“How come you don’t recommend wines for pizza?” I was asked recently. “I eat a lot of pizza. I am sure other people do, too.”
He was right. While I mention a pizza wine now and then, I’ve never written an article that zeroes in on the wines that make the best pairings.
Pizza is a comfort food, often casually served and thus requiring more value-driven wine suggestions. Here are four such recommendations.
Because pizzas can be so different, each wine offers a very different type of pairing. What they have in common is that all are tasty, interesting, wonderfully food-friendly and gulpable.
>> 2016 Elvio Tintero Rosso (roughly $14 a bottle): Tintero is a small, family- owned and operated estate in the Piemonte region of northwest Italy. This is the winery’s “country”- styled red wine, for consuming when friends are over, hanging out and talking story.
The blend of grapes changes every year, to ensure tastiness and those qualities of easy-drinking food-friendliness. It is ideal, especially when slightly chilled, for a meat-oriented pizza — salami, pepperoni or Italian sausage.
The price is so reasonable for a noncommercial wine. I also love supporting a family that has been toiling at this for generations.
>> 2015 Casa alle Vacche Chianti “Colli Senesi” (roughly $17 a bottle): Yet another small, family owned and operated estate, in Tuscany within the Colli Senesi wine region. The sangiovese grape, in cafe-styled red wines like this, is a remarkable mate to pizzas in many styles — chicken, sausages and other meats, and all kinds of vegetables and mushrooms — especially those featuring tomato sauce as the base.
At $17 a bottle this chianti provides quite the bang for your dollar, especially considering it is transported all the way from Italy under temperature-controlled conditions. You will have to visit more progressive wine stores to find this, but it is really worth it.
>> 2016 Birichino Vin Gris (roughly $15 a bottle): It may seem odd to suggest a pink wine with pizza, but this particular one works with myriad preparations. Think about the relief that cranberry sauce offers at Thanksgiving, between bites of rich, savory food, and you’ll understand how this rosé can work with pizza.
Of course, not all rosés are created equally — quality is about much more than color. Birichino is not a hodgepodge of leftover grapes, it is intentionally produced from fruit grown on some very interesting vines and offered at a very reasonable price.
If you eat pizza frequently, consider having this wine readily available.
>> 2016 Domaine Skouras “Zoe” White (roughly $14 a bottle): The other night I chose this wonderfully aromatic wine for some friends to drink with a mushroom and tomato pizza. Boy, did it create a sensation.
Produced from the indigenous roditis and moschofilero grape varieties of southern Greece, this off-dry-to-dry white wine has an enticing perfume, is light in weight and is very crisp and refreshing. You could down gulp after gulp between bites of pizza. Not only will it effortlessly wash down the morsels, it will keep your palate fresh and alive between bites.
This wine also pairs well with all kinds of light fare — salads, pasta, seafood. It really seems to have the magical power to make foods taste better, and the reasonable price is quite remarkable. You can’t go wrong with this wine!
Chuck Furuya is a master sommelier and a partner in the DK Restaurants group. Follow his blog at chuckfuruya.com.
