How to Pair Vegan Food with Wine

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Pairing vegan food with wine can result in delicious meals, as long as you know how to match their flavours, intensity, acidity, and weight. You should also pay attention to tannin and alcohol levels and consider the sweetness of different wines and dishes.

More often than not, the sauces you add to your vegan dishes will play the most significant role in creating delectable food and wine pairings.

Let’s go over the basics of pairing vegan food with wine before exploring some mouth-watering pairings you can try.

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Golden Rules for Pairing Vegan Food with Wine

Which case of wine [GU1] you’ll open to enhance your dining experience comes down to your unique taste. The rules below are not set in stone, but they might open up a whole new world of delicious flavours that will make your taste buds dance.

Match the wine and food’s weight

Weight refers to body and texture, that means some of the best pairings include light-bodied wines and lighter foods, and full-bodied wines and heavier foods.

If you’re serving a rich, heavy dish (especially with a creamy sauce), pick out an acidic white wine or a high-tannin red, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. The heavy tannins will stop the wine becoming overpowered, while the rich acidity will help cut through the richness of the dish. You should consider flavour intensity as well. That way, you can pair some lighter, rich-flavoured dishes with full-bodied wines and vice versa.

Pair acidic foods with acidic wines

White, Rosé, and sparkling wines are ideal for most vegan foods. When preparing acidic dishes, pick out any of those acidic wines, and you’ll hit the bullseye.

They go really well with fried or fatty foods like fries, nuts, seeds, olives, and avocados.

Serve sweet wines with dessert

Sweet wines are perfect for desserts; just make sure the wine you choose is sweeter than the dessert. Otherwise, your dessert would make the wine come across as sour and bitter.

You can get creative here, but lighter desserts might go better with a sparkling wine like champagne or a white wine like Chardonnay. Rosé can be great for a number of desserts with fruit.

Pair white and low-alcohol sweet wines with spicy foods

Spicy foods don’t go well with red wines, making them come across as spicier because of high tannin levels.

That’s why acidic white wines like Pinot Grigio and the fruity Gewürztraminer are better options for spicy dishes, such as vegetable curry. Sweet wines with low alcohol content (alcohol makes spicy food taste spicier) are another brilliant option.

If you’re making curry and craving red wine, go for light-bodied Pinot Noir, which is more acidic than other reds and has lower tannin levels.

However, if you’re someone who loves the heat of a dish, then medium to full-bodied red wine can help crank up the spice intensity.

Serve salty dishes with acidic and fruity wines

This is another instance where high-tannin reds don’t work particularly well, as they can make salty dishes taste saltier. Acidic wines can bring the necessary balance, just like many sweet and fruity wines.

You can’t go wrong with Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and crisp Rosé.

Pair sweet wines with bitter foods

Sweet wines have low to no tannins (tannins increase the wine’s bitterness), so they can taste magical with bitter foods.

Get creative with complementary and congruent pairings

White, Rosé and sparkling wines are typically better for balancing contrasting flavours (complementary pairing). For instance, a highly-acidic white wine like Riesling will complement fatty foods, curries, and creamy, piquant sauces.

Their red counterparts can better enhance shared flavour compounds (congruent pairing). However, a creamy white wine like Chardonnay can create a congruent pairing, too (with vegan mac and cheese, for example).

Some Delicious Vegan Food and Wine Pairings

These are just starting points for the most common vegan food to help you understand how to pick out the best wines:

• Green vegetables taste great with Rosé wines, as well as dry white wines like Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc, and sparkling wines like Prosecco and Champagne.
• Leafy greens and salads are ideal with Rosé, high-acidity white wines like Sauvignon Blanc, and sparkling wines like Champagne, Cava, and Crémant.
• Roasted vegetables pair well with Rosé wines, acidic and aromatic white wines like Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Gewürztraminer, light-bodied reds like Gamay and Pinot Noir, and medium-bodied reds like Zinfandel and Merlot. Surprisingly enough, acidic and fruity reds with low tannin content can work like a charm, too, such as light-bodied Barbera and full-bodied Malbec.
• Choose a Rosé, full-bodied white, aromatic white, or light red with root vegetables.
• When eating fresh fruits, go for a high-acidity white wine or a dry sparkling wine.
• Dried fruits would pair excellently with a Gewurztraminer due to the rich floral and honey notes of this white wine. [GU2] [pr3]
• Legumes can have an earthy flavour, which is why earthy-flavoured reds like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon can be ideal for them. Sparkling, Rosé, light-bodied reds, and medium-bodied reds work great with beans, too.
• When eating nuts, pair them with Rosé, aromatic white wines like Riesling and Pinot Gris, and sweet wines like Sauternes.[GU4] [pr5] Sweet wines usually have a higher alcohol content, so make sure to drink in moderation when pairing them with any food. Nut-based sauces and roasted almonds can taste wonderfully with light-bodied reds, too.

Final Words

There are plenty more vegan food and wine pairings you can try, but these can nudge you in the right direction.

Craving some vegan sushi? Open a bottle of any sparkling wine. Want to enjoy vegan lox with red onion and capers? We recommend Sauvignon Blanc. Add some nutty whole grains and mushrooms, and you’ll have an umami flavour that makes for a wonderful congruent pairing.

There are infinite choices out there, so get creative, experiment with different flavours, and take your vegan diet to the next level.

Add Savage Vines like – none are present in the article [GU1] [GU1]

Port is a fortified wine, it’s not right to call it a sweet red wine. “Dried fruits would pair excellently with a Gewurztraminer due to the rich floral and honey notes of this white wine.” – use that. Things can be kept simpler here, a wine and food pairing can just be one food and one wine, it doesn’t need to be Marsala and Port and Pinot Noir etc [GU2] [GU2]

Done, please check. [pr3] [pr3]

Neither is exclusively, or even, a dessert wine – please choose different examples [GU4] [GU4]

corrected, please check [pr5] [pr5] [pr5]