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.

Image © casanisa at shutterstock.com

The 4 best wine pairings for a classic Pancake Day pancake

If you live in the UK and are enjoying pancakes this week it’s most likely the classic kind, simply topped with lemon juice and a sprinkling of crunchy sugar. But what to drink with them?

A combination of sweet and sour is never that easy to handle in wine terms. The sweetness can make accompanying whites (I doubt if we're even thinking of reds here) taste thin and tart.

So a sweet wine I reckon and, even better, a sparkling one . . .

* Moscato has to be the number one candidate. Widely available, off-dry to sweet (like Asti), low in alcohol, it’s just perfect with a sugar and lemon pancake. Authentic Moscato d’Asti is the tops if you can lay your hands on one.

* Prosecco would be my next choice. Most have a touch of sweetness, some (usually the cheaper ones) more than others. Check the back label.

* If you want something a bit more offbeat and have a good wine merchant nearby see if they have a Clairette de Die a delicious fragrant sparkling wine from the Rhône.

* or for a sweet wine I’d go for a late harvest or Beerenauslese riesling. Rieslings have a high level of acidity that can cope with the lemon juice - better than sweet wines like Sauternes or late harvest Sauvignons whose citrussy flavours will be wiped out by the lemon on the pancakes.

* A good cup of tea. Probably the most likely option if you’re making them for the kids, if truth be told. And better with this type of pancake than coffee (think tea and lemon).

For wine pairings with other types of pancakes see here.

Photo © robynmac - Fotolia.com

Wines to match different pasta sauces

What wine should you pair with your favourite pasta?

As you might guess it depends on the sauce rather than the pasta shape. From rich and meaty ragùs to zesty herby pesto, each sauce has its own unique character that suggests a different wine pairing. That said I like to pair Italian wine with pasta wherever possible as it suits it so well and isn’t too full-bodied or alcoholic.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the best wine pairings for six popular styles of pasta sauce, from the classic tomato-based marinara to creamy Alfredo and beyond. Each sauce calls for a different approach: think crisp whites to cut through the richness of a carbonara, or a bold red to stand up to a hearty Bolognese. 

What Wine to Match with Different Pasta Sauces

Creamy pasta sauces

To offset creamy sauces (eg carbonara or fettucine alfredo) think Soave, Bianco di Custoza, Pinot Bianco, Sicilian whites and lighter Chardonnay or Chardonnay blends.

Spaghetti Carbonara. Image source: Engin Akyurt

See also six of the best wine matches for spaghetti carbonara

With baby vegetables (primavera) or herbs (verdura): try a crisper Italian whites such as Falanghina, Vermentino or Arneis. Or a Loire Sauvignon Blanc.

With mushroom pastas serve Soave, Bianco di Custoza, Lugana or Chardonnay, or a light Merlot or Pinot Noir.

Seafood pasta sauces

Seafood (spaghetti alle vongole, spaghetti with mussels, linguine with crab) need crisp dry whites such as Frascati, Verdicchio, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Muscadet or Picpoul de Pinet. Crab or lobster sauces can take a fuller white such as a good quality Soave or Chardonnay.

The best wine pairings for spaghetti alle vongole

Photo by tofuprod licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Red or tomato-based pasta sauces

Tomato-based sauces include fresh tomato with basil: crisp dry whites such as Pinot Grigio or Verdicchio.

Cooked tomato sauces such as napoletana or marinara): Montepulciano d’Abruzzo or a light Sicilian red.

Meat-based sauces e.g. bolognese, spaghetti with meatballs, sausage-based sauces are a logical partner for Sicilian and Puglian reds (especially Primitivo), Sangiovese, Rosso di Montalcino and inexpensive Barberas. Zinfandel is good too.

Six of the best matches for spaghetti bolognese

Pesto and other cheese-based sauces

Dry whites such as Gavi, Soave or Verdicchio are best with green pesto - you could also try Sicilian whites and lighter Chardonnays).

With red pesto I’d go for a medium bodied red such as Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Sangiovese or Merlot. It’s a colour thing as much as anything

With cheese-based sauces such as four cheese and Gorgonzola): try crisp dry whites such as Verdicchio, light Chardonnays or light reds such as Teroldego or Merlot.

Spicy pasta sauces

With hot spicy sauces such as arrabbiatta, aglio olio e peperoncino (garlic, oil and chilli) and puttanesca (anchovies, capers and olives) try either a sharply flavoured dry white wine or a rustic Italian red: a Primitivo or Sicilian red or a Zinfandel

The best wine pairings for spaghetti puttanesca

Photo by being0828 licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

With fashionable cacio e pepe (pecorino cheese and black pepper sauce) I prefer a light red like a frappato as you can see from one of my matches of the week.

Pasta sauces with pulses

Tuscan reds such as Chianti work well with pasta with beans or lentils (Pasta e Fagioli) or try an earthy, neutral white such as Orvieto or Vernaccia di San Gimignano)

Top image by Brent Hofacker 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