8 great wine (and other) matches for roast chicken

Both red and white wine go with roast chicken so the key thing to focus on when picking a wine pairing is what flavourings you put with it and the sides you serve. These elements can vary widely depending on where you are in the world, but there’s no doubt that roast chicken has global appeal: 

Here in the UK chicken is arguably everyone’s favourite “Sunday roast”, typically served with gravy and loads of vegetables (much like in the U.S.). In France, poulet rôti is a classic weekend meal, often bought off a rotisseries and typically served with a green salad and potatoes which have soaked up the chicken fat.

This guide offers my top eight wine and other drink pairings for different ways of serving roast chicken. For tips on other chicken dishes you might find this post useful.

How to choose the best wine for roast chicken

In general, if you’re cooking it simply with its own roasting juices I’d incline towards a white or light red. Roast it British-style with gravy and loads of vegetables and I’d go for a more substantial red such as a Côtes-du Rhône - though not a full-bodied one like a Grenache or a Shiraz unless you’re dealing with some sweetness and spice in the seasoning - as with this honey-roast chicken recipe. Here are more drink pairings that work: 

White burgundy or other good quality oaked chardonnay

A blissful match with a simply roast chicken without much done to it - or accompanied by mushrooms or truffles as Lucy Bridgers reports here. Also a good choice if you’re seasoning it with tarragon or serving it with a creamy sauce.

Viognier

This rich white is a good choice when you have a slightly spicy stuffing or one with fruit like apricots in it.

Red burgundy or other good quality pinot noir

Again, a good choice for a simply roast chicken served with its own juices or rubbed with Chinese five spice.

Beaujolais-Villages

If you’re serving the chicken at room temperature with a salad or seasoning it with lemon a good Beaujolais Villages or cru Beaujolais like a Brouilly is a good choice for spring or summer drinking. As of course is a rosé.

Côtes-du-Rhône Villages

The generous sweetness of a grenache-based Côtes-du-Rhône Villages is perfect If you’re making a more traditional, meaty gravy or are serving more strongly flavoured vegetables. Look out for specific villages such as Cairanne and Vacqueyras

Cider

Chicken and cider is a marriage made in heaven and that particularly applies to roast chicken. Use cider in the gravy too.

Golden or blonde ales

The beer world’s equivalent of Chardonnay: smooth, slightly sweet and just delicious with chicken. Roast chicken is also one of the staples of the Oktoberfest where they serve it with a light Helles lager but you could also enjoy it with a more full-bodied one like Budweiser Budvar or Brooklyn.

Champagne

It might seem extravagant but if you’re in the mood to splash out, a full bodied champagne like Bollinger or Louis Roederer is terrific with a roast chook - it’s the umami taste of the chicken skin that does it!

See also What wine goes best with chicken - red or white?

Image ©FomaA at Adobe Stock

The best wine matches for tomatoes

So many dishes include tomatoes but how often do they dictate a wine pairing?

More than you’d think, in fact they’re quite often regarded as a problem. 

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

To reduce it to its simplest fresh tomatoes generally work better with white wines and rosés while cooked tomato dishes pair better with a red wine

Pairings for fresh tomatoes

Tomato salads, fresh tomato sauces and salsas and soups like gazpacho

These 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.

Pairings for cooked tomatoes

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 food to pair with Chardonnay

If you’re looking for food pairings for chardonnay, you’re in luck! Whatever the style it’s a fantastic food wine. Which makes it all the more remarkable that many people still say they don’t like chardonnay. 

I always think saying you’re bored with chardonnay is a bit like saying you’re bored with chicken. There are so many different styles including some of the world’s greatest white wines.

The key to pairing chardonnay is appreciating that it’s not just one wine - it depends where it’s made, whether or not it’s oaked and how mature it is when you drink it.

I’m sharing my favourite food pairings for every style of Chardonnay - whether you’re sipping a steely Chablis, a rich Californian chardonnay, or a bottle you’ve had sitting in your wine rack for a while.

Top food pairings for four different styles of chardonnay

Young, unoaked, cool climate chardonnay


Such as: The classic and most austere example of this is Chablis but other young white burgundies would fall into this category.

