Soup and Wine

Soup-Pair Bowl Coming in January! 

The Steelers may not make it to the Super Bowl©, but we’re celebrating anyway. Our next tasting in January will feature a variety of wines paired with some favorite soups. Soup, stew, chili, and chowder are perfect for cold weather, however, pairing wines with your favorite soup recipes can be tricky. We hope to give you some ideas, and some starting points, to help you with your pairings.

If you break down your soup ingredients and view them as you would a pasta sauce or something similar, then your pairings will be easier. For example, consider a bowl of chili. The most common ingredients include tomatoes, beans, and ground beef. So, for a heavy tomato sauce, you would look for a wine with a little less acidity and lighter on the tannin. If your chili is heavy on beans or meat, then you could also try a wine that has more body, like a Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz or a Malbec.

By taking these ideas a little further you can find the right wine match for a variety of soup, stew, chili, and chowder.

Wine Pairings to Get You Started

• Chicken Noodle Soup would pair with a Pinot Noir or a Chenin Blanc.
• Cream of Chicken Soup would pair with a Sauvignon Blanc or Viognier.
• If you’re serving gumbo, consider a Pinot Noir.
• For French Onion Soup try a Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau or White Burgundy.
• If you’re serving a Seafood Bisque or stew, try Sauvignon Blanc.
• Chicken Tortilla Soup will pair well with Spanish wine like a Rioja.
• New England Clam Chowder needs an oaked Chardonnay.
• If you like Corn Chowder, dry German Riesling is a great match!
• For Beef Stew with Vegetables, Cab or Shiraz for red wine lovers; if your preferences are white wines, try Gewürztraminer.

Why are soup and wine considered difficult to pair?

The main reason that soup is considered difficult to pair with wine is texture. Both are liquids. Conventional thinking doesn’t find this an appealing combination, but we are all for debunking myths. So, we’ve come up with a few tips for enjoying a glass of wine with your bowl of soup.

1. Think about the texture other than being liquid: Soup is a broad category of clear soups, smooth and creamy soups, chunky stews and chowders that all have very different textures. As well as texture, consider the soup’s ingredients, much like you would with a pasta sauce.

2. Consider the weight of the soup: Pair the wine with the weight of the soup. Hearty stews and chowders can handle more full-bodied wines than delicate vegetable soups.

3. Sherry is always a great stand-by: Sherry is an excellent staple to consider with a wide range of smooth textured soups. It provides a contrast to the smoothness of the soup. Try a Fino sherry with delicate flavored soups, and a dry Amontillado or Oloroso with soups that are earthy and stronger flavored.

4. Tomatoes don’t like tannin: With tomato-based soups avoid tannic red wines. As tomatoes are naturally high in acid, look for red wines with high acid and not too much tannin. Examples include Italian reds such as Valpolicella or Barbera d’Alba or d’Asti. These wines tend to be fruity, which enhances the tomato flavor of the soup.

5. Cream soups like acidity: With cream soups (such as pea, cauliflower etc.) pick a medium to high acid white. A crisp village Chablis is a good match. Other unoaked chardonnays are also good, as is Albariño from Rías Baixas or a Pinot Grigio from Collio or Alto Adige.

6. Protein based soups are versatile: With protein-based soups containing fish, meat or beans, apply the same rules that apply to pairing wine with any protein dish. The choice of wine varies depending on the texture, spices and other ingredients in the soup.

7. Experiment: This is probably the most important tip. There is no ‘one’ perfect wine for any ‘one’ dish. So much will depend on your own (and your guests’) personal preferences, the occasion and of course your budget.

8. Don’t Panic: The chances are that whatever wine you choose will work fine with your soup. If not, just eat some bread between each spoon of soup and sip of wine. It is not a major crisis.

Keep in mind that there are no hard and fast rules for pairing wine with foods and specifically soups, stews, and the like. However, there are certainly some wines that will go with a pot of soup better than others. So, experiment with some of these and try your own. Let us know if you come up with any others! Use the comments!