A quick guide to wine pairings with a Sunday roast

For many of us Sunday roasts aren’t a weekly occurrence any more but that makes them even more of a treat - worthy of a good bottle of wine. But which should it be?

I’m assuming it’s served with the traditional British accompaniments, by the way - the sort of Sunday lunch you get in a pub.

The good news is that roasts are very forgiving so almost any red you enjoy tends to rub along. A couple of things to bear in mind if you want to raise the game is what kind of sauce or gravy you’re serving with the meat and the type of vegetables.

The more full-flavoured the accompaniments the riper and more full-bodied the wine needs to be (so think reds from the southern hemisphere and California rather than more traditional northerly parts of Europe).

Yorkshire pudding and roasties? They don’t make a huge difference winewise but what would a Sunday roast be without them?

Wine with roast beef

These days beef is generally served rare which calls for a red wine with some structure and tannin. My own choice would be a good red Bordeaux or similar Bordeaux blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. Or cabernet or merlot on their own. Malbec and shiraz are always good with beef too

For more suggestions see Which Wine (or beer) to serve with roast beef

Wine with roast lamb

Depends a bit on the cut and what time of year you’re eating it (spring lamb is particularly delicious with pinot noir) but in general I’d go for a Rioja or Ribera del Duero or, again, a red Bordeaux or cabernet sauvignon. I like a good Chianti with roast lamb too.

For other ideas check out my top wine pairings for lamb

Wine with roast pork

I actually like cider with roast pork but wine-wise you can go white or red. Whites that work particularly well include chenin blanc and viognier while Rhône reds like Côtes du Rhône and similar grenache, syrah, mourvedre blends from the Languedoc and elsewhere in the world are a good red wine choice. Also, if you like Beaujolais, that’s great with pork!

See also six of the best pairings with roast pork

Wine with roast chicken

Again you can go white or red with roast chicken but bear in mind it’s a lighter meat so needs a less full-bodied, high alcohol wine. For me red burgundy or other pinot noir would be the ideal red wine choice while I’d go for a subtly oaked chardonnay if I was drinking white. Viognier is good with chicken too.

Try some of these other great matches for roast chicken

And not your average Sunday roast but if you’re looking for wines to serve with roast turkey you’ll find some suggestions here https://www.matchingfoodandwine.com/news/pairings/top-wines-to-drink-with-turkey/

Wine with a vegetarian Sunday roast

Often served with similar types of veggies and gravy to a meaty roast so many of the above suggestions will work equally well. Good all-rounders in my book are fruity pinot noirs (especially with mushrooms), Côtes du Rhône and Rioja. Both Merlot and malbec are pretty versatile too.

Here are my suggestions for the best wine pairings with a nut roast

Top picture by Magdanatka, roast chicken and vegetables by MShev, both at shutterstock.com

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

Matching food and Chablis

The best food to match with chardonnay

The best pairings with red burgundy

Top food matches for Beaujolais (and other gamay)

Beaujolais - by which I mean red Beaujolais - is the most French of wines, the perfect wine pairing for a picnic or bistro meal.

It’s generally thought of as light and fruity, though it can also be quite full-bodied. In this post I’ll cover my favourite food pairings for specific types of Beaujolais (and other gamay). You’ll find it an enormously versatile wine.

Food-wise, it pairs with much the same ingredients and dishes as pinot noir, though gamay (the grape Beaujolais is made from) doesn’t have the best pinots’ complexity or silky, sensuous texture.

Beaujolais is almost always a winner with French charcuterie such as patés, terrines, rillettes, and saucisson sec and with white-rinded cheeses such as Brie and Camembert (provided they’re not overripe) but it’s a highly versatile wine that can easily take you through a meal where people are ordering different things.

Lighter styles of Beaujolais such as Beaujolais Nouveau, inexpensive Beaujolais, Beaujolais Villages, and lighter ‘cru’ (top level village) Beaujolais such as Fleurie or Chiroubles. (These wines can happily be served lightly chilled)

*Cold ham, especially the French jambon persillé (jellied ham and parsley)

*Cold turkey and chicken (Beaujolais is brilliant with Thanksgiving or Christmas Day leftovers)

*Salads, especially with chicken or bacon (think frisée with lardons) with pomegranate seeds, with berries like dried cherries or cranberries, or with goats cheese

*Seared tuna and salmon

*Fish stews like this cod pot au feu

*Sushi, if you like a red with it

*Strawberries (delicious with a young fruity Beaujolais poured over them)

More Full-bodied or More Mature Beaujolais

From riper vintages e.g. 2018, 2020 or weightier crus such as Morgon, Julienas, and Moulin à Vent

*Simply roast chicken, guineafowl, duck, or partridge

*Seared duck breast, especially with fruit like cherries or figs

*Classic French dishes in a creamy sauce like chicken with tarragon or kidneys with mustard sauce or even a retro boeuf stroganoff

*Simply grilled pork, lamb, or veal

*Toulouse or other garlicky sausages and lentils. (See also this quirky match with Toulouse sausage and prawn dumplings!)

*Steak tartare, as you can see from this post

*Bavette or hanger steak - the classic ‘steak frites’

*Confit duck

*Coq au vin or oeufs en meurette (Beaujolais makes a good red wine sauce)

*Fruity tagines like this lamb tagine with dates, prunes, and apricots

*Vegetarian dishes with butternut squash or sweet potato

See also What to Pair with Beaujolais Nouveau

There’s a more extensive list on the Beaujolais website

Photo ©jackmac34 at Pixabay.

My favourite food pairings with Viognier

Viognier (pronounced vee-on-yee-ay) is a rich, exotically fruity white wine, sometimes achieving quite high levels of alcohol so what are the ideal foods to pair with it?

It generally goes well with the sort of ingredients and dishes that match well with chardonnay and oaked chenin blancs but with a spicier twist.

Viognier food pairings

* Top of my list would be mild creamy curries like kormas or spicy south-east Asian curries. Even curries made with curry powder work well as do spicy dishes with a hint of peach or apricot, echoing the flavours in the wine

* mild spicy noodle dishes like Pad Thai

* chicken salads with apricot, peach or mango like coronation chicken

* fruity chicken - and even lamb - tagines with apricot

* dishes with ginger, saffron and coconut

* chicken, pork or rabbit with creamy sauces, especially if the dish includes a dash of viognier itself like this springlike dish. More intensely flavoured viogniers can stand up to roast pork, chicken and turkey

* Rich shellfish dishes such as seared scallops, grilled lobster and baked crab, especially with a hint of spice

* creamy and buttery cheeses

* sweet root vegetables especially carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes and spicy butternut squash

Note: Viognier’s original home is in the Rhône though oddly I don’t think it’s a great pairing for Mediterranean food. You also find great viogniers in California and Australia whose most noted specialist is Yalumba.

Viognier is also incorporated into rich white blends that would match similar dishes to the above (see this match of the week for example) - and also blended with Syrah/Shiraz though those would call for quite a different pairing

Image copyright BBA Photography at shutterstock.com