Pairings | Canapés

The best food pairings for rosé

Posted by Fiona Beckett on April 7 2025 at 12:25

Rosé was once considered a summer wine but increasingly more people are drinking it year round with almost every type of food and on any and every occasion. But what food goes with rosé?

As with white or red wine, the best pairings depends on the style of rosé you’re drinking and whether they’re dry, sweet or sparkling.

In this guide, I’ll take you through food pairings for eight distinct styles of rosé:

Crisp Dry Rosés e.g. Provençal rosé
Fruity Rosés, e.g. Pinot noir rosé
Medium Dry Rosés, e.g. White zinfandel and White grenache
Fuller-Bodied Dry Rosés, e.g. Spanish rosados from Rioja and Navarra
Elegant, Fruity Rosés, e.g. Merlot-based Bordeaux rosé, high-end Provençal rosés like Bandol and Palette
Full-Bodied Fruity Rosés, e.g. Syrah, Malbec, Cabernet rosés from Argentina, Australia and Chile
Inexpensive sparkling Rosé e.g. prosecco, cava and crémant
Rosé Champagne and champagne-style sparkling wines

For each style, I’ll share my top food pairings that bring out the best in both the wine and the dish. Whether you’re planning a casual brunch, a seafood feast, or even a spicy barbecue, there’s a rosé and a match for every occasion.

The best food pairings for 8 different styles of rosé

1) Crisp dry rosés - e.g. Most Provençal rosés fall into this category as does Italian Bardolino Chiaretto
The nearest equivalent to this style of rosé are crisp dry white wines such as Pinot Grigio and they go with similar food. Food pairings for most Provencal rosé and similar dry rosés include light salads, light pasta and rice dishes, raw or lightly cooked shellfish like oysters, grilled fish and goats’ cheeses. See also The Best Food Pairings for Provence Rose

prawn ouzo orzo and courgette

Greek rosés are often made in this style too. See this pairing with prawns with ouzo, orzo and courgette. You can find the recipe from Marianna Leivaditaki’s book Aegean here. Photo by Elena Heatherwick

2) Fruity rosés e.g. pinot noir rosés and off-dry Loire and traditional Portuguese rosés with a touch of sweetness such as Rosé d’Anjou and Mateus Rosé
Pinot noir rosés are sweeter than Provence rosé but still dry. They a good match with salads and mildly spiced chicken or fish dishes. English rosés which are often made from pinot noir pair surprisingly well with a Thai green curry as in this pairing

Thai green curry with shrimp by ©iblinova at Adobe Stock

Pairings for off-dry Loire and Portuguese rosés depend on your tolerance for sweetness. If you like a sweeter rosé drink them with similar food to the Provence rosés above. If you don’t try them with Indian food like tandoori chicken or a mild chicken curry.

3) Medium dry rosés - e.g. white Zinfandel or white grenache
The category that used to be called blush. Again, if this is the style you like you’ll want to drink it with all the foods mentioned in 1) above. But those who prefer this style of rosé may also find it useful with spicy food and as a dessert wine (it’s spot on with unsweetened strawberries and not oversweet strawberry tarts)

See this match of the week of strawberries and white zinfandel.

Salade Nicoise

4) Fuller-bodied dry rosés e.g. Southern French (Rhône and Languedoc) and Spanish rosés from Rioja and Navarra
A hugely versatile style that will stand up to big flavours such as anchovy, olives, garlic, saffron and pimenton. So they would be the ideal style to drink with tapenade or a salade Niçoise, a paella or grilled chicken, fish or lamb with herbs. A good wine for barbecues if you don’t like your rosés as strong and sweet as 6) below. Also enjoyable with rustic pâtés and terrines, other charcuterie, ham and sheep cheese.

These rosés are also a good wine pairing for brie, camembert and other white-rinded cheeses so long as you don’t let them get too ripe and runny. Fresh figs make a good accompaniment.

rosé with camembert and figs by Nati at pexels.com

5) Elegant, fruity rosés - e.g. Merlot-based Bordeaux rosé, More expensive Provençal rosés such as Bandol and Palette
These are classy rosés, designed to be drunk with food. Drink them with quality seafood such as lobster and langoustines, seared salmon and tuna, a duck salad or with delicately cooked rare lamb.

6) Full-bodied fruity rosés - e.g. Syrah, malbec and cabernet rosé from Argentina, Australia and Chile
Nearer a full-bodied red than a rosé - big, bold and bursting with fruit. Often quite high in alcohol but it tends not to show because they’re not tannic and served chilled which makes them ideal for a barbecue and for drinking with spicy food such as curries. Also good with ripe peaches. Very much the modern rosé for contemporary food.

See this rosé pairing for spaghetti with courgettes, basil and smoked almonds. Although the wine is from Bordeaux it’s made in a more full-bodied style.

7) Sparkling rosé e.g. Cava, Australian, South African and New Zealand sparkling rosé
Sparkling rosé covers a range of styles from dry to medium dry. Lighter, drier ones make ideal party drinking (Cava rosado is good wine pairing with tapas). Sweeter styles of sparkling rosé like rosé prosecco would be a good wine pairing at a tea party with macarons, cakes and fruit tarts.

Grilled lobster platter by Olga Lyubkin at Fotolia.com

8) Rosé Champagne - Again there’s a variation in style between lighter and more full-bodied champagnes or sparkling wines. The best food pairings for lighter styles of rosé champagne include canapés and the type of foods mentioned in (1) above. More substantial vintage brut rosé Champagne can take on grilled lobster and grilled or roast rare lamb or game like pigeon, pheasant or grouse.

