The question comes up every day in the cellar: we have the dish, but we're missing the bottle. Here are the guidelines that work, and those you'd better forget.
Is it really red wine with meat and white with fish?
No, this is the most widespread and least reliable rule. What matters is not the color of the meat, but the intensity of the dish and how it's prepared. Grilled tuna pairs very well with a light and fresh red, served at around 14°C. Creamy poultry calls for a rich white rather than a tannic red. The sauce and the cooking method more often decide than the main ingredient.
What wine with red meat?
A structured red, whose tannins have something to latch onto. Grilled ribeye steak pairs well with a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant Bordeaux or a Syrah from Northern Rhône. A slow-cooked dish—Boeuf Bourguignon, daube—on the other hand, calls for a softer, less tannic red: a Pinot Noir from Burgundy, a medium-aged Côtes du Rhône. Game, which is more pronounced, stands up to older and more powerful wines.
What wine with fish or seafood?
A lively white for raw or lightly cooked products. Oysters, a seafood platter, raw fish call for a dry and crisp white: Chablis, Muscadet, Loire Sauvignon. Fish in sauce or roasted pairs well with a fuller, barrel-aged white—a white from Burgundy's Côte de Beaune, a Roussanne or Marsanne white from Rhône. Crustaceans, which are sweeter, pair well with slightly aromatic whites.
What wine with cheese?
White works better than red in most cases, contrary to popular belief. The tannins in a red clash with the fat and salt of the cheese, while the acidity of a white balances them. Fresh goat cheese with a Loire Sauvignon, Comté with a Jura white or a Burgundy Chardonnay, blue cheese with a sweet wine. Reds still have their place with soft pressed cheeses, provided they remain supple.
What wine with dessert?
A wine at least as sweet as the dessert, otherwise it will seem acidic and thin. This is the only truly mechanical rule of pairings. A sweet wine with a fruit tart, a natural sweet wine with chocolate. Brut Champagne, often served with dessert, is actually the worst time to open it: its liveliness collapses in the face of sugar.
What to do when you don't know?
Two backup principles that are rarely wrong. The regional pairing: a dish and a wine born in the same place have often been crafted together—sauerkraut with a Riesling, bouillabaisse with a white from Provence. And the pairing by intensity: a subtle dish with a subtle wine, a powerful dish with a powerful wine. A Grand Cru on a salad crushes the dish just as a light wine disappears on a civet.
And what about the budget in all this?
A successful pairing depends on balance, not price. A well-chosen ten-euro wine with a given dish will be better than a poorly matched fifty-euro bottle. On our wine selection, the "Food pairing" filter allows you to start with the dish rather than the region.