Having A Dry White Wine? Reach For These Types Of Dishes

Wine pairings can be a tricky business, as you often have to balance several distinct and sometimes disparate flavors. This is especially true of pairing dry white wines, which include such styles as albariño and muscadet. When we're talking about wine, "dry" simply means that there is little to no sugar present, like when you see 'brut' on a sparkling wine label. The absence of sugar means that dry white wines are strongly acidic and often have some minerality. Because of this, they are frequently used as cooking wines, though they're a far cry from common cooking wine, which tends to be salty. Those are the forces you have to contend with when pairing dry white wines.

Not every food is a good match for those big acidic and earthy flavors, so in order to find the best pairings for dry white wine, Chowhound spoke to an expert. Gillian Ballance is the Master Sommelier and National Education Manager at Treasury Wine Estates and a member of the Court of Master Sommeliers Board of Directors. In her opinion, "Dry white wines, such as sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, or chardonnay, pair well with poultry dishes or creamy pastas." This builds on a classic theme in wine pairings, which is matching white wines with white meats and red wines with red meats. There's a reason that this color-matching theme works, and it has to do with the acidity of dry whites.

White meats are typically served with white wines and red meats are typically served with red wines, but it's not just a game of color-matching. Red wines contain strong compounds called tannins that are drying and balanced by fatty red meats, but which spoil the delicate flavors of many poultry and fish dishes — hence why reds are the absolute worst wine pairing for raw fish. On the other hand, proteins like chicken and white fish pair beautifully with the lighter acidity of white wine.

Gillian Ballance highlights one of her favorite dry white wines, the 2022 Sauvignon Blanc from Stags' Leap Napa Valley, saying it "has a palate that is bright and crisp with notes of Meyer lemon, green apple, lime pith, cassis bud, and lychee." Note the highlighted citrus flavors, and consider how popular a squeeze of lemon is on fish and chicken dishes. White meats love acidic pairings.

Ballance also recommends pairing dry white wines with pastas and cream sauces, another instance of matching white and white. Here, it works because the acidity in dry white wine cuts through the richness of a rich, dairy-based sauce. For the ultimate meal to pair with dry white wine, Ballance suggests pairing a creamy pasta with a lemon-and-herb-seasoned chicken.