I love drinking Bordeaux, but struggle with what to eat with it sometimes. I’m an enthusiastic omnivore but I’m trying to eat less heavy meat-centric dishes. All the recommended pairings for Bordeaux seem to be steak, roasts, other cuts of beef, game: lots of fat, lots of animal protein. I’m not opposed to that type of food, but it’s exactly what I’m trying to eat less of. I tried a warm lentil stew with a hunk of crusty bread with some young Bordeaux the other night and it was a pretty meh pairing I thought.
I know there is lots of love for Bordeaux on this board. So, what do you like to eat with it? Are you all chowing down on a juicy steak with your Bordeaux, or are you going another direction? I’d love recommendations for both young and aged wines.
I’m much more careful about food pairings with white wine. With Bordeaux, it depends on the wine and its age, but I find anything goes as long as it isn’t too strong or spicy. I really enjoy eating duck with Bordeaux, whether magret or confit, but actually more often than not, if it’s a really good bottle, I don’t eat anything with it at all - I keep the wine for after dinner, which allows me to focus on the flavours much more easily.
I’m not a big hunk of meat kinda guy but I drink Bordeaux nearly every day.
I drink it with nearly anything roasted, grilled, braised, sauteed, steamed, or cold.
Meals that include rice, potatoes, vegetables, mushrooms, bread, cheese are all good candidates.
I eat pesto - as a dip or on pasta - with Bordeaux. Sometimes it works, sometimes the pesto overpowers the wine.
Sandwiches, grinders, gyros, etc. go well with Bordeaux.
Hummus goes with Bordeaux.
Pasta salads go with Bordeaux.
Fried chicken probably goes well with Bordeaux.
I eat drink Bordeaux 2x or more weekly. Pairs with lots of things, pork, lamb, chicken, pasta dishes, pizza, et al. I do not pair it with fish, but so many other options. I don’t over-thinking pairings. Had it a couple days ago with a Chick-Fil-A sandwich, major yum!
And if you are courageous, @Jeff_Leve’s Bordeaux pair wonderfully with chocolate cake!
I agree, it’s a terrible pairing. I think most red wine pairs terribly with sweets.
I occasionally have it with grilled salmon or pan seared tuna, but not the best pairing g for me. I would not pair it with white fish.
You’ll laugh, I brought a 2000 Lynch Bages to a client dinner last year, and the client loves pairing Bordeaux with vanilla ice cream. Since he pays my bills, I had it, but wow that does not work.
Fish is fine for me with a red wine sauce, otherwise it brings out the metallic in a wine. Portobello mushrooms, cheese, chicken (love schnitzel) potatoes in most forms, veal.
Then of course there is my favorite vegetable lobster. It doesn’t go with the wine of course, but the wine does work with a hunk of cheese afterwards.
Agreed with a lot of the commonly held wisdom here. But one unique perspective I’ll add here is “lighter” Bordeaux. What I mean is stuff with lots of age, from lesser producers and/or weaker vintages. I’ve attempted some Bordeaux in these categories with steak and really found they fell flat. Meat overpowered the wine. Specific examples include 1971 Chasse Spleen and 1982 Carbonnieux. In those cases I wished I was drinking something a bit more youthful and/or from a bigger vintage to go with my steak. Like a 2000 or 2004 or maybe even a lesser 2005. Or for more of a Grand Vin (eg. 1st/2nd Growth), maybe a 1989, 1990, 1996.
No knock against these “lighter” Bordeaux, I actually think they can be lovely wines, but I prefer them with poultry or pork over beef. Perhaps even a vegetarian dish with dairy or legumes.
I drink most of my Bordeaux when at home while sitting in my leather armchair, paired with music I like, and a good book (probably wine related too!). One reason why I like lower acid wines…they don’t need any food to be great.
I made an eggplant curry last night, and had a glass of Rieussec, afterwards. Surprisingly, the minions ate it too. Eggplants are normally on the list of foods they are suspicious of.
For my palate, Bordeaux needs some sort of meat. Something like Coq au Vin, which is a chicken dish with a red wine sauce, would work with Bordeaux that have some bottle age to them (15+ years).
As to chocolate, I think it works if you’re talking about dark chocolate with a high cocoa percentage and not a lot of sugar. That includes very dark chocolate cakes like flourless chocolate cake or perhaps the 1990s favorite chocolate lava cake.
