Pairings | Fish & shellfish

The best wine and beer pairings for mussels/moules
Just as with every other ingredient the ideal pairing for mussels depends how you cook them, starting with the classic moules marinières.
- Moules marinières is made with a dry white wine such as Muscadet so you might as well drink the same wine with them. Picpoul de Pinet would be equally good or you could try a dry Alsace Riesling
- If you cook them with witbier/bière blanche as they often do in Belgium, again drink the same beer with them. Witbiers like Hoegaarden are cracking with moules.
- Mussels cooked Thai style with coconut, lime and coriander also go well with witbier or try a Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Gris or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
- Mussels topped and baked with garlic and breadcrumbs suit a crisp dry white like a Pinot Grigio or other Italian white but an unoaked Chardonnay or fruity Sauvignon Blanc such as Sauvignon de Touraine will match well too.
- If they’re stuffed with sausagemeat, as they often are in the south of France where they’re known as moules farcies, and served with a rich tomato sauce you’ll find an inexpensive Languedoc red or strong southern French or Spanish rosé will probably be a better match than a white.
- With mussel and saffron - or curry - soup (mouclade), try an oaked white Bergerac or Bordeaux or a Viognier.

The best food pairings with white burgundy
White burgundy includes a multitude of wines from generic bourgogne blanc to the grandeur of a Bâtard-Montrachet or Corton-Charlemagne. But it’s the affordable wines that I’m focussing on in this post. What type of food do they pair with best?
White burgundy - and that includes Chablis - is of course chardonnay but ranges from the lean minerality of Chablis (which I’ve dealt with in a separate post on food and Chablis) to the sumptuous richness of a Meursault.
The two things that will affect your food pairing is whether the wine is oaked and the age of the wine. Oh, and the price. It’s safe to assume, barring some Chablis, that most of the more expensive wines will have received some oak ageing. Oak-aged wines like Meursault can carry richer sauces or deeply savoury dishes like roast chicken - and even turkey. But to sum it up in one word you’re on safe ground with dairy, especially cream and butter.
Anything buttery
Fish cooked in butter (like sole meunière), a buttery roast chicken, buttery sauces like hollandaise or béarnaise, potted shrimps (a British delicacy - small brown shrimps preserved in spiced (generally mace and a touch of cayenne) butter). The richer the dish the fuller-bodied wine it can take.
Creamy and even slightly cheesy sauces
So dishes like chicken pot pie, chicken with a creamy mushroom sauce or fish pie - or a cauliflower cheese (see below). Random discovery - bacon with a parsley sauce is magnificent with Meursault!
Simply cooked fish
Most fish pairs well with white burgundy but salmon - cooked simply rather than, say, given the teriyaki treatment is particularly good. That includes salmon fishcakes
Wine with salmon: 10 ways to serve salmon and the wines to pair with them
Seared scallops
Good - as you can see here - when you have a classy white burgundy such as a Puligny-Montrachet (or cheaper Saint-Aubin) to show off
Top wine pairings with scallops
Crab
Delicate white crabmeat is lovely with a young unoaked or subtly oaked white burgundy. Brown crabmeat, particularly served baked with cheese is better with a richer or more mature one
Which wines would you pair with crab?
Mushrooms
Think button or wild mushrooms such as chanterelles rather than dark, richly flavoured porcini or portobello ones which tend to be better with a red burgundy. White burgundy is great matched with a mushroom risotto (but that’s back to that creamy texture again) or even mushrooms on toast.
Which wines pair best with mushrooms?
Cauliflower purée or soup
Cooked cauliflower with a degree of caramelisation really shows off a good white burgundy. So it’s perfect for a dish that includes cauliflower purée, a cauliflower soup or on-trend cauliflower steaks.
The best wine pairings for cauliflower
Braised fennel
The ideal side to enhance the match with a good piece of fish. Fennel purée does the trick too
Chalky cheeses
Like Caerphilly and Chaource. White burgundy can be a great pairing with cheese provided it’s not too strong.
For more food pairing ideas see

4 good wines to pair with fish pie
Whether it's topped with mashed potato or pastry fish pie is a relatively straightforward dish to pair with wine but some styles work better than others.
In general smooth dry white wines work best. I would emphasise dry though - I personally don’t want peach, pineapple or tropical fruit flavours with my fish - not with this traditional dish, at least.
Here are some examples:
* Unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay - Chablis being the classic example. A very sound, crowd-pleasing pairing. With a richer, more luxurious pie containing salmon, scallops or added cream or with a pie with a pastry lid you could go for a slightly richer style of white burgundy or other cool climate Chardonnay but don’t overdo the oak
* Chenin Blanc - works much in the same way as Chardonnay. Again a more minerally style works better than a fruity one in my opinion
* Blanc de Blancs champagne or sparkling Chardonnay - same reasoning - with a few bubbles. I’d suggest a non-vintage wine rather than a vintage one. Keep it fresh.
* Soave, Gavi and other smooth dry Italian whites - but not Pinot Grigio which is a bit lightweight for a creamy sauce and mash
Photo ©freeskyline at shutterstock.com

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
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
Download the e-book
If you love sherry but haven't got beyond sipping it with a few nuts and olives, then download my e-book, 101 great ways to enjoy sherry, packed full of pairings, recipes, cocktails, and more. Click here to download.
Top photograph © delarue - Fotolia.com

15 Easter wine pairings to learn by heart
If you're wondering what wines you should buy for Easter weekend here's quick guide to what I think are the best Easter wine pairings.
As with my previous ‘learn by heart’ posts it's a simple way to remember great food and wine matches at a busy time of year. There are of course other possibilities to which the links will guide you.
Colomba Pasquale and extra dry prosecco
Colomba Pasquale is the traditional Italian Easter cake and ‘extra dry’ prosecco perversely a slightly sweeter style that is perfect with sweeter things.
You can drink so many red wines with lamb (Chianti and Cabernet being two other favourites) but rioja is such a crowd-pleaser. I’d go for a reserva myself.
Roast chicken (or turkey) and pinot noir
Hey, it’s spring (or supposed to be) so lighten up with a brighter, fruitier red. Pinot is perfect
Baked or roast ham or gammon could also take a pinot but I’m rooting for a good Beaujolais like a Morgon
And yes, here’s pinot noir again! But you can’t find a better pairing with duck. Especially with peas.
Roast kid and Chianti
Kid would be a traditional Mediterranean choice for the Easter feast so I’d be inclined to go for an Italian, Greek or Portuguese red. Chianti is the easy-to-memorise option.
Depends how you cook it but salmon pretty well always works with chardonnay. Especially en croute or in a creamy sauce. (If it’s smoked salmon try sauvignon blanc.)
Maybe you’re planning a fish pie for Good Friday? Again chardonnay is a reliable match - I’d go for a Chablis.
Asparagus and Sancerre
There are major arguments over which wine suits asparagus best but Sancerre (or Pouilly Fumé) does it for me. Especially if goats cheese is involved. Other optionshere
Scrambled eggs and champagne (or cheaper fizz)
What else are you going to drink for Easter brunch? Seriously - eggs and bubbles is the way to go. (It works with eggs benedict too)
Torta pasquale (Italian spinach and ricotta pie) and Soave
Or any other smooth dry Italian white come to that. Like Gavi. Here's a lovely recipe from Gennaro Contaldo or, following the recommendation below, from Rachel Roddy. A great option for vegetarians.
Simnel cake and orange pekoe tea
Perfect combination!
Hot cross buns and marsala
I owe this one to the Italian wine buyer at M & S Jeneve Williams. (They have a really well-priced half bottle of marsala you should try which is no doubt why they came up with the suggestion!). Nice recipe here too.
Easter eggs and Brachetto d’Aqui
If you’re scoffing the remains of the kids’ Easter eggs this sweet, gently sparkling Italian red is hard to beat. But also hard to find, unfortunately. If you’re stumped try a rosato frizzante (pink prosecco by another name though they’re not allowed to call it that)
Lemon tart and late harvest riesling
Lemon tart can be tricky with wine - the more intensely lemony the tougher it is. The trick if you want to serve a dessert wine with it? Add cream either to the tart or a good splodge over the top. Late harvest riesling has the acidity to cope
You may also find these posts useful:
What sort of food to pair with prosecco
20 food and wine pairings to learn by heart
The best wine matches with salt cod (traditional Good Friday fare in Mediterranean countries such as Spain and Portugal.)
Photo by Elena Veselova at shutterstock.com
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