Best Wines to Pair With Pasta | Nico Boston (2024)

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Best Wines to Pair With Pasta | Nico Boston? ›

To highlight the freshness of your dish and bring out the flavors a great wine pairing would be a white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay. These dry, floral white wines really help in enhancing the flavors in a vegetable pasta dish!

Generally, white wines like Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Riesling pair well with lighter pasta dishes, while red wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Merlot are great for richer and bolder pasta sauces.

Tomato-Based Pasta Dishes

If you're enjoying pasta with a simple tomato sauce (like a marinara,) go for a medium-bodied red wine. A Dolcetto is a perfect option. Meaning 'little sweet,' this wine offers just enough body, acidity, and fruitiness to pair with lighter tomato-based pasta dishes.

Pastas served with creamy sauces such as alfredo, pair excellently with light bodied white wines. Think Chardonnay or Chardonnay blends. Light or Olive oil based pasta dishes like Agelio e Olio and Spaghetti Carbonara are well balanced with crisp dry white wines like Sauvignon Blanc.

Seafood (spaghetti alle vongole, spaghetti with mussels, linguine with crab) need crisp dry whites such as Frascati, Verdicchio, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Muscadet or Picpoul de Pinet. A dry rosé is good too. Crab or lobster sauces can take a fuller white such as a good quality Soave or Chardonnay.

Opt for a crisp and dry white such as Riesling, which will cool the palate from the spice, or if you're craving a red, opt for light and fruity wines with low to medium tannins – Barbera and Zinfandel are some of the best red wines to pair with pasta with added oomph.

Cabernet Sauvignon is best paired with pasta featuring red tomato-based sauces to complement the wine's rich hearty flavor. Chianti dry red wine is best known for having a bold taste and color. Chianti Classico wines pair perfectly with red tomato-based sauces.

Pinot Noir

It's a popular choice amongst Italian food lovers and has various vanilla, jam, leather, and earth notes. While Pinot Noir pairs well with red tomato-based sauces, it also compliments oil-based dishes and white pasta sauces.

Cabernet Sauvignon is a rich red wine, which helps it pair greatly with most tomato based red sauces in pizza and pasta. The wine is also famous for matching fatty red meats, such as rump, ribeye and sirloin steaks. This is because Cabernet Sauvignon stands up to the flavours in rich meat without overpowering them.

Pinot Grigio

There's not just one wine. But if you have to pick one wine, the Pinot Grigio is an excellent choice. With a lot of acidic flavors, this particular wine balances well with the savory taste of the chicken Alfredo. The acidic and crisp taste also pairs well with creamy dishes like the chicken Alfredo.

Is Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc better with pasta? ›

One of the best pairings is the Sauvignon Blanc. This light-bodied white wine has a crispness that is perfect for this dish — the desired acidity level can cut through the creaminess of the cheese. Another white that goes well with cheese-based pasta is Pinot Grigio with its fruity taste.

An oaked Sauvignon Blanc will work very well with creamy pasta dishes or a mushroom risotto. Citrusy or herbaceous Sauv Blancs, on the other hand, are better with pesto pasta, ravioli with herbed tomato sauce, or simple pasta dishes with olive oil, lemon, fresh tomatoes, and greens.

White sauce with wine for pasta

To infuse your pasta sauce with more complex flavors, use an aromatic white such as a Riesling, Gewürztraminer, or Muscat. For pesto dishes, dry whites such as a Gavi or Soave are delightful choices, and a light Chardonnay could work as well.

Tomato-based sauces are powerfully tasting and highly acid – and are often blended with rich, red meats. Because of the acidity in tomatoes, a relatively tart red wine with middle-weight body (like a Pinot Noir) is your best option.

Light, floral red wines such as Pinot Noir pair well with pasta topped with hard cheeses like Parmesan, Pecorino, and Romano. White wines have their place in red sauces, too, especially when you are using a lighter protein such as seafood or chicken.

Chardonnay

Since Chardonnay has a buttery taste, it complements well with buttery chicken found in chicken Alfredo. This restrained taste gives the Chardonnay less of an oaky taste and more of a buttery taste.