good. 

If the pizza is topped with truffles you could even serve a good white burgundy as I found with this black truffle and fontina pizza which went brilliantly with a premier cru Puligny Montrachet. 

And with pizza topped with with fresh ingredients such as parma ham and rocket? Again try a dry Italian white like Gavi or a well-chilled glass of prosecco! Which brings me to ....

What about sparkling wine?

Absolutely. I really enjoy a pet nat (pétillant naturel), a gently fizzy natural sparkling wine with pizza. See this pairing with a Westwell pet nat rosé at a pizza truck pop up at their winery. It’s really refreshing in the way that beer is.

I’ve also enjoyed a pizza topped with gorgonzola, treviso and honey with an Alta Langa spumante and an aubergine-topped one with Franciacorta 

Light chilled red Lambrusco is a terrific pairing too. 

Top image © Foxys Forest Manufacture at shutterstock.com

A quick guide to wine pairings with a Sunday roast

For many of us Sunday roasts aren’t a weekly occurrence any more but that makes them even more of a treat - worthy of a good bottle of wine. But which should it be?

I’m assuming it’s served with the traditional British accompaniments, by the way - the sort of Sunday lunch you get in a pub.

The good news is that roasts are very forgiving so almost any red you enjoy tends to rub along. A couple of things to bear in mind if you want to raise the game is what kind of sauce or gravy you’re serving with the meat and the type of vegetables.

The more full-flavoured the accompaniments the riper and more full-bodied the wine needs to be (so think reds from the southern hemisphere and California rather than more traditional northerly parts of Europe).

Yorkshire pudding and roasties? They don’t make a huge difference winewise but what would a Sunday roast be without them?

Wine with roast beef

These days beef is generally served rare which calls for a red wine with some structure and tannin. My own choice would be a good red Bordeaux or similar Bordeaux blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. Or cabernet or merlot on their own. Malbec and shiraz are always good with beef too

For more suggestions see Which Wine (or beer) to serve with roast beef

Wine with roast lamb

Depends a bit on the cut and what time of year you’re eating it (spring lamb is particularly delicious with pinot noir) but in general I’d go for a Rioja or Ribera del Duero or, again, a red Bordeaux or cabernet sauvignon. I like a good Chianti with roast lamb too.

For other ideas check out my top wine pairings for lamb

Wine with roast pork

I actually like cider with roast pork but wine-wise you can go white or red. Whites that work particularly well include chenin blanc and viognier while Rhône reds like Côtes du Rhône and similar grenache, syrah, mourvedre blends from the Languedoc and elsewhere in the world are a good red wine choice. Also, if you like Beaujolais, that’s great with pork!

See also six of the best pairings with roast pork

Wine with roast chicken

Again you can go white or red with roast chicken but bear in mind it’s a lighter meat so needs a less full-bodied, high alcohol wine. For me red burgundy or other pinot noir would be the ideal red wine choice while I’d go for a subtly oaked chardonnay if I was drinking white. Viognier is good with chicken too.

Try some of these other great matches for roast chicken

And not your average Sunday roast but if you’re looking for wines to serve with roast turkey you’ll find some suggestions here https://www.matchingfoodandwine.com/news/pairings/top-wines-to-drink-with-turkey/

Wine with a vegetarian Sunday roast

Often served with similar types of veggies and gravy to a meaty roast so many of the above suggestions will work equally well. Good all-rounders in my book are fruity pinot noirs (especially with mushrooms), Côtes du Rhône and Rioja. Both Merlot and malbec are pretty versatile too.

Here are my suggestions for the best wine pairings with a nut roast

Top picture by Magdanatka, roast chicken and vegetables by MShev, both at shutterstock.com