Good matches:

*They’re perfect with light and delicate food such as raw and lightly cooked shellfish like crab and prawns and steamed or grilled fish. 

*If you want to serve chardonnay with appetizers think fish pâtés, fish, chicken or vegetable terrines.

*This style also goes well with pasta or risotto with spring vegetables and creamy vegetable soups.

*Finer, more intense examples such as Puligny-Montrachet can take on raw fish such as sashimi or delicately spiced fish or salads.

*Chablis is particularly good with oysters.

For more suggestions see this post on pairing food and Chablis

Fruitier, unoaked or lightly oaked chardonnays


Such as: Chardonnays from slightly warmer areas to the above but made in a more contemporary style - smooth, sometimes buttery with melon and peach flavours. Examples would be inexpensive chardonnays from the south of France, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa.

Good matches:

*Slightly richer dishes than those listed above but ones where a degree of freshness in the wine is still welcome.

*Fish pie and fish cakes (especially salmon fish cakes)

*other simple salmon preparations (simply poached or with a buttery sauce)

*chicken, pork or pasta in a creamy sauce (including in vol-au-vents!)

*chicken, ham or cheese-based salads such as caesar salad or chicken salads that include peach, mango or macadamia nuts

*mild curries with buttery sauces (such as chicken makhani)

Buttery, oaked Chardonnay


Such as: barrel-fermented, barrel aged or ‘reserve’ chardonnays, particularly top end Australian, New Zealand and Calfornian Chardonnay and top white burgundy, served within 1-3 years of purchase

Good matches:

*Similar dishes to the above but can take an extra degree of richness. Dishes like eggs benedict for example or even a steak béarnaise.

*Fine rich fish such as turbot, grilled veal chops with mushrooms

*Late summer vegetables such as red peppers, corn, butternut squash and pumpkin (pumpkin ravioli and a rich Chardonnay is very good)

*Cheddar cheese, if you’re looking for a chardonnay and cheese pairing. 

*You can even drink a rich chardonnay with seared foie gras (and indeed many prefer it to Sauternes at the start of a meal)

Mature barrel-fermented Chardonnays


Such as: Wines that are about 3-6 years old. With age Chardonnay acquires a creamy, sometimes nutty taste and creamy texture that calls for a return to finer, more delicate dishes

Good matches:

*Umami-rich (savoury) dishes such as grilled, seared or roast shellfish like lobster and scallops

*simply roast chicken such as the poulet de Bresse above

*guinea fowl

*dishes that include wild mushrooms and slow roast tomatoes

*white truffles

*Hazelnut-crusted chicken or fish

*Sea bass with fennel purée

See also

The Best Food Pairings with White Burgundy

What chardonnay doesn’t pair quite so well with

*Light fresh cheeses such as goat or sheep cheeses (better with sauvignon blanc or an aged red, respectively

*Seared salmon or tuna (better with a light red like pinot noir)

*Tomato-based dishes (better with dry Italian whites or Italian reds)

*Thai flavours (better with Alsace pinot gris or New World sauvignon blanc)

Top image © Philip Wise at shutterstock.com

Sashimi, ceviche and crudo: what wine to pair with raw fish (new post)

Raw fish has become increasingly fashionable over the last few years, not just in Japanese, Peruvian and Mexican restaurants but in many other ones too.

But what type of wine should you pair with dishes like carpaccio, ceviche, crudo, sashimi or a tuna tartare?

First, it depends on the type of fish more than the way it’s cut. Scallops, seabass or prawns for example are going to be lighter and more delicate in flavour than salmon, tuna or mackerel but it’s the dressing or dipping sauce that is most likely to determine the match.

That will mainly depend on the origin of the dish. Italian raw fish dishes tend to be simply dressed while Japanese and other Asian ones can have much more complex nutty flavours.

As a big raw fish fan I’ve given a lot of thought to the subject. Here are the wines I serve at home and look out for on restaurant wine lists together with my favourite pairings for specific dishes

Generally reliable choices

Dry white wines and the keyword is dry, particularly if you’re talking sashimi.

