Top pairings | Which wines pair best with pork?

Top pairings

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.

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Comments: 5 (Add)

Roger the Pedant on February 20 2022 at 19:35

Well I'm with Gorka - not even a mention of English table wines, some of which I have drunk and enjoyed. Don't even get me started on the omission of Sidra. Hold on, Gorka you forgot to mention Sidra. Hope its not too late.

Steve Wilcox on March 6 2021 at 16:08

Thanks Fiona, as always a real help when deciding WHAT TO COOK to go with the wine!

Gorka Sillero on June 24 2020 at 18:23

"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"

because any spanish red will be "slightly fuller and fruitier" I suppose... Surprised to read such an ignorant sentence in this post, honestly. Completely oblivious of the variety of grapes, soils, climates the spanish wine regions have to offer, for you a Navarra (which Navarra by the way?, a Crianza or a younger one? a Tempranillo, a blend?) will be the same as a Terra Alta or a red Txakoli, not to mention the less known regions producing excellent reds as Madrid or Extremadura.

Unbelievably ignorant

Mike on August 24 2019 at 10:53

On a personal basis I go for Alsace Gewürztraminer or pinot Gris with roast pork, belly pork and chat with every time.

Crazy English Triathlete on December 31 2012 at 18:10

My favourite accompaniment to Roast Pork is a good Hunter Valley Semillon

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