Top food pairings with Barbera

Barbera is a versatile red that will happily partner pretty well any meaty dish you throw at it. It is more robust and typically drunk younger than its Piedmontese counterparts Barolo and Barbaresco.

It’s also generally less expensive which makes it a more affordable option for everyday drinking.

There are two DOC’s in its home region of Piedmont - Barbera d’Alba and Barbera d’Asti but I wouldn’t worry too much about the implications of that for food matching. Barberas made elsewhere such as California and Australia are more distinctive with riper fruit and less acidity and capable of handling spicier food.

In Piedmont the locals tend to drink it with the first courses of a meal - particularly pasta dishes - but it works really well with hearty main courses.

TOP MATCHES FOR PIEDMONTESE BARBERA

Grilled and roast pork and wild boar

Inexpensive steaks like hangar steak and onglet

Braised lamb dishes such as lamb shanks

Italian-style stews and braises such as rabbit with olives or braised duck

Italian-style sausages with lentils, or in a pasta sauce (alla salsiccia)

Pizzas with a sausage topping

Pasta with meat and cooked tomato sauces such as bolognese. In Piedmont that would often be the eggy pasta tajarin.

Spaghetti and meatballs

Meatloaf

Mushroom risotto

Meat-stuffed pasta such as ravioli and agnolotti

Fonduta with truffles

‘New world’ Barbera should also work with the above but also spicier stews with chili.

Barbera loves: garlic, tomato and olives

If you found this piece useful check out The Best Food Pairings for Barolo and Barbaresco

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The best food pairings for Grüner Veltliner

Winemakers like to tell you that their wines go with everything but in the case of Grüner Veltliner, Austria’s best known white wine, it’s true.

Short of Sunday roasts and large juicy steaks you can pair it with practically anything.

There are of course different styles but the one you’re most likely to come across is the crisp, fresh young style that typifies most inexpensive Grüners. What makes them distinctive is a herbal note and a distinctive white peppery twist.

In Austria they would be widely drunk with cold meats, salads, light vegetable dishes and fish - think the sort of dishes you would serve with a sauvignon blanc or a riesling. Further afield they’re a great choice in Asian or Asian-fusion restaurants especially with Thai and Vietnamese food

Asparagus

Austrians love asparagus - there are whole asparagus menus in the spring and early summer. It’s mainly white asparagus served either in a salad or warm with hollandaise but you can equally well drink it with the green variety. See also this match with asparagus soup.

Artichokes

Not many wines pair well with artichokes. Young fresh dry Grüner is one of them

Smoked ham, especially cut wafer thin as the Austrians do it

Smoked fish like smoked salmon or trout. Even smoked eel though I think riesling is better

Raw fish such as sushi, sashimi, carpaccio and tartares - especially with Asian seasoning like ginger or wasabi as you can see from this post.

Salads

Especially seafood salads with an Asian twist and salads with apple, kohlrabi or cucumber

Dishes with herbs

Grüner has a herbal edge itself and pairs beautifully with dishes that contain herbs especially dill, tarragon, mint and parsley. So salads as above, or chicken with a herb crust for example.

Light vegetable dishes such as braised fennel a courgette/zucchini gratin or a vegetable-based quiche. (Like an asparagus one, obviously)

Leafy greens especially cabbage, sprouts and kale. Think 'green wine, green vegetables'

Spicy but not over-hot south-east Asian dishes with ginger or galangal and lemongrass. Like dim sum, light stir-fries and mild Thai curries. Grüner is especially good with Vietnamese food particularly summer rolls and noodle salads.

Fried foods, schnitzel being the obvious example but you could happily drink Grüner with fish and chips or even fried chicken.

Fresh cheeses like goats cheese, young pecorino or mozzarella.

You can also pair Gruner Veltliner with many seafood and vegetable-based pasta dishes or risottos though for preference I'd go for an Italian white and I don’t think Grüner works with cooked tomato sauces.

Richer styles match well with roast pork or veal especially with a creamy sauce but not with an intense meaty ‘jus’.

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What wines and beers to pair with meaty stews and casseroles

Meaty stews and casseroles are hearty, comfort food so what type of wine should you pair with them or is beer a better match?

When it comes to pairing wine with a stew most of us would instinctively turn to a red, the big issue being how full-bodied it should be.

There are two ways of looking at it. Stews tend to be intensely flavoured with a rich thick sauce so you could argue that you need a big wine to hold its own. But that can be overwhelming. I prefer a slightly lighter more rustic red - grape varieties such as Syrah, Grenache, Malbec and Tempranillo hit the spot for me.

Of course it does depend what liquid’s in the stew. If it’s beer, as in a classic Belgian carbonnade then it’s almost wilful to drink anything else. Stews that have a savoury, meaty almost marmitey taste pair better with ales than with wine.

If they’re made with wine however. as in the classic French daube, it’s best to choose a similar style but slightly better quality of the wine you used for the dish. (Though not everyone agrees - see Marc Millon's argument in favour of cooking with Barolo)

If the stew is spicy like goulash or a tagine I would choose slightly sweeter style of red such as an Australian Shiraz, Zinfandel, Pinotage or a modern Spanish red, wines that also come into play when you serve sweet flavoured veg such as sweet potatoes, butternut squash and corn alongside. But watch out for big tannins which can combine with spicy flavours to create a palate overload.

