Acidity cuts fat
High-acid wines refresh fatty, rich, or creamy foods by clearing the palate between bites.
Food & Wine Pairings
What goes with what — and why.
Search from either side of the table. Tell us the dish you're cooking and we'll find the bottle — or tell us the bottle and we'll find the dish.
I have a dish — what wine?
Popular dishes
Apple Pie
BBQ Brisket
Bacon
Baklava
Beef Burger
Beef Stew
Beef Tartare
Beet Salad
Biryani
I have a wine — what to cook?
The Three Levers
Why Pairings Work
Every great match is built on one of three ideas — sometimes all three at once. Once you can name the lever, you can predict the pairing.
Aged wine bridges to slow-cooked food through texture
A well-aged wine and a slow-braised dish pair through shared textural complexity — savory, earthy, and developed flavors on both sides.
Avoid tannin with raw or delicate fish
Tannin reacts with iron compounds in fish to produce a metallic, fishy aftertaste that spoils both.
Featured Pairing
What you'll get back
Every search returns a recommended match, the structural reasoning, and the pairings to avoid.
The dish
Fruit Tart
The wine
Off-dry Riesling
Why it works
A fruit tart needs a wine that is sweet enough for the dessert but not heavy enough to bury the fruit. Off-dry Riesling works here because its gentle sweetness, low alcohol, and bright acidity cool spice, flatter salt, and refresh rich sauces. The important move is making sure the wine has enough sweetness for the dessert, letting a little sweetness flatter salt and savoriness, so the wine supports the food instead of becoming a separate event.
Browse by Dish
Browse by category
Nine kitchens worth of inspiration.
Browse by Wine Style
Browse by wine style
Eight families that cover almost every bottle on the shelf.
Bold Reds
Cabernet, Syrah, Malbec, Nebbiolo
Elegant Reds
Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Grenache, Gamay
Crisp Whites
Sauvignon Blanc, Albariño, Vermentino
Round Whites
Chardonnay, Viognier, Roussanne
Bubbly
Champagne, Cava, Crémant, Prosecco
Rosé
Provençal, Tavel, dry rosés
Sweet
Sauternes, Tokaji, late-harvest Riesling
Fortified
Port, Sherry, Madeira, Marsala
Still Stuck?
Ask Scott a question →
Just ask Scott.
Got a weird ingredient, a half-finished bottle, or a dinner-party puzzle? Scott has read every pairing in this database and a lot more — and he'll explain his reasoning.
