‘Eating Out’ At Home: Premium Wines for Your Restaurant Takeout

A true work of art (and pretty tricky to recreate at home!), sushi is one of those speciality dishes and fine dining experiences that many of us are missing in lockdown – but a restaurant that’s doing home deliveries is the next