The best wine - and other drinks - to pair with macaroni cheese

The best wine to pair with macaroni cheese, or mac’n’cheese as our friends across the pond have it, depends how fancy - and how cheesy - your mac and cheese is.

With a homely old-fashioned recipe you might just want a simple glass of white wine (in general I prefer white to red) whereas with one made with a fine strong artisan cheddar or with lashings of cream and lobster you might go for something more extravagant.

Here are my top seven picks.

Chardonnay
Probably the safest bet whichever recipe you’re looking at. A light unoaked chardonnay for a simple creamy macaroni cheese, a posh white burgundy if you’re eating a more extravagant one with lobster or crab. Smooth dry Chenin Blanc works on a similar basis.

Dry riesling
Counter-intuitive but good - like crunching into a refreshing apple with your cheese. Here’s why.

St Emilion or one of the St Emilion satellites
Merlot works surprisingly well with macaroni cheese, I’ve found, especially if it contains bacon. It needn’t be Bordeaux, obviously but a young(ish) St Emilion does work well

Dry cider
Particularly good with macaroni cheese and leeks

Beer
A classic English ale like Timothy Taylor Landlord or an American-style brown ale is perfect with a very cheesy macaroni cheese.

Champagne
Really? Yes, especially if there’s truffle involved. (I tried it the other day with Heston Blumenthal’s cauliflower and macaroni cheese with truffle and it was spot on.)

Sancerre or a similar Loire Sauvignon Blanc

Not my usual go-to but great with this crab macaroni cheese from my friend Fiona Sims Boat cookbook.

Macaroni cheese is also often served as a side in a steakhouse but I’d still match the steak rather than the mac’n’cheese

photo ©Stephanie Frey @fotolia.com

Which wines and beers pair best with mushrooms?

If you think of the ingredients that show off a great wine mushrooms would have to be near the top of the list.

Possessed of the sexy ingredient umami - the intensely savoury taste identified by the Japanese, they flatter and act as the perfect foil for wines as disparate as vintage Champagne, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Beers too can work well, particularly dark lagers and brown ales, less fashionable styles but ones which have a real affinity with earthy mushroom flavours.

Like any other ingredient it depends how you prepare and cook mushrooms, of course and what other ingredients there are in the dish. Delicate wild mushrooms in a creamy sauce are a different proposition from big flat Portabello mushrooms baked with garlic and parsley.

Here are some suggestions:

• Mushrooms in a creamy sauce - possibly the ultimate preparation so far as wine is concerned whether it’s the base of a tart, a pasta sauce or simply on toast. You can mirror the creamy texture with a like-meets-like pairing of a fine white burgundy or other oak-aged Chardonnay, lift the dish while echoing its umami flavours with vintage Champagne or pick up on the mushrooms’ earthiness with a red burgundy or other Pinot Noir. For a not-so-special occasion a simple unoaked Chardonnay will do the trick.

• Mushroom risotto - Smooth dry Italian whites such as Soave and Gavi work well. If the mushroom content is predominantly porcini try an aged Italian red such as Barolo or vintage rosé Champagne.

• Duxelles - an unfashionable but wonderful way of cooking mushrooms (chopping them very finely then sauteing them in butter with onion until the mixture is completely dry). A perfect match for a great Pinot Noir.

• Mushrooms in tomato sauce - a combination most likely to be found in Italian dishes especially pasta sauces. Sangiovese and Sangiovese blends (e.g. Chianti Classico) tend to be the best match but a Belgian dubbel beer or Viennese-style lager can work well.

• Baked or stuffed Portabello mushrooms - have the meaty quality of a steak so can be paired with almost any robust red such as Zinfandel, Syrah/Shiraz or, if the dish contains cheese, Cabernet Sauvignon.

• Steak and mushroom (or simply mushroom) pie - Depends on the base of the sauce. If it’s wine-based, a full-bodied red, as above (a good Côtes du Rhône Villages or Languedoc red like a Faugères would also work). If the sauce is more like a gravy or has a dark mushroom flavour try a full-flavoured ale such as a dark Belgian Trappist beer, a northern French bière de garde, a brown ale or a strong English ale.

