Comfort food is great all year round but it just tastes better when it’s cold and snowy outside. So here are a few wine suggestions to go with your favourite comfort dishes on these last winter days.
A warm, home-made lasagna is hard to beat. You might have already heard that what grows together, goes together, so a red Italian wine would be a great pairing choice. Chianti has the acidity to match the tomato sauce and the fruit flavours to hold all the delicious layers of cheese and noodles. For a less obvious choice, try a Montepulciano D’Abruzzo, in many ways similar to a Chianti, but with more earthy and herbaceous notes for you to discover.
Poutine is perhaps the quintessential Canadian Comfort food, but not always an easy one to pair with wine. A Pinot Noir from Prince Edward County or the Okanagan Valley has the freshness, the fruit and the earthy notes to complement the richness of the gravy and the cheese curds.
If Mac & Cheese ranks high on your list of comfort foods, try pairing it with a full-bodied white wine – a creamy wine for a creamy dish. A California Chardonnay would be the safest bet, however, if you feel like daring into slightly less familiar territory and you haven’t tried a Viognier or a Marsanne, a decadent Mac&Cheese is the excuse you were waiting for!
John Carrolo