Photo credits: Top image by Foxys Forest Manufacture at shutterstock.com. Salad nicoise by Tatiana Brainina at shutterstock.com. Brie and figs by Nati at pexels.com, Lobster by Olga Lyubkin at Fotolia.com. Thai green curry by iblinova at Adobe Stock

What wine to pair with canapés and other party food

Posted by Fiona Beckett on December 20 2023 at 07:54

You might think wine pairing is a strange subject for a post on canapés as they are by their very nature varied and no-one - even a 3 Michelin-starred restaurant - pairs a different wine with each one.

But there are different styles of canapés these days - hot and cold which suit different styles of wine.

When I say canapés I basically mean finger food. Small bites you pick up off a tray or platter as opposed to more substantial party food or the appetizers you might offer at a sit-down meal.

The main thing to bear in mind is to go for a crowd-pleasing wine that will appeal to the maximum number of your guests. One that is not too high in alcohol or heavily oaked. Party rooms tend to be hot so you want your wines to be refreshing

What wine to pair with cold canapés

Mini canapés with smoked salmon by Mateusz Gzik at shutterstock.com

It’s hard to go wrong with sparkling wine with classic canapés such as smoked salmon, crostini or mini quiches. For some that’s likely to be prosecco but many people these days prefer a drier sparkling wine such as a crémant or a Cava. If you’re going to splash out on champagne make it a non-vintage one that is designed to be drunk as an aperitif rather than a vintage. A blanc de blancs style (generally 100% chardonnay) works particularly well as does a sparkling rosé.

You could also serve a crisp white wine like a Picpoul de Pinet or a pinot grigio or - particularly though not exclusively in the summer - a Provençal or other southern French rosé.

What wine goes well with hot canapés

Fried food such as croquetas or arancini also go well with fizz

With more substantial meaty snacks like hot sausages, sausage rolls or bao buns you might want to lay on a smooth, medium-bodied red like a merlot though frankly it’s unlikely you’re going to switch in the middle of a party

Alcohol-free drinks with canapés

There are alcohol-free sparkling wines but with one or two exceptions I’m not a fan. But you can find very drinkable sparkling kombuchas like LA Kombucha and Saicho sparkling tea which make a better alternative.

Wines to go with other party food

Wine pairings for a cold buffet

Party buffet by Pia Kamp at unsplash.com

Buffets tend to include everything and anything. Quiches, frittatas, salads, dips, cold meats and cheeses .... They're more like a meal than a series of snacks so tend to work better with still wines than bubbles. Smooth dry relatively neutral white wines like Italian whites, chenin blanc and inexpensive white burgundy tend to work well as does dry rosé and light reds such gamay and pinot noir. This South African white and red I recently recommended from Majestic would work really well.

Wines that go with hot party food

Hot party food is not that different from regular meals just made in larger quantities. It could be a casserole, a chilli or a curry (You’ll find pairings to all of those if you click on the links.

If you’re hosting a brunch though you might want to go back to fizz: crémant or cava again I suggest though prosecco works better if you’re making cocktails like bucks fizz (sparkling wine and orange juice) Check out this post on pairing wine and eggs

Bearing in mind this general advice you might want to theme your drinks if your food is a certain style. So, for example, if you were having a pizza party you might lay on Italian beers like Peroni or Moretti, whites and Sicilian reds, if you're serving dim sum or other Asian-style snacks you might want to serve a dry riesling or if with tapas you could pour a fino or manzanilla sherry as one of the drinks. (I would offer a choice as dry sherry is not for everyone. Cava or a dry white wine like Rueda or an unoaked white rioja would be a good alternative)

See this post on six of the best Spanish wines to pair with tapas

Sweet canapés and party desserts

Often a drinks party will end up with some sweet canapés. To be honest most people will carry on with whatever’s in their glass but in an ideal world you might offer a slightly sweeter sparkling wine like prosecco extra dry (which oddly means a sweeter style than brut. If you're offering a selection of puddings you could choose a light dessert wine like a Monbazillac but it's a tall order to pair a plate that includes a pavlova and chocolate cake. Again prosecco should take you through.

Top image: party food by Fusionstudio at shutterstock.com

Tags: noshow:highlight prosecco champagne cava crémant drink:sparkling wine finger food party food canapés
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What sort of food to pair with prosecco?

Posted by Fiona Beckett on August 13 2021 at 07:14

Prosecco is so often drunk on its own that you may not have given much thought to the kind of food you can pair with it but if I had to sum it up in two words it would be ‘party food’

In fact when I went to the region a couple of years ago for the annual prosecco festival Vino in Villa we ate almost nothing but - it was all about canapés and finger food - Italian style, of course.

The key thing to bear in mind is that prosecco is generally sweeter than other sparkling wines especially (confusingly) the ‘extra dry’ style which is best matched with pastries, biscuits, cakes and other sweet things - in other words it’s the perfect wine for a tea party ....

Here are my favourite prosecco pairings:

Drier ‘brut’ styles of prosecco

Parma and other air-dried ham

simple cocktail-sized sandwiches

foccacia

mini quiches and frittata

mild cheeses such as fontina

white asparagus

sushi

seafood and vegetable-based dim sum especially prawn toasts and seafood dumplings

Sweeter (extra dry) proseccos

Panettone and Easter Colomba