Most white wines are described as dry so let’s be more specific. Young, fresh, unoaked, modest in alcohol, not overly fruity (so not a New Zealand sauvignon blanc I suggest unless there’s a punchy dressing). High in acidity. Pure and simple, rather than complex.

Good examples are albarino and alvarinho (sometimes labelled as Vinho Verde), Muscadet, Picpoul de Pinet, Petit Chablis, a good pinot grigio from Trentino or the Alto Adige, carricante from Etna in Sicily, grüner veltliner from Austria and koshu from Japan.

Ultra dry Provence, Corsican or Languedoc rosé - so pale it’s almost a white - also works well

as, of course, does chilled sake

Italian style crudo or carpaccio dressed with olive oil and lemon

As you can see from this post sauvignon blanc and similarly citrussy whites pair well thanks to the olive oil rather than the citrus which can cancel out the lemon in the wine. Zesty Italian whites such as Greco di Tufo, passerina and pecorino are also good options as would be Greece’s assyrtiko and Crete’s Vidiano.

As suggested above you could also could try a pale Provence or Corsican rosé

An orange dressing on the other hand can take a more aromatic wine as this pairing of sea bream carpaccio with Hugel Gentil, a blend of riesling Riesling, Muscat, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer demonstrates. Or dry riesling on its own. See also ceviche below.

Japanese-style raw fish

At its simplest this might just involve soy sauce and wasabi but could well be a more complex dressing or dip involving mirin, miso or sesame oil. Either way there’s an element of umami that indicates that sake - chilled rather than warm - would be a particularly good pairing.

If you’ve got a selection of sashimi in front of you with high quality fish, a daiginjo or junmai daiginjo sake would be a great choice but the dry white wines I’ve outlined above would also work. Or try a brut nature champagne I.e. one without any ‘dosage’ or added sugar.

More full-flavoured dressings and marinades could take a richer white like a white grenache or a fuller style of grüner veltliner as in this pairing.

There are also Japanese flavours - yuzu and sesame - in this dish that went particularly well with a sauvignon-semillon blend.

See also what to drink with sushi and

8 foods you might be surprised to find pair brilliantly with sake 

Ceviche and Tiradito

Ceviche - and tiradito - which is basically a variation on ceviche have brighter zestier flavours than Italian or Japanese preparations. Often involving tropical fruits or fruit juices like mango along with chilli and fresh coriander.

As I discovered on a trip to Chile a few years back they tend to pair with with sauvignon blanc, particularly Chilean sauvignon which has a distinctively citrussy flavour of its own.

Or, if you’re averse to sauvignon, try a crisp vinho verde which paired really well with this trout dish which was cured in verdita, a Mexican drink  made from lime and pineapple juice, jalapeno pepper, coriander and mint.

Citrus - in this case lime which is a common ingredient in ceviche dressings - can also steer you towards Australian Riesling as it did with the salmon dish above or, channelling the South American vibe, Argentina’s Torrontes as in this scallop ceviche I also succesfully paired it with Friulano, an aromatic white wine from Italy, earlier this year. 

If the ceviche includes fruit like mango you could even go for a fruity rosé like this one.

Finally, Chile’s Pisco sour is brilliant with ceviche - the only downside being it’s nigh on impossible to get the local limon de Pica, which are are actually rather more like small lemons than limes, in the UK. However I suggest a way round it here.

Poke

Poke - which originates from Hawaii - is historically based on raw fish but the poke bowls that have taken off more recently include vegetables and other ingredients that make them more like a raw fish salad than a hero raw fish dish. As a result you can go for a brighter fruitier wine than with raw fish on its own. A New Zealand sauvignon blanc, say, or a fruity rosé.

See What wine (and other drinks) to pair with poké 

Does red wine go with raw fish?

Generally I’d say white is preferable but if you’re not a white wine drinker an inexpensive, unoaked young red burgundy, red Sancerre or other light pinot noir would work, especially with tuna. Avoid too much oak or too high a level of alcohol though.

What to drink with oysters

Oysters really come into a category of their own so I suggest you check out the link below for a full range of options. But the ultra dry whites I recommend at the top of this post all work well. And Guinness of course!

The best wine (and other) pairings with oysters

Top photo by norikko at shutterstock.com