Whether it’s a party for a room full of people or just a fine evening with your significant other, your guests must wait for the drinks to come. And you surely want to surprise them with not only the best wines but also delicious snacks.
While planning for the snacks to pair with wine, you need to understand a few basics about this unique pairing, as each type of wine has a unique taste. And you need to pair according to that taste; otherwise, both your snacks and wine will lose their original taste and be less palatable.
In this article, we have enlisted 5 mouthwatering snacks that go well with wine, depending on the intensity of the flavour. And before jumping to the snack list and recipe, here are a few tips on the basics of wine pairing.
How Should You Pair Your Wine With Snacks?
Depending on the vinification methods, colours, and alcoholic strength, you may find wines of different varieties. Again, there are over 10,000 grape varieties worldwide, and you can only imagine how many flavours of wine you may come across.
You will be able to break the code of pairing any wine with food if you follow these tips below:
- You need to pick a sweeter wine than the snacks you pair it with.
- The snack you are preparing should have the same flavour intensity as the wine—for example, light snacks with light wines and rounded wines with fatty snacks.
- You must select a wine that is more acidic than your snacks.
- If you are having snacks with red meat, pair Grenache red wine with it.
- To pair white wine, pick light-intensity foods, for example, chicken and fish.
5 Mouthwatering Snacks That Pair Well With Wine
When you have lots of things to do and less time to prepare for your guests, you need a few quick snack recipes to keep the crowd calm while you work on the main dish.
Whether you are prepping for a wine taste test, a marriage anniversary, or a simple movie night, you need the right snacks to serve with wine to set the right mood. And here are the 5 delicious snacks to make your guests go crazy.
- Jerky
Let’s start with a snack item that you can buy in any store and serve with or without a dipping sauce. Since it already contains special spices, it tastes amazing even if you chew it without any seasoning or sauces.
If you are thinking of pairing wine with jerky, you could choose it from https://jerkybrands.com/exotic-jerky/. This fine collection includes deer, duck, buffalo, kangaroo, ostrich, and even alligator jerky.
Wine to Pair With:
There is an innate umami-like taste to jerky, especially beef jerky, and we find that earthy, aged wines match particularly well with this snack. Choose a Rioja Gran Reserva; it’s a safe bet. If you have access to a particularly aged Rioja, that’s ideal, as the soft tannins of Rioja will complement the jerky’s natural savoury flavours.
Other than Rioja, you can pair the following:
- Turkey jerky with Pinot Grigio, Zinfandel, or Sauvignon Blanc.
- Beef jerky with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, etc.
- Chicken Liver Mousse
Mousses or pates can be a tasty and compatible snack to have with wine. And making chicken liver mousse is easy and less time-consuming.
You need to melt the butter in a large sauté pan and sauté the apple, onion, and thyme over low heat, covered, until the apples are tender. After that, turn the heat up to medium, take the lid off the pan, and cook the livers until they are firm but still a little pink in the middle.
Remember to put it away from the stove and let the temperature drop. Blend in the brandy, salt, and pepper in a food processor, then refrigerate overnight with a cover. In the meantime, whisk the heavy cream until it forms soft peaks. Blend into the liver puree after it has cooled. You must serve the mousse cold.
Wine to Pair With:
Champagne pâté, sage and pork mousse, and chicken liver mousse are all enhanced by the floral and aromatic qualities of Riesling wine.
You can have truffle mousse with red or white wines. Since mousses are light in flavour and texture, the light wines pair perfectly with them.
Again, creamy liver mousses have a rich and rustic flavour. So, pairing it with Zinfandel is the best idea.
And if you plan to prepare this snack after a tiring day in the hot summer, pair it with the best white wine for the summer season.
- Pizza Rolls
These pizza rolls will surely win over the hearts of your guests with good-quality wine. And here’s how to make them.
You can find frozen pizza rolls in the supermarket, which you need to toss into an air fryer, and voila! Your snack for the evening is ready.
Spray oil on pizza rolls in an air fryer basket. Shake pizza rolls midway through air-frying for 8 minutes at 380°F. Toss with Parmesan. Serve pizza rolls with sauce on a serving dish sprinkled with additional Parmesan cheese.
Wine to Pair With:
Because pizza rolls are so much fun, we thought it is only fitting to serve them with a similarly lighthearted wine. To avoid a collision with the tomato sauce in the pizza rolls, you should serve an acidic red wine such as a Barbera, Beaujolais, Chianti Classico, or Lambrusco. It pairs well with a doughy pizza roll because of its light body and modest tannins.
Also, you can have skin contact wine, for example, Mulatschak.
- Lemon Garlic Butter Scallop
Ever thought of pairing your favourite wine with scallops? Whether it is a salad prep with grapefruit-onion or cooked with lemon and garlic, it will make a blast of flavours when you have it in your mouth.
To cook scallops, you need to simmer some oil in a hot pan or skillet. This is a crucial stage because you want the exterior to get nice and golden brown as they sizzle. Then, cook them for two to three minutes per side in a hot pan without turning them. To prevent food from sticking together, you should use a large pan or cook in batches.
After that, take the scallops off the pan and sauté the veggies and onion or garlic. You can also add cheese for a creamy consistency.
Wine to Pair With:
Sauvignon Blanc, Vinho Verde, and Verdejo are all light and refreshing wines that pair well with zesty dishes like scallops salad. Vinaigrette, bbq or sautéed fish, and goat cheese all pair nicely with Sauvignon Blanc.
Although there is no hard and fast rule for pairing wine with food, both of them taste better when you know what food to pair with what kind of wine. Here is a basic wine guide if you want to know more about wine.
5. Bruschetta
Bruschetta is the perfect snack when you want something light and tasty. Bruschetta is the ideal appetiser since it is easy to make but has an incomparable flavour.
The traditional, fresh bruschetta is easy to make. That sophisticated Italian appetiser is simple enough for everyone to make.
To make a tomato sauce, heat the olive oil in a small saucepan or skillet, add the garlic, and let it turn golden. Then chop the tomatoes and basil while you wait for the mixture to cool in a large mixing bowl.
When the mixture has cooled, add the tomatoes to the bowl. Then mix with salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, basil, and parmesan cheese. Coat everything in the mixture and toss it. And finally, sprinkle with additional parmesan and serve immediately over toasted bread.
When toasting bread, arrange the bread on a baking sheet that is 18 inches by 13 inches. Broil one side until golden brown, then flip the slices and repeat with the other side.
Wine to pair with:
This dish is perfect to pair with Pinot Grigio (Candoni). The grapes used to make this wine are of the highest quality, as has come to be expected from the Veneto area. This wine, with its medium body and refreshing acidity, is ideal for pairing with bruschetta since it won’t dominate the dish’s other bright elements while also standing up to the acidic taste of tomatoes.
Conclusion
From the tips of pairing food with wine to the snack ideas, we hope that you found the perfect match for wine for your next party. Make sure you pick the finger food ideas depending on the intensity of the wine flavouring.
Your snacks need to be special in presentation, flavour and taste, just like the wine you are choosing for your loved ones. Therefore, try to select the food items from these 5 mouthwatering snacks that go well with wine and will complement the taste of the wine, not mask it or make it taste different.