Chardonnay and Food Pairings
Ingredients and Styles
It is easy to “lose” Chardonnay behind food. Chardonnay’s personality and flavors are easily dominated by dishes that are too rich, strong or bold for its forward yet subtle personality. Chardonnay is best matched with foods that are enhanced by its round, full, often silky character: Shrimp, scallops, milder poultry (chicken, turkey and quail); white meat (veal and pork); fish (halibut, trout, and swordfish); and other meats (sweetbreads and rabbit). Pastas, risotto, and other starches (winter squash and polenta) provide a great textural backdrop for many Chardonnays when paired with compatible food ingredients.
The chart below is a recommended guide to some general pairing ideas for Chardonnay. There are no mandated rules. Feel free to be adventurous and creative while being thoughtful and aware of the grape’s inherent personality.
| Wine Style | Ingredients | Cuisines + Cooking methods |
|---|---|---|
| Oak-aged (younger) – moderate oak | Moderate amounts of sweet spices, such as nutmeg, caramel, and vanilla. Coarse texture foods: such as white beans, macaroni, polenta, or grits. Mushrooms |
Plank roasting, slow braising and gentle stewing |
| Oak-aged (younger) – rich, big-framed | More assertive amounts of sweet spices, e.g. dried ginger, Five Spice Powder, caramel, and vanilla. Coarse textured foods |
Grilling and smoking |
| Malolactic | Butter Nuts Nut oils |
Sautéing or poaching with butter Finishing with a nut oil |
| Young, unoaked, European style | Show best with food Onions and garlic Mussels Oysters Don’t over-spice! |
Simple dishes with clean flavors Good for diminishing richness of thick-textured dishes |
| Young, unoaked, New World style | Sweet and implied sweet ingredients e.g. avocado and squash | Latin fusion cuisine Tropical-inflected dishes from Hawaii, Pacific, Caribbean |
| Aged | Toasted nuts Sherry, dried fruit flavors |
Keep food as neutral as possible Don’t pair with very rich, “heavy” dishes |
Food pairing guidelines
Wine Profile
Toast, sweet spices, caramel, and vanilla from oak
Cooking Methods and Ingredients
Dishes with traits similar to those imparted by the oak, e.g. with toast (lightly smoked or grilled dishes), sweet spices, caramel, and vanilla. Acclaimed late French chef Alain Senderens developed his renowned lobster in vanilla sauce specifically to match the oak-aged white Burgundies served in his restaurant, L’Archestrate.
- Moderately oaked, medium-weight Chardonnay (more European-style) – cooking methods: plank roasting, slow braising and gentle stewing.
- Rich, big framed Chardonnay — cooking methods: Grilling and smoking.
Wine Profile
Buttery or buttered-popcorn aroma and flavor
Cooking Methods and Ingredients
Sautéing or poaching with butter or incorporating butter into the dish. Use nut oils or add nuts to a dish as a last-minute ingredient. Toast the nuts first, both to preserve texture and echo those elements in the wine itself.
Dishes
Shellfish (lobster, scallops, prawns, and shrimp) are time-honored table partners, especially when accompanied by a rich sauce: drawn butter or a modification of a cream or butter sauce.
Wine Profile
See above (Oak-aged and malolactic)
Wine Profile
More austere, stressing mineral and earth components, and overtly less oaky
Cooking Methods and Ingredients
These wines show best with food, especially simple dishes that have clean flavors e.g. roast chicken with garlic, or a sautéed snapper served solo with a wedge of lemon or a tart sauce. These styles of Chardonnay are also exceptional at diminishing the richness of thick-textured dishes and counterbalancing sauces based on cream, butter, emulsification, or reduction.
Wine Profile
Fruit-forward
Cooking Methods and Ingredients
The cuisines of the Carribean and South Asia with their reliance on tropical tastes, are particularly well suited to young, fruit-forward Chardonnays. Latin fusion cooking, with its myriad sources of sweet and implied sweet ingredients, is another great partner for many similar styles of Chardonnays.
Wine Profile
Almond, hazelnut, sherry, and dried fruit flavors
Cooking Methods and Ingredients
Keep the food as neutral as possible or, again, attempt to mirror the flavor profile of the wine. Use nuts (as a coating, as an ingredient, or in powdered form as a thickening agent) or drizzle with a nut oil. Because the acidity of the wine will decrease with age, its effectiveness in cutting through the richness of a heavy dish is lessened. Dishes such as Chinese prawns with cashews, macadamia-crusted fried chicken, and fillet of sole almandine are good options.
Pairing Pointers
Chardonnay works well:
- With dishes that have rich textures and flavors, especially if the Chardonnay has texture (as from oak-aging or lees- stirring),
- To counterbalance rich dishes by cutting richness with higher acidity (especially unoaked, cooler-climate examples).
- With most mild and sweet shellfish, including lobster, prawns, shrimp, and steamer clams; but choose unoaked types when matching with mussels and most oysters.
- With butter, cream, melted cheeses, and anything adding coarse texture (such as white beans, macaroni, polenta, or grits).
- With many sweet spices, which mirror the flavors derived from oak barrels, including nutmeg, cinnamon, 5 spice powder, and dried ginger.
- With nuts, and recipes incorporating nuts. As an inherent flavor characteristic of Chardonnay, nuts of various kinds, especially toasted nuts, are sublime, notably with aged, more mature wines.
- With milder white mushrooms (standard button mushrooms, chanterelles, shiitakes, oyster mushrooms, etc.), especially when sautéed in butter. Other textured and mild ingredients are also great platforms for Chardonnay, including avocado and squash.
- With onions and garlic. Served with earthy European examples, such as those from Burgundy or Northern Italy, these pick up on the wine's terroir.
Chardonnay does not work well:
- If it is too oaky to match with food. If you are serving a rich, oaky Chardonnay, play to it with ingredients that mirror the flavors of the wine or, better yet, with cooking methods that match well with the oak, such as grilling and smoking.
- In showing off hot or spicy dishes. An explosion of capsaicin, the heat-invoking element in chili peppers, blows out the subtlety while accentuating the oak and the alcohol in the wine.
- With very sharp ingredients. Most oak-aged Chardonnay is diminished when paired with items such as leeks, olives, asparagus, capers, zucchini, tomatoes, and broccoli rabe. Unoaked and sharper examples, however, can be brilliant.
- When paired with overly sweet foods. Oak, Chardonnay, and sugar in the mouth are not a happy combination. Opt for something other than oaky Chardonnay when sitting down to Easter or Thanksgiving dinner or digging into a sweet Thai coconut curry.
- With many cheeses in a cheese course. Really. To show off oaky Chardonnay, serve a smooth, unaged Brie, a nutty Swiss Emmental, A French Comté, or a mild and creamy Teleme. Avoid pungent cheeses and those high in acid, such as goat cheese.
