Top wine pairings with asparagus

Whenever anyone talks about foods that are difficult to match with wine, asparagus always comes up but I reckon the problem is overstated.

Just like any other ingredient it depends how you cook and serve it and how many other ingredients there are on the plate. Few people serve asparagus totally unadorned.

The most popular pairing is with Sauvignon Blanc which can have a marked asparagus flavour itself so you need another ingredient on the plate such as salmon, chicken or goats cheese to revive those flavours in the wine.

Wines that can be tricky are wines with a touch of sweetness as asparagus can accentuate that. Oaked whites are generally not too successful (except with rich buttery sauces - see below) nor are wines with pronounced tannins. Here are my suggestions with different asparagus preparations:

• With a vinaigrette - Needs a wine that can cope with the vinaigrette and won’t compete with the asparagus. I prefer an earthy, dry, unoaked Italian white such as Verdicchio or dry Orvieto to a Sauvignon Blanc here. Or a light, dry rosé without too much upfront berry fruit

• With melted butter or mayo - Where the asparagus is offset by the richness of butter or mayo but there isn’t anything else on the plate: an unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay such as Chablis

• With hollandaise or soft-boiled or poached eggs - Here the sauce or accompaniments begin to take over so go for a mature oaked Chardonnay (one in which the wood is well integrated but which is still fresh-tasting), traditional white Rioja or Champagne

• With goats cheese or prawns and salad - here’s where to drink Sauvignon Blanc, especially minerally Sauvignons from the Loire like Sancerre. The goats’ cheese accentuates rather than knocking out the asparagus flavours in the wine. English whites like Bacchus are also good.

• With grilled salmon - Semillon-Sauvignon blends, especially from Bordeaux or Western Australia generally work well

• With crab - a very dry Riesling, from e.g. Austria won’t overwhelm the crab

• With sautéed or fried chicken - Here asparagus is likely to be the vegetable so go for a wine that will match the chicken such as a light or moderately oaked Chardonnay

• Asparagus risotto - You’re matching the creamy risotto not just the asparagus. A crisp, fresh Italian white such as Pinot Grigio from the Alto Adige is the ideal option in my view or other dry Pinot Grigios

• Asparagus quiche - Alsace Pinot Blanc or Italian Pinot Bianco is a generally reliable choice with quiches. Alternatively go for a light, unoaked Chardonnay

• Chargrilled asparagus with mushrooms/roast asparagus with pancetta - Here’s where you can go for a light Loire red such as Bourgeuil or Saumur-Champigny, inexpensive red burgundy or other light, unoaked Pinot Noir

• In a stir fry - the sauce is likely to be the determining factor here. Assuming it’s something reasonably light to preserve the flavour of the asparagus I’d go for an off-dry Riesling from e.g. Germany

• White asparagus - Popular in central and southern Europe. My favourite pairing is young Grüner Veltliner, though others will go for dry Riesling or even dry Muscat (though the latter is not to everyone’s taste). Dry Spanish rosado is also good.

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The best food pairings for Gewurztraminer

Often compared to rose petals, lychees and Turkish delight, gewurztraminer is the wine world’s most exotic grape variety so what on earth do you pair with it?

Drier wines, which are the most common, are frequently matched with Asian - particularly Chinese, Indian and Thai - food but can sometimes be overwhelming with lighter dishes. Gewürztraminer generally benefits from dishes with more than a touch of sweetness and heat.

The gewürztraminers you find in Alsace, particularly the grand crus, also tend to be more intense than the wines you find in countries such as Chile and New Zealand. They also have sweeter wines there, labelled vendange tardive which are best served with a dessert.

Here are my favourite pairings for gewurztraminer:

Thai red duck curry

Not all Thai food works with gewürztraminer but it’s ace with a red duck curry or a yellow curry (better than with a green curry with which I’d rather have a lighter wine like a pinot gris but curries with coconut milk generally work)

Sichuanese food

Of all the styles of Chinese food I think Sichuan pairs best with gewürz, as it’s known for short. It also works really well with dishes that include ginger (including lobster with ginger as I once discovered). It can be a bit overwhelming with dim sum and lighter seafood dishes though

Other hot and spicy dishes like Singapore noodles work well and, although I haven’t tried it myself, I’m betting it would be a good match for many Korean dishes too.

Indian food

Again, there are exceptions, but gewürztraminer generally works well with an Indian meal where - as is common - several dishes are served at the same time. I like it best myself with meaty curries and biryanis but if it works for you with seafood or veggie curries go for it! (Basically if you love gewürztraminer you’ll love it with anything. It's a bit of a Marmite wine!)

