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Behaving With Seafood


When it comes to serving wine with seafood, we want the wine to marry with the delicate flavors of the fish.  In other words, the wine or the fish should not upstage each other in any way.  Remaining complementary is key.

Retaining a refreshing palate with wine acidity and working with the flavors from rich and buttery sauces accompanying fish can be challenging. 

Most dry white wines will work but it’s good to keep some things in mind.  Paying attention to the flavors of shellfish or fish you are serving will help guide you in your choice of varietal wine.

Overall, lots of fish have the same basic, gentle taste.  A fish like tilapia comes to mind. So with tilapia or any other similar white fish there are lots wines to fit the bill.  Choosing wines aged in steel rather than oak, wines like unoaked Chardonnay, Albarino, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Gruner Veltliner will reward you with a nice acidity, cutting through the heavy, buttery sauces commonly served with these types of fish.

When it comes to lobster, crab and scallops, the sweetness pairs nicely with the flavor profile of an oaked Chardonnay.

With a meatier fish like tuna, swordfish or striped bass I always choose a spicier white such as Viognier.

Grilled Salmon….I love Pinot Noir or Merlot…yes they are red.

When it comes to choosing reds with fish it can be tricky, they are often too powerful.  So what you need is a light-bodied red, low in tannins.  A soft wine, for lack of a better word.  A lovely Pinot Noir or Beaujolais are perfect.

Here are some of my favorite seafood dishes and the wines I love to serve with them:

Fried Calamari:  Brut Champagne/Sparkling Wine
Ceviche:  Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc
Seafood Risotto:  Champagne/Sparkling Wine
Oysters:  Chablis or Champagne/Sparkling Wine
Mussels:  Chardonnay
Shrimp Cocktail: Viognier or Sauvignon Blanc
Trout:  Chardonnay
Dover Sole:  Pinot Blanc, Dry Riesling or Sangiovese
Clam Chowder:  Chardonnay
Cracked Crab:  Pinot Gris, Chenin Blanc

Enjoy these pairings.

What did you have to drink last night?

What I Was Blogging About One Year Ago Today:  The Money I Saved On Vacation Bling

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Comments

  1. Wonderful picture of a seafood market – makes me hungry and it’s only breakfast time!

    It’s great to have those wine recommendations and I will definitely utilise your recommendations.

    Thanks Cathy – lovely information ..
    & last night I’m sorry to say I had water = life giving!!

    Reply

  4. Your recommendation for shrimp cocktail.. was curious if it is the same for other shrimp dishes like franchese and scampi? To drink was a bit too much Pinot grigio last night, headache this morning..

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  7. This is so helpful! We were actually out at a very nice seafood restaurant the other night and wanted to get a red with our fish (it was cold out and something about a red was more appealing than a chilled white) and the sommelier wasn’t helpful at all! This is one of the nicer restaurants in nyc, I was really shocked. Needless to say we ended up with a beautiful sauvignon blanc. I’m printing out this little guide so that we will know for next time.

    Reply

  9. Great tips and recommendations!

    Last…. you’d be proud: I had fried chicken and champagne! The bubbly, crisp champagne was great to cut through the greasy, salty, yummy fried chicken.

    Reply

  11. We normally have a glass of either Hardys Shiraz or Chardonay depending. Both are from a 3 liter box.

    On a weekend I may open a bottle of an under $10 Austrailian (California wine in that price range gives me a headache in the morning).

    With guests we can go quite beyond this, into wine per course and a much higher price tag. We have friends where we will invite them for dinner, send the menu and they will bring the wine or the beer. This can be a lot of fun.

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  14. Give me a fork, I’m ready to eat. Had no wine last night. Sorry, I very, very, seldom drink. Only time I buy wine is if I’m wanting a blue or red bottle. I know “GASP”. I’m the idiot that walks in and says show me what you have in a blue bottle. Then usually DH ends up drinking it, cause I really don’t like the taste of alcohol. At least, that makes my MEAN Dr. happy.

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  17. I have fallen in love with Moscato d’asti lately. Would you plug that into anything that says “sparkling wine”? This market looks great – can I possibly hope that it is located in this snowy northland?

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  24. What fabulous pairings!! I need all the help I can get in the wine pairing department. Plus, I happen to love seafood, so it’s wonderful to know what pairs with what! Thanks for the tips!!

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  27. Such a perfect post come at the perfect time. I am going to have a formal dinner (my husband’s business related), I’ll some seafood for one of the entree, so having lists like this is so useful. Thank you so much Cathy.
    Cheers,
    elra

    Reply

  28. Thanks for the primer. Since I don’t eat fish, I really don’t know what pairings go well, so it’s nice to have this kind of advice for when I serve it to others.

    What did I drink last night? Water. I only drink on weekends because I am prone to bouts of insomnia and alcohol makes it worse (I fall asleep easily but when the alcohol is fully metabolized at 2 AM, I’m wide awake).

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  29. Thanks for the wonderful tips, Cathy! We actually ate out at a nice restaurant and I had a glass of white burgundy (I don’t remember the vineyard)with my sauteed Chatham scrod and littlenecks. It seemed to pair well, but I’m no expert like you.

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  30. These are fantastic tips. I lvoe seafood and always screw up my limited wine pairing skills. Tonight we are having salmon so I will go and buy some Pinot Noir…I wish you had some to sell!

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  41. Nice. We definitely like red with salmon.

    More often, my wine pairing sense gets thrown off by other flavors in the meal… for instance, we just had a crab pasta dish the other night with habanero chiles & saffron. I picked an unoaked Chardonnay, which was good with the crab… but maybe a dry Riesling would have been better. Always doubting myself!!

    Reply

  44. We love reds with salmon and with tuna. Through your gentle tutelage, I’m slowly educating Mr. Snoots on wine pairings and he’s actually *getting it*. He’s no longer buying the large bottles of the same wine (every time) @ Sam’s. Yay! This is the same man who used to mix white & red wines together. *sigh*

    Reply

  45. Wow, that’s some fish market! I know so little about wine pairings, tending to reach for things. I should give wine tastings a go because the same types of wine taste so different to me from winery to winery. Oh, and to be completely boring, I had milk last night!

    Reply

  46. I appreciate the fact that your recipes are not just creative, but authentic. And you give credit where it’s due. There are many websites/blogs that use recipes from popular websites and claimed it as their own. Thank you for sharing your awesome recipes.

    Reply

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