• Mushroom soup - Depends how creamy it is. If it’s quite light I’d go for a Chardonnay (see mushrooms in creamy sauce above) If it’s more intensely mushroomy or includes mustard (there’s a good recipe in my book An Appetite for Ale!) I’d choose a dark beer like Westmalle Dubbel or even a stout or porter.

• Mushroom quiche - Again how mushroomy is the dish? If the predominant flavour is cream, eggs and cheese I’d probably pick a white burgundy or Pinot Blanc. If the mushroom flavour is more powerful I’d revert to Pinot Noir.

• Mushrooms à la grècque or preserved in oil - a classic Italian-style antipasto that will work with almost any crisp, dry Italian or Italian-style white or a dry rosé. You could drink a pilsner or Kolsch with it successfully too.

• Oyster/shitake mushrooms with soy - Unlikely to be served on its own unless it’s part of a vegetable stir-fry so you’re probably going to be looking for a wine that will perform well with a selection of Chinese or Chinese-style dishes. Ripe fruity reds such as new world Pinot Noir, Merlot or even young Rioja can work surprisingly well. For a lighter dish or selection of dishes try a dry (and I mean dry) Riesling from Alsace or Austria.

What are the best wine pairings for Vacherin Mont d’Or

People occasionally ask me my favourite cheese - an impossible question but Vacherin Mont d’Or is certainly up there in the top 5.

It’s made either side of the Franco/Swiss border under slightly different names* between September and March and is a washed rind cheese with a wonderfully fluid texture. It's always presented in a box with a piece of spruce bark wrapped round it. You can serve it baked when it acquires the consistency of a fondue.

Locally in the Jura it would alway be drunk with one of the local crisp white wines. Top London cheesemonger, Patricia Michelson of La Fromagerie, recommends a vin jaune or a savagnin which is certainly the classic, on-the-spot pairing and fortunately the wines more widely available than they used to be in the UK. Vintage champagne is also an option but not always what one is looking for with cheese which leaves one with aromatic whites.

'A perfectly ripe Vacherin Mont d'Or, oozing with funky fruit aromas, is an extraordinary thing to eat with a 15- to 20-year-old auslese riesling, which by then has developed a singular smoky aroma reminiscent of kerosene' Eric Asimov of the New York Times suggested a while ago. I also very much enjoyed a Vacherin recently with Laurent Miquel's Verité, a top quality viognier from the Languedoc.

Others such as Murray’s Cheese suggest pairing it with an aromatic gewurztraminer and a dry young Alsace or Austrian riesling should be an enjoyable pairing.

Is there any red that will work? I’m not totally convinced but an Hachette book I have, Fromages et Vins, suggests an Alsace Pinot Noir or a minor red burgundy such as Hauts-Côtes-de-Nuits.

Award-winning sommelier Nicolas Clerc recommends serving the cheese with toasted hazelnut bread and adding a julienne of raw cepes "to reach another dimension of pleasure” while the late Sue Style author of Cheese: Slices of Swiss Culture suggested: Serve this delectably runny cheese with good rye or wholewheat bread or allow it to slither gently over small, waxy (or new) potatoes cooked in their skins. You could also serve a selection of fragrant smoked meats and mountain sausages.

In terms of Swiss wines Sue recommended "a Petite Arvine from the Valais (Chanton Weine in Visp make a fine one), not a flétri but a dry one: pale straw, grapefruit/lime blossom with slightly salty finish and enough acidity to cope with the luscious silky texture of the Vacherin. Or, if you prefer red, how about a Pinot Noir from either Valais (Simon Maye, Maurice Zufferey - top names from around Salgesch/Sierre) or from Graubünden (Gantenbein's is most elevated, but there are lots of other fine ones from the village of Bündner Herrschaft near Chur), or a Dole, a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir from the Valais."

* The Swiss version is called Vacherin Mont d’Or, the French simply Mont d’Or or Vacherin du Haut-Doubs

Photo by slowmotiongli at shutterstock.com