Wine With Pizza – A Great Pairing

Pizza. A seemingly permanent staple to any household that can satisfy most social occasions; be it a Sunday game, a stay-in date night, a harried week night dinner, or just straight cold-from-the-fridge-breakfast. It has evolved in many ways, although still is taken as fast food delivery or served up as a gourmet banquet, and we Americans buy a lot of it. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates we spend roughly $37 – $39 billion (yes, billion with a “B”) annually, accounting for a third of the global supply. But we know the burning question you have: what to do about pairing pizza with wine?

There are a lot of components to consider when pairing wine with food anyway, and it’s best to understand how each component fits in the jigsaw puzzle of pairing. But in choosing wine with pizza, it’s good to look at what the wine offers: acidity, tannin, fruit intensity, body (light, medium, full) and secondary characteristics such as smoke, earth, spice, or cedar.

With pizza you want to assess:

– The crust and whether it’s unflavored or topped with garlic, olive oil, cheese and/or herbs.

– Take sauces into account since they can be higher in acidity (red sauces), creamy with garlic flavors (white sauce) or have ventured off into BBQ sauces or buffalo/spicy sauces.

– Finally, the cheese will give the pizza some creaminess, but will be fattier, saltier and either have a milder or pungent aroma.

Next are the toppings.

– Meat toppings will be smoky, savory, salty, fatty with the potential of some spice. Typical meat topping choices are (but not limited to) pepperoni, sausage, bacon and ground beef.

– Vegetables toppings will be savory and earthy with more zest and herbaceous and are generally lighter when compared to meat-topped pizzas.

To simplify things before we get into the pairings, understand that you’ll want to pair similarities and/or contrasts. It’s important to match acidity levels, match flavors and textures, and overall body. Riper fruit balances out the spices, saltiness will pair well with acidity, and acidity and tannins in wine even out the fattiness.

Veggie Pizzas

Veggie pizzas will be lighter overall than meat pizzas but will have a fairly savory profile to them. The tomato sauce will give the pizza higher acidity with a mild sweetness and the veggies will have a more pronounced herbal and earthy note. Mozzarella, a typical cheese, will give the pizza a nice smoothness.

A Rhone Valley red works well with veggie pizzas because Rhone reds lend themselves to earthy and smokey notes that complement the “savoriness” of the veggies, and their acidity and tannins cuts through the fattiness of the cheese. Nero D’avola is an excellent choice when pairing wine with pizza. The pronounced, ripe fruit notes will balance bring out the vegetal flavors of the pizza and the acidity in the wine will complement the acidity in the tomato sauce.

White Pizza

White pizzas, or pizza made with no tomato sauce, features rich, velvety and an appealing, overall zesty taste. Expect garlic to be a dominant flavor, on top of herbal notes from basil and oregano while not featuring much in the way of other toppings. Oaked Chardonnay makes for a good pairing because the buttery flavor of the oak aging compliments the pizza and the acidity will be able to cut through the richness of the cheese.

Pinot Grigio is another “go-to” for white pizza. Light and unoaked, Pinot Grigios, especially from Alsace or northern Italy, feature much higher acidity which can contend with the abundant helpings of cheese.

Meat Toppings

Pepperoni, and meat-topped pizzas will have a fuller style with a lot of flavor, will be smokier with pronounced spices and moistness from the oils. Valpolicella, an often-overlooked wine, makes a great counterpart with meat pizzas. The higher acidity in the wine will complement the acidity in the sauce while contrasting the strength of the cheese. The juiciness in the fruit of the wine will help to balance out the spices from the pepperoni.

Barbera, the red Italian grape varietal that many people give little thought to, pairs nicely with pepperoni pizzas. Much like Valpolicella, Barbera’s will be ripe and fruit-forward which works well with the spice and saltiness of the pepperoni. Conversely, the spices in the pepperoni will then enhance the fruit intensity of the Barbera.

Cheese

A favorite among many, the plain cheese pizza (or extra cheese) may be a basic in some sense but can come with its own abundance of flavors. Characteristically a creamy, albeit slightly oily texture depending on the preparation, it may have higher acidic levels from additional tomato sauce or more a garlic and herb notes with the lack of toppings. A traditional Chianti will make a rather nice pairing as the tannins in the Chianti will counterbalance the fattiness of the cheese while the wine’s acidity will pair with the sauce.

Montepulciano D’abruzzo, also pairs well with cheese pizzas as it’s a deep-flavored, dark wine with earthy tones and slightly peppery and spicy notes. Much like the Chianti, the acidity in the Montepulciano will match with the acidity of the tomato sauce while the tannin will cut through the richness of the cheese.

As we have continually said, wine and food pairing are all about trial and error, since everybody has a different palate and personal preferences. It’s always best to experiment with different combinations to see what works and what doesn’t for you. The proper pairing can and will enhance your dining experience, whether it’s with seafood, steak or pizza. And if a food and wine pairing works for your palate, then that pairing works for you. We hope that you can use the information presented here to be a baseline in your search for the perfect match of wine with pizza!

You can also find our other blogs on wine like Cabernet, Merlot or Bordeaux.

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