“White with chicken and seafood, red with beef and lamb” is the age-old advice, but as we all know, there’s more to wine than white and red. Fat, spice, sugar, and acid in food can make wines taste vastly different and sometimes downright bad. Likewise, a bad wine pairing can make food taste “funny” or “off.” A white wine that goes well with clam sauce will almost certainly go poorly with baked ham, and vice-versa. Here are ten white wine parings, some classic and some novel, that work:
1: Asti Spumante with Baked Ham
Holiday food like Thanksgiving turkey or Easter/Christmas ham can be very difficult to pair. Ham itself is a challenge, and the problem is complicated further by side-dishes and having to satisfy everyone.
Asti Spumante, a sparkling Muscat wine from northern Italy, is almost tailor-made to pair with ham: its residual sugar keeps naturally sweet and often glazed or honey-baked ham from making it taste bitter, and its acidity and carbonation combine to cut through the meat’s fatty richness and stand up to any side-dish or casserole. To top that off, nearly everyone likes it, due to the sugar and its floral and apricot flavors, and the leftovers go equally well with dessert.
2: Dry Riesling with Sashimi
Dry Sakés (Japanese rice wines) are the traditional pairing with sashimi and sashimi-based sushis, but some grape wines go equally well, or better. Good dry Rieslings have flavors of kerosene or jet fuel, just like saké, in addition to citrus peel, flowers, and minerals. They’re delicate enough to not deaden the palate to the subtle flavors of the raw fish, and refreshing enough to cleanse it between bites.
3: Off-Dry Gewürztraminer with Jambalaya
A wine paired with spicy food like Creole jambalaya needs to have a bit of residual sugar, else it will taste hot. There’s enough acid in Gewürz to stand up to tomatoes without tasting soda-pop sweet, and the usual flavors–lychee, violets, apricot, spice–are robust enough to not be overwhelmed by thyme and chile pepper. The lychee and apricot, too, provide an interesting contrast to sausage, tasso, or spice-rubbed chicken.
4: Soave with Grilled Shrimp
I’m not suggesting to pair an insipid three-dollar Trebbiano Soave with shrimp, but rather one of the more expensive 100% Garganega offerings. Over a foundation of minerals and moderate acid, Garganega has a subtle applewood smokiness and a bit of fruit, a certain “je ne sais quoi” that seems to work even if it can’t be articulated. Don’t take my word for it; try it and see for yourself.
5: Oaked Chardonnay with Thanksgiving dinner
The Thanksgiving meal is usually centered on poultry, surrounded by rich and often herbed side-dishes. Chardonnay is the most full-bodied of dry white wines; an oaked Chardonnay, perhaps with a hint of diacetyl “butter” flavor from malolactic fermentation, goes well with the turkey and is bold and peppery or woody enough for the side dishes, as well. Stay away from the creamy “butter bombs”, however, as they don’t pair well with anything and will make the bird taste bland.
6: Off-dry Riesling with pad Thai
With generous residual sugar and flavors of apricots, peaches, or pears, off-dry Riesling is a perfect pairing for sweet-and-sour dishes like pad Thai.
7: Sauvignon Blanc with Salmon
Sauvignon Blanc can be difficult to pair. It has strong grassy and lemony flavors on its own, but can fade when matched with food. It’s a good pairing with richer fish like salmon, as it has enough acid to match the fish’s fat or oil, isn’t as easily overpowered as more delicate whites like Pinot Grigio. It’s worth considering that salmon is often prepared with lemon and delicate herbs; a wine with those qualities will go well, too.
8: Pinot Grigio with Linguine with Clam Sauce
This is a classic for good reason: the delicate minerals, moderate acidity, and subtle, pear-like fruitiness of Pinot Grigio bring out but in no way dampen the flavors of the clam. Use this to prepare the sauce, and save some for drinking.
9: Chenin blanc with steamed mussels
Dry chenin blanc has much the same structure as Pinot Grigio, but stronger fruit flavors tending toward canteloupe and honeydew melon, making it well-suited as an accompaniment for mussels, which are usually somewhat stronger tasting than clams.
10: Dry Gewürztraminer with Pork or Lamb Kebabs
The residual sugar needed when pairing with something as heavy on cayenne pepper as jambalaya is superfluous when matching with moderately herbal dishes like pork or lamb kebabs. The grape’s lychee fruit and gingerbread or pfefferneuse-like spice makes dry Gewurz a fit complement to Greek or Turkish seasoning.
