12 great wine pairings with salmon

Salmon is in many ways the chicken of the fish world - an ingredient you can serve in many different ways and therefore match with a number of different wines.

That said, it’s a rich fish, often served with cream or butter and therefore a natural candidate to pair with a medium-to-full-bodied white wine such as chardonnay.

But nowadays it’s often served raw or grilled which opens to the door to many other pairings including red wine. Read on for my suggestions with different salmon recipes.

12 favourite ways to serve salmon and the wines to pair with them

Raw salmon such as salmon sashimi or tartare

Try a crisp fresh white such as a gruner veltliner or a dry rosé - a surprisingly good match with salmon sashimi as I discovered here.

Salmon ceviche

As much about the zesty marinade as the fish itself. Torrontes from Argentina is a good pairing or - an unusual match but one I found worked well a while back - a Soave from Italy

Cold poached salmon with mayonnaise or a salmon terrine

Chablis is an incredibly reliable pairing for this kind of dish but other crisp dry whites like Pinot Grigio, Albarino, Sancerre or a crisp Chenin Blanc will match well too.

Warm salmon with a hollandaise or beurre blanc sauce

A classic salmon dish that matches well with a good quality oak-aged (but not too oaky) Chardonnay. White burgundy would be lovely. See also this pairing of salmon with leeks and chardonnay

Salmon en croute or fish pies with salmon

Again likely to be rich and creamy so Chardonnay should again hit the spot or try an old vine Chenin Blanc. See also this delicious recipe for salmon in pastry with currants and ginger.

Salmon en Papillote

Salmon en Papillote i.e. salmon fillets baked in parchment paper along with vegetables, herbs, and perhaps a splash of white wine. The steaming effect in the papillote results in richly flavoured dish, best suited to a buttery, oak-aged Chardonnay.

Salmon fishcakes or salmon hash

Chardonnay again (this is getting boring but it is the most reliable wine pairing with salmon!). But a sparkling wine like Cava - or even champagne - can be good too with salmon fishcakes. For more ideas see my post on best wines for fishcakes.

Seared or grilled salmon

Here’s where things get interesting. Because salmon is a meaty fish if you grill or char it you can pair it with a red. Pinot Noir is my favourite match but a Gamay would rub along happily too. If you prefer a white try a dry Pinot Gris.

Blackened or barbecued salmon

If you cook salmon with Cajun- or Creole-style spicing it can handle an even more robust red still. Try a Merlot

Salmon teriyaki or yakitori

A fruity Pinot Noir is also a good wine match with Japanese style dishes such as salmon teriyaki or yakitori. Sake or fino sherry would be a good pairing too.

Tandoori salmon

With Indian spicing I’d be inclined to go for a white such as a dry riesling or pinot gris rather than a red. See this recipe for yoghurt and spice roasted salmon for inspiration. Or read about this surprising fino sherry pairing.

Smoked Salmon

Champagne is the classic wine pairing for smoked salmon but I tend to prefer lighter, crisper whites like Sancerre or Chablis. Learn more in my top 10 drink pairings with smoked salmon.

 

The best pairings for fino and manzanilla sherry

Manzanilla, as you probably know, is a fino sherry made in the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda rather than in the cities of Jerez or Puerto de Santa Maria which gives it its characteristic salty tang.

Like fino it needs to be served chilled and drunk fresh so always buy from a shop or online retailer that has a good turnover of bottles

From a food point of view the two are very similar though I would tend to go more for manzanila with seafood and fino with meat and cheese. What both have in common is that they can handle strong flavours like garlic and chilli and tricky to pair ingredients such as asparagus and artichokes.

Both are obviously very good with Spanish cuisine (especially tapas) but lend themselves well to other dishes such as smoked salmon, fish and chips and sushi. Treat the suggestions below as just that - suggestions - and don’t be afraid to swop them around:

Food matches for manzanilla

All kinds of seafood including:

grilled and fried squid

octopus and octopus salad

mussels, especially with chorizo

anchovies

oysters

raw fish such as sashimi or tartares

fried fish (and chips)

fried soft-shell crab

fish soups

feta cheese (such as this dish of beetroot borani from Morito)

pickled fish such as mackerel en escabeche

grilled fish, especially oily fish like sardines

garlicky prawns or shrimp

smoked salmon

smoked mussels

smoked dried beef

Food pairings for fino

nuts, especially almonds

olives and olive pastes like tapenade

jamon/ham

grilled or preserved artichokes

hard sheeps’ cheeses such as Manchego

chorizo

tortilla

grilled asparagus or leeks with romesco sauce

white asparagus

pimientos de padron

clams cooked with sherry

cider-battered onions (from my good friends Dan and Elly of The Basement supper club

croquetas

tandoori salmon and teriyaki salmon

smoked eel

white gazpacho

sushi, sashimi, tempura and any kind of Japanese food where you would drink sake

Food matches for 'en rama' styles

These are unpasteurised versions of either fino or manzanilla which have a limited shelf-life but a more intense flavour and texture

richer, hot or sauced fish dishes

grilled tuna

black rice with cuttlefish arroz negro

deep-fried sweetbreads

hake with allioli (garlic mayonnaise)

