Pasta Wines
Tips for Pairing Red and White Wines with Pasta in Various Sauces
Find the perfect wine to pair with tonight's pasta! Use this handy guide to find a wine to match everything from spaghetti to stuffed rigatoni and fettuccine alfredo.
A plate of hearty pasta paired with a nice glass of wine is a wonderful way to chase away the winter blues. Finding the right wine match is relatively easy, as long as you follow a few general guidelines.
One of the most important factors to consider is the sauce: pasta is fairly neutral in flavor, acting as a vehicle for the sauce. As such, choose a wine that is best suited to the sauce’s dominant flavors.
Tomato Sauce
Pairing local wine with local cuisine is usually a good rule of thumb to follow, and it certainly applies to pasta: Italian tomato-based pasta dishes work beautifully with Italian reds. Note that tomatoes are high in acidity, so a wine must have enough acidity to match or the tomatoes will overwhelm the palate and make the wine taste flat and dull. Red wines such as barbera, dolcetto, and valpolicella have tangy acidity and bright fruit, making them harmonious companions to tomato-based pasta dishes. Avoid heavy, tannic reds, as these tend to clash with tomatoes.
Certain whites also work well with tomato sauce. Again, the key is to match the acidity of the tomatoes with that of the wine. Aim for vibrant, zesty whites, such as Loire Valley muscadet or Italian pinot grigio.
Cheese Sauce
Though cheese is often regarded as wine’s natural partner, wine and cheese pairings can be tricky. Whites are generally easier to match with cheese: try an Australian semillon or white Burgundy. Champagne, prosecco, and other sparkling wines also pair wonderfully with cheese-based sauces.
When choosing a red wine to go with cheese sauce, aim for wines with bright, lively fruit and medium to low acidity, such as beaujolais, Australian and American pinot noir, and Italian dolcetto.
Cream Sauce
Cream-based pasta dishes require a full-bodied white that can stand up to rich flavors. Chardonnay is a classic match with cream pasta dishes, especially fettuccine alfredo. Opt for an oaked chardonnay rather than one that is unoaked, as the buttery richness imparted by the oak aging will marry beautifully with the dairy-rich sauce. A full-bodied Italian vermentino or an off-dry German Riesling would also work well.
Meat Sauce
Pasta sauces made with beef, sausage, and other red meats call for robust red wines. Try a nebbiolo-based wine, like barolo, or a sangiovese blend, like brunello. These wines will also work with large, tubular pasta stuffed with meat, such as cannelloni, manicotti, and rigatoni.
Chicken is a neutral meat that picks up and carries the flavors of the sauce, so follow the above guidelines and choose a wine based on the sauce.
Remember that very full-bodied, tannic reds will overpower the subtle secondary flavours in a dish. Though it is tempting to pair meat with heavier wines like Australian shiraz and Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, these wines are simply too powerful for pasta dishes.
Oil Sauce
Light oil-based sauces require wines that are equally delicate. New World semillon is a good white wine match, as is French sancerre and New Zealand sauvignon blanc. Sparkling wine also works well with these types of sauces.
For pesto, match the pungent herb flavors with a grassy, herbal wine. Again, New Zealand sauvignon blanc is a very good choice, as well as crisp, unoaked chardonnay.
