The best food and wine pairings for Valentine’s Day

If you’re planning a special meal for Valentine’s Day you may be wondering which wine to pair with your menu. I’ve picked some favourite Valentine’s Day foods and suggested some matches that should work well with them.

Asparagus

If served on its own with melted butter or a hollandaise sauce a subtle, creamy white burgundy or chardonnay would be the most seductive choice. If dressed with a vinaigrette or in a salad with seafood I’d go for a crisper white like a Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé or other top quality sauvignon blanc.

Camembert

Camembert baked in its box makes a sexy instant fondue but isn’t the easiest of dishes to pair with wine (even trickier than when it’s served cold). Funnily enough a glass of champagne - or similar style sparkling wine - works surprisingly well or go for a dry white like a Chablis.

What to pair with Camembert

Caviar (or, more likely, a caviar imitation)

Dry champagne. (Vodka is arguably better but not as romantic.)

Chocolate (dark)

There are possibilities with wine (sweet reds like Maury or Quady’s seductive Elysium being good choices - see

www.quadywinery.com) but my own preferred option with dark chocolate is a frozen shot of cherry brandy or other fruit-flavoured spirit or liqueur or a small glass of sloe or damson gin. An orange-flavoured liqueur like Grand Marnier also works well.

Chocolate (white)

An ice-cold raspberry-flavoured wine or liqueur like Southbrook Winery’s Framboise from Canada. Especially if the dessert includes raspberries.

Duck

Pinot Noir. Look to New Zealand and Chile for the best value

Ice cream (vanilla)

Tricky with wine. A toffee or chocolate-flavoured liqueur is your best bet. Very sweet PX sherry can be wonderful poured over it.

Ice cream (chocolate)

Try a coffee-flavoured liqueur like Toussaint or Kahlua.

Lobster

Good white burgundy (or other chardonnay) or vintage champagne.

Wine with lobster: 5 of the best pairings

Oysters

Champagne or Chablis. Not Guinness on Valentine’s Night, I suggest.

Best matches with oysters

Passion fruit

Can be quite sharp so you need a very sweet wine to balance it. A sweet riesling or late harvest semillon or sauvignon blanc will work well. If it’s mixed with a creamy base as in a passion fruit brulée you could drink a sweet (demi-sec) Champagne or other dessert wine. Or a passion fruit flavoured beer. (Yes, such drinks exist! Try Floris from Belgium.)

Prawns/shrimp

If you’re serving a classic prawn cocktail I suggest a dry or off-dry riesling which would also work with an Asian-style stir-fry or salad. A sparkling rosé - including champagne - would be a suitably kitsch all-pink choice.

The best pairings for prawns or shrimp

Smoked salmon

Champagne on this occasion. But see

other possibilities.

Scallops

Made for top white burgundy or other really good chardonnay. Champagne is also spot on if that’s what you’re drinking.

Top wine pairings with scallops

Steak

The best full-bodied red you can afford. Whatever turns your partner on . . .

My 5 top wine and steak pairing tips

Strawberries

If served plain and unadorned, gently sparkling Moscato d’Asti or Asti is lovely or go for the luscious

Fragola liqueur. If they’re served with cream you could serve a classic sweet wine like Sauternes.

My top pairings with strawberries

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What type of wine pairs best with Vietnamese food? (updated)

Wednesday marked not only the start of the Chinese New Year but the Vietnamese New Year celebrations too - known as Tet.

As in China there are certain foods which are traditional to the occasion such as pickled vegetables and candied fruits, none of which are particularly wine-friendly but in general I find Vietnamese food, with its milder heat and fragrant herbal flavours easier to match than Thai.

Given that quite a lot of the dishes are food you’d pick up on the street you might not have a glass of wine conveniently to hand but wine, particularly dry white wine, works surprisingly well. 

Which grape varieties though?

The grape variety I’ve generally found goes best overall with Vietnamese food where several dishes are generally served at the same time is Austrian grüner veltliner, a combination I discovered a good few years ago now at The Slanted Door in San Francisco.

Its own slightly herbal, green pepper character seems to complement the herbal notes in many Vietnamese dishes perfectly.

Other good options are dry riesling - you need slightly less sweetness than for the hot/sweet/sour flavours of Thai food and dry whites such as albarino, muscadet and assyrtiko especially with lighter dishes like summer rolls and Vietnamese chicken salad such as this one from Uyen Luu.

I’d avoid rich chardonnays although young unoaked Chablis would work perfectly well

Sparkling wine would also be an easy drinking option - an occasion when a good prosecco could come into its own but other fizz such as crémant would work too 

Provence - or similar Languedoc - rosé would also go well with the lighter fresher dishes that are typical of the Vietnamese kitchen.