Stinky cheese

There’s a classic local pairing in Alsace with Munster cheese - often with a sprinkling of cumin seeds - but gewürztraminer (particularly from Alsace) goes with most stinky cheeses including Epoisses, Maroilles and Stinking Bishop: cheeses that are a challenge to most reds.

Foie gras

Another popular pairing in Alsace. Or, if you don’t eat foie gras, with a rich duck liver paté

Roast goose

A special occasion meal that would work really well with a grand cru gewürztraminer, particularly one with a bit of bottle age.

Sweet-tasting vegetables like pumpkin and squash

A relatively recent discovery after finding how well a Tasmanian gewürztraminer went with pumpkin gnocchi. That would obviously apply to ravioli too and - I don’t see why not - sweet potatoes.

Sweeter gewürztraminers pair surprisingly well with apple-based desserts such as apple crumble or streusel cakes with cinnamon (they even match with off-dry gewürz. They don’t necessarily have to be late-harvest)

Also try mango-based desserts especially if they include ginger.

image ©HLPhoto at fotolia.com

Top wine pairings with goat cheese (chèvre)

Since goats cheese and Sauvignon Blanc are such a great match it might seem redundant to think of anything else but despite its reputation for being . . . well . . . goaty, goats cheese is easy to pair with other wines.

Unless you’re slathering it on a cracker as a sneaky snack the chances are you’re going to be eating it with something else - in a salad with asparagus, say, with roast red peppers or beetroot or on a cheeseboard with other cheeses - unless you’re in Provence where they don’t seem to serve any other kind. With all those dishes it helps to have a wine with some fresh acidity of its own so here are my suggestions:

Sauvignon Blanc - you know that already. Doesn’t matter hugely where it’s from though I personally think the white wines of the Loire like Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and even Sauvignon de Touraine work especially well. (The classic pairing is a Sancerre and a Crottin de Chavignol.)

Wines that taste like Sauvignon Blanc so other citrussy whites such as Bacchus, Côtes de Gascogne, Rueda, Godello and other crisp whites such as Albarino, Alvarinho, Chablis, Picpoul de Pinet, Pinot Grigio and other unoaked Italian whites, dry Riesling, Gruner Veltliner . . . (See what I mean about it being versatile?)

Crisp dry rosé especially Provençal rosé and goats cheese is a great pairing (think summer picnics!)

Fresh, fruity reds such as Beaujolais and other gamays, inexpensive red burgundy and Loire cabernet francs like Chinon, Saumur and Saumur-Champigny

So basically any wine - white, red or rosé - that’s young, fresh, unoaked and lightly chilled will go with goats cheese. Which makes it the perfect summer cheese.

PS If you’re a cheese aficionado you may be a fan of more mature goats’ cheeses in which case I would go for an aged white like a Chablis or a mature Alsace riesling too as you can see from this post.

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The best wine and beer pairings for pizza

Should you drink wine or beer with pizza? No rights or wrongs, obviously but here are a few thoughts which might encourage you to experiment.

Italians themselves more commonly drink beer than wine, usually a light lager like Peroni Nastro Azzurro but I personally like something with a bit more flavour - a Czech lager like Budweiser Budvar for example or, with spicy pepperoni toppings, a Viennese-style lager like Brooklyn.

Chianti with pizza?

Inexpensive Italian reds are also ideal being moderate in alcohol and with the fresh acidity to cut through gooey cheese and tomato toppings. I personally enjoy Chianti with pizza but you could equally well drink something like a Barbera, a Valpolicella or a Rosso di Montalcino or a simple Sicilian red*. Italian grape varieties such as Sangiovese and Dolcetto made elsewhere in the world also work well but you might want to chill them lightly to offset the extra ripeness and sweetness.

Other good pairings would be a fresh-tasting, medium bodied red like a Merlot, a Syrah, an inexpensive Zinfandel or a young Rioja.

Can you drink white wine with pizza?

There are also times when I think white wine works better with pizza than a red. Examples include goats’ cheese and spinach pizza, pizzas topped with prawns or other seafood like this pizza 'claminara' and pizza bianco (without tomato). Again Italian wines seem to hit the spot perfectly, even the ubiquitous Pinot Grigio, though other crisp dry Italian whites would be equally good. I also enjoyed cider with a seafood pizza recently - no reason why not.

And with pizza topped with with fresh ingredients such as parma ham and rocket? Try a dry Italian white like Gavi or a well-chilled glass of prosecco!

*Another good suggestion (from @lauraloveswines) would be an authentic dry red Lambrusco or a Bonarda frizzante.