I was interested in the board’s thoughts having wine with soup.
Obviously there are many kinds of soup, and there is also soup as a small early dish (e.g. maybe you’re doing a dinner with matching wines and one early course is a soup) versus soup as the entree, and countless other issues. But I was just wondering how some of you think of it, both generally and specifically.
Are there any general rules that apply to soup as a category, or do you more just match the flavors of the soup in question with wine the way you would for regular dishes?
Does it really need to be a white, rose or sparkler than can be served cool or cold with it, or can a red work?
Are you more often looking for particular wine characteristics such as high acid, sweetness, or stronger flavors when you are having soup?
Do you have a specific pairing of a wine and soup you have found to be very successful? For example, I’ve served German riesling with a mildly spicy pumpkin soup my wife makes and it seemed to pair very well.
And yes, we all know you can drink non-wine beverages like beer, water and soda with soup, but this is Wine Berserkers and the question is about wine.
There are many pairings that can work, depending on what soup and what course, as you said. But for the most part I don’t pair wine with soup. If soup is dinner in and of itself, and I feel like wine, I might choose something, but more often I don’t. If it’s part of a multi-course meal, I make sure the wine paired to the previous course can carry through the soup course for those who want it to, but don’t usually make a separate pairing. Liquid with liquid isn’t so appealing for me.
For things like a kaiseki meal where there is always at least one soup, I am usually just drinking sake, perhaps a champagne, and don’t worry about course-by-course pairing.
Do you have any ones to share from your experience?
I knew going in that the “just don’t drink wine with it” ground will be immediately and forcefully covered by many, but I’m more interested in experiences and ideas around wine with soup. Thanks.
Champagne works pretty damn well with almost everything. It’s the heat that’s often problematic for me. When something is a bit cooler, like a lobster bisque, champagne cuts some fat.
On the stew topic, it feels like a hearty beef/lamb type stew would pair well with most red meat type wines (Bordeaux, cab, Chinon, Bandol, Barolo, etc.), wouldn’t it? Or does it being in stew form change the pairing advice any?
Generally agree. Something that is akin to a Boeuf Bourguigon for sure is very wine friendly. A Thai curry that is brothy same. Still if it’s more of a liquid with stuff in it, rather than a saucy bowl of something, I tend to skip. Temperature, as mentioned above, is also a consideration. Really hot soup kills wine for me.
Stews on the other hand, and for me a stew comes with some sort of side dish on the plate, definitely wine and it will really depend on the type of stew of course. However that’s in regular wine pairing territory.
Ps. This is probably just me, but something else than soup I have difficulties to fully enjoy wine pairings with, are dishes that I eat with by hand. With cutleries it’s all is good again
We made French onion soup last Friday and served Chevillon Cailled 2011 with it. Nobody complained.
We make soups all the time in winter. I just drink whatever I want that doesn’t seem to clash with the ingredients. If my wife liked beer or sake maybe we’d do something different, but I’d usually rather be drinking wine anyway.