If you fancy a red I’d go for a light cabernet-franc-based Loire red such as a Saumur or Bourgueil, a Beaujolais Villages or other gamay or a pinot noir

Soft drinks or cocktails with an element of sharpness or sourness also hit the spot as you can see from this ginger and lemongrass cordial (Bottlegreen does a ready made one in the UK) 

I also remember having a delicious tamarind whisky sour with some Vietnamese fish sauce chicken wings at a restaurant called Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon. Here’s a similar recipe for the cocktail and the wings.

With pho - as with most noodle dishes with broth - I find a light lager a better pairing but again grüner veltliner or dry riesling would work perfectly well. Ditto the famous Vietnamese sandwich banh mi although Uyen Luu also suggests green tea.

Top photo © Nunung Noor Aisyah at shutterstock.com

6 versatile wine pairings for a Chinese New Year feast

Asking which wine is the best match for Chinese food is a bit like looking for the best match for European food - it in no way reflects the diversity of Chinese cuisine.

That said many of us will probably be enjoying a Chinese meal this week - either in a restaurant or from a takeaway and wonder what to drink with it.

For most westerners who don’t share the Chinese reverence for red wine, white wine is a more appealing option with the sweet-sour flavours of many popular Chinese dishes though as with other meals you may want to change wines when you switch from seafood and chicken to red meat (especially beef).

Here are my six top picks:

Sparkling wine - particularly if you’re eating dim sum or other fried dishes. Not necessarily champagne - an Australian sparkling wine with a touch of sweetness, especially a sparkling rosé will do fine.

Riesling - probably the best all-rounder with the majority of dishes as it usually has a touch of sweetness. Alsace, Austria, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Washington State - it truly doesn’t matter too much where it comes from. This off-dry Clare Valley riesling was a great hit with my Chinese New Year feast last year.

Torrontes - I’ve been struck for a while by how good floral Argentinian Torrontes is with spicy food - a less full-on alternative to gewurztraminer which goes brilliantly with some dishes (like duck) but isn’t such a good all-rounder.

Strong dry fruity rosé - such as the new wave of Portuguese rosés and Bordeaux rosé - not the pale delicate Provençal kind. Surprisingly good with Chinese food.

Pinot noir - obviously a particularly good match with crispy duck pancakes but if you choose one with a touch of sweetness such as those from Chile, New Zealand or California, flexible enough to handle other dishes too.

A generous fruity but not too tannic red - which is of course what many Chinese themselves would drink, particularly red Bordeaux. I’d probably go for a shiraz-cabernet or GSM (grenache/syrah/mourvèdre blend) myself but only with meatier dishes, dishes with aubergine or dishes in black bean sauce. A good cru Beaujolais like Morgon would be another option.

For a more extensive list of Chinese food pairings see Pairing Wine with Chinese Cuisine and The Best Pairings for a Chinese Stir-Fry.

And for some more adventurous pairings check out these sommeliers views on Serious Eats.

Image © somegirl - Fotolia.com

The best wine pairings with meatballs (updated)

Meatballs are essentially comfort food so you probably don’t want to drink anything too fancy with them.

That said, wine is generally a great pairing with meatballs, especially a red. 

What will affect the match is both the seasoning of the meatballs and the sauce - if any - they’re served in. Fragrantly spiced middle-eastern meatballs are a different proposition from a plate of spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce where the sauce is as much of an influence as the meat. With their creamy sauce Swedish or other Scandi meatballs call for a slightly different wine too.

Here are some of my favourite pairings:

Spaghetti and meatballs

This much loved Italian-American classic needs no more than a simple carafe of rosso - Sicilian I suggest as in this pairing of spaghetti and meatballs with nerello mascalese. I had a similar combination at the Francis Ford Coppola winery a few years ago and they had exactly the right idea. A young gulpable Chianti would also hit the spot as would a Rosso di Montepulciano or Rosso Conero.

Baked meatballs with cheese

A similar type of recipe to the above just slightly richer so it might need a gutsier red - the sort you’d serve with a lasagne. Try a zinfandel, a southern Italian red like a primitivo or nero d’avola or a barbera.

Middle-eastern meatballs

Here you have spice (usually cumin and coriander), garlic, loads of herbs (coriander, mint and parsley) and yoghurt to contend with. I’d pick a medium-bodied red wine from Greece, the Lebanon or even the Languedoc (see this match ) but a dry rosé would also be delicious. Or even a crisp white . . .

Swedish (or other Scandi) meatballs

More savoury than the other three and generally served with a creamy gravy. Take the cue from the lingonberry jam by which they’re often accompanied. A bright fruity red like a pinot noir would work or - and you may be surprised by this - an inexpensive red Bordeaux or Bergerac.

Albondigas

Spanish meatballs, often served as a tapa. I’d generally serve them with a young or crianza rioja but they’re very good with amontillado sherry too.

Spicy e.g. Korean meatballs

Seasonings like gochujang chilli paste may make meatballs like this challenging for wine - a fruity world rosé is probably the best bet but maybe try this offbeat pairing of a mango, ginger and lime-based gin and tonic I featured a while back 

Image ©Mironov Vladimir at shutterstock.com