Japanese food generally

 

More food and sherry matches:

• The best food pairings for dry oloroso sherry
• The best food pairings for amontillado and palo cortado sherry
• The best food pairings for sweet oloroso and PX sherry

 

 

Top photograph © delarue - Fotolia.com

The best wine pairings for anchovies

If you're an anchovy lover you'll probably go ahead and eat them whatever wine you're drinking but being both salty and fishy they certainly go with some better than others.

Whether it's a major factor depends how much of an influence they have on a dish: not much in the case of a pizza, far more in the case of anchovies served in oil or with bread and butter which is obviously all about the anchovies. Or a dish like the warm anchovy dip bagna cauda though oddly you can drink a red such as barbera or dolcetto with that. At least the locals do as you can see from this piece by Marc Millon.

It also depends if there’s meat involved. Anchovies are often used to stud roast lamb or as an accompanying sauce for rare steak as with Nigella’s anchovy elixir. I’d still be inclined though to be led by the meat rather than the anchovies though Italian reds like Chianti do seem to be particularly sympathetic to them.

And if cream is involved as it often is, for example in this celeriac and anchovy gratin, try a Chablis or a similarly mineral white burgundy such as a Saint-Aubin.

It also makes a difference whether the anchovies are salted or cured like Spanish boquerones which tend to work with a fruitier white (e.g. verdejo or sauvignon blanc) than their saltier counterparts. Often they’re part of a spread of tapas which makes sherry a good option too.

Wines to pair with salted anchovies

Manzanilla or fino sherry

If you’re a sherry fan this is a match made in heaven. From a well-chilled, freshly opened bottle.

Txakoli

Northern Spain's quirky spritzy white - if you go to San Sebastian this is what to order as you can see from this post I wrote a couple of years ago.

Other ultra-crisp, dry whites such as assyrtiko, Greco di Tufo and albarino (and Portugal’s alvarinho) work well too - the latter particularly with cured anchovies as you can see here

Dry southern French rosé, particularly from Provence

Anchovies are popular along the Mediterranean coast especially in dips like anchoiade and dry rosé is the perfect accompaniment. It’s also a good match for salade niçoise which is generally topped with an anchovy or three though I personally think caesar salad, particularly chicken caesar salad, is better with a light chardonnay (maybe because of the parmesan).

Dry vermouth

We don’t drink vermouth on its own as much as we should or perhaps I’m just speaking for myself. But with its slight herby bitterness it’s a really good pairing for anchovies. Served neat over ice with a slice of lemon.

Victoria Moore also suggests a dirty martini in her Wine Dine Dictionary which I can imagine working really well.

If you feel in the mood to eat some anchovies after reading this try this roasted red pepper and anchovy salad from José Pizarro.

The best wine matches with salt cod

Salt cod, a popular Good Friday dish in parts of the Mediterranean, is cooked many different ways which suggest different wine pairings.

Bear in mind that like other salty foods it will have the effect of making wines taste sweeter than they are so drier wines with good acidity work best. In general I’d go for a crisp white like a picpoul or an albarino but there are occasions when a red or rosé will work just as well.

Brandade de morue

This southern French salt cod purée works well with crisp dry whites such as Picpoul de Pinet, slightly earthier whites like a white Côtes du Rhône or a dry southern French rosé

Salt cod croquetas or fish cakes

As you’d expect, very good with chilled fino sherry and albarino but more surprisingly also with savagnin from the Jura

Fried salt cod with garlic-pepper sauce

An ice-cold vinho verde, according to Portuguese-American food writer David Leite who has a particularly good collection of salt cod recipes on his website Leite's Culinaria. It might also work with a grüner veltliner as did this salt cod tartare

Portuguese style baked salt cod with cream (bacalhau com natas)

Also often paired with vinho verde but I’d go for a young Douro white with a lick of oak or - less conventionally - with a white rioja.

A robust dish such as a salt cod stew with tomatoes and peppers (ciambotta) can actually take a full-bodied red, especially if it includes chorizo. See this pairing with a super Tuscan and this match with a Languedoc cabernet/merlot blend.

For more wine pairing ideas with salt cod check out Catavino

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