Pizza is to wine like cream is to coffee. It is such a universal meal for any occasion. The trouble is most of us are left wondering which wine pairs *best* with our favourite pizza.
Rather than list all of the kinds of pizzas and offer you a few examples of wines that you could try, I’m going to do you one better.
Let’s break pizza down by all of its components, much like we do with wine in our High Five Wine Scoring System books so that you can refer back to this same blog over and over. Use it as a reference point for Pizza Lovers and book mark this blog!
Let’s dive in.
What is the #1 rule when matching food and wine?
I often tell my High Five Wine Academy wine club members to consider the flavours and aromas of their wines. One thing to remember is you want to either match flavours and texture (like creaminess, for example) or contrast them for balance.
If you are having a spicy pizza you’ll want an off-dry wine to help balance the heat, for example. Another idea is to balance a pizza with white sauce up against either an equally creamy wine (this can also be called viscosity) to match the mouthfeel or you could try a highly acidic wine to contrast and balance. You have some options and the best news is there is no wrong answer. Choose your own adventure.
How To Use This Blog
Cross reference your favourite ingredients to narrow down a couple of wines that is on a majority of the lists I’m about to give you. For example, if you want pizza with tomato sauce, olives, goat cheese and mushrooms, peek at each of the wines in those categories and narrow it down to the most common wine(s). From there you can simply choose your favourite. If, out of a bunch of ingredients, your favourite wine only shows up once or twice…. It might be time to spread your wings and try a different wine that frequently shows up as a great match with your desired ingredients.
This is where the experiment can get really interesting! What if you find a new favourite wine? Win-win!
The other way to put this blog to good use is to peruse the lists and find all of the ingredients that pair with your favourite kind of wine and voila! Those will make your perfect pizza. Talk about a fun way to make the ultimate food and pizza pairing recipes! An example of that would be to say, ok I love Pinot Noir. What are the ingredients that pair best with that kind of wine? Narrow down your ingredients and there’s your grocery list.
Here we go!
There's nothing left to do but start exploring! Tag me on instagram with your pizza and wine pairings and I'll share them into my stories! Find my instagram page here!
Happy Pairing!
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