Best wines for stews

• Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages, or, better still, village wines with their own denomination such as Cairanne or Vacqueyras

• Other Rhône appellations such as Crozes-Hermitage, Gigondas and Lirac

• Languedoc reds such as Corbières, Faugères and Minervois

• Rioja crianza and similar Spanish reds from e.g. Navarra

• Reds from the Douro in Portugal

• Barbera from Piedmont - or elsewhere

• Argentinian Malbec (and French Cahors)

• Australian or South African Shiraz

• Zinfandel - especially for rich stews such as braised oxtail or ox cheek

• Pinotage (particularly for spicier stews)

Best beers for stews

• Classic British ales such as Young’s Special London Ale, Timothy Taylor Landlord and Theakston's Old Peculier

• Strong Belgian beers such as Chimay and northern French beers from the Pas de Calais region

• Brown ales (for simple, old-fashioned stews without too much seasoning)

• Stout or porter - if that’s what the dish is cooked in.

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Which wines pair best with pork?

As with most foods, the best wine pairing with pork depends how the pork is cooked, and what it’s served with.

Technically it's regarded as a white meat but ‘whiteness’ somehow seems to suggest lack of flavour. Although that’s still true of much mass-produced pork there’s far more rare breed pork around these days which has a great deal of character.

It’s certainly substantial enough to carry a red, on the other hand it is often accompanied by ingredients - such as apples or fennel - that point in the direction of a white. And it does have chicken’s chameleon-like ability to take on other flavours which means you often have to think of pairing the sauce rather than the meat. It can also be quite fatty which calls for a wine - white or red - with some freshness and acidity to cut through.

It’s not a ‘noble meat’ - I don’t often think of pork and Cabernet or pork and Barolo in the same breath but it can be a fine one, well worth bringing out a good bottle for.

Here are my favourite wine pairings for different ways of cooking pork:

The best wine for roast pork

To tell the truth white wine is a better match than red with most roast pork dishes but psychologically one tends to expect a red with a roast, even one cooked, Italian-style with fennel, lemon and garlic. I personally enjoy Northern Rhône and Italian reds with pork: something like a decent Crozes-Hermitage or a Chianti Classico (particularly with the latter dish) though I know many pork fans prefer a Pinot Noir.

With a more traditional dish of roast pork and apple sauce a decent Côtes du Rhône Villages will do the trick. Even with more delicate roast suckling pig a light to medium-bodied red can work well. I recently enjoyed a Portuguese Bairrada, a Casa de Saima with this dish which hit the spot perfectly.

If you can move outside your comfort zone you will find many whites will match well with roast pork, especially when it’s served cold. Old vine Chenin Blanc is a very enjoyable match for cold roast pork while an off-dry German Riesling makes a delicious match for roast belly pork (though watch the accompanying vegetables. Tomato-based dishes won’t help the pairing).

See also Six of the best pairings for roast pork

Wine pairing with pork chops

Similar recommendations to the above, depending on the saucing (if creamy, follow the recommendations below). You might well be thinking of accompanying it with something more Italianate like a salsa verde, in which case a dry Italian white or a decent Valpolicella or Chianti would be a good choice.

Pork in a creamy sauce - with mushrooms or mustard

Both red and white burgundy work well (unsurprisingly) with this classic French bistro dish which is often made with pork tenderloin. Other cool climate unoaked or subtly oaked Chardonnay or Pinot Noir should work too as would a dry Alsace Riesling or Pinot Gris or a Vouvray.

Pork casserole or pie with cider or apples

Cider is actually by far the best match here but if you want to drink wine I’d again suggest a good Chenin, Chardonnay or easy-going inexpensive southern French red that’s relatively modest in alcohol. Like Côtes du Rhône again.

Barbecued/char siu pork

The combination of spice and sweetness tends to strip the fruit out of whites so I’d pick a robust jammy red with either of these dishes. A mid-weight Shiraz or Australian Cabernet-Shiraz, a Chilean Merlot or Carmenère, a Pinotage, a Zinfandel - you get the picture. Gutsy wine, sweet fruit.

Pulled pork

Pulled pork is suggesting beer to me (a good IPA for preference) but pinot noir proved a surprisingly good wine pairing recently. If its more about the barbecue sauce follow the suggestions above

Sweet and sour pork

More often than not combined with other dishes that may affect the pairing but a fruity new world rosé especially a Merlot rosé should take it in its stride. Better than the often-recommended match of Riesling, I find. A very fruity white such as a Colombard or Semillon-Chardonnay can also work

Goulash

The paprika is always more important than the pork to me and suggests a rustic red. You could try the Hungarian Kékfrankos (Austrian Blaufrankisch) if you wanted a regional pairing, otherwise I suggest a Rioja or similar Spanish red.

Wines with pork and bean stews e.g. Cassoulet, Feijoada, Fabada

These tend to be quite filling so you don’t want a wine that’s too high in alcohol. A simple medium bodied red, even carafe wine works with Cassoulet. Go for a slightly fuller fruitier wine - maybe an inexpensive Navarra or other Spanish red or a Malbec if the stew is a touch spicier.

See also six of the best wine pairings with cassoulet 

Charcuterie

Pork is what classic French charcuterie is all about so it seems apt to pair a French wine with it. With its bright fruit Beaujolais works particularly well with preparations like terrines, jambon persillé and rillettes - chose a Beaujolais Villages or cru Beaujolais (Morgon particularly appeals). You could also try a rustic Marcillac or a dry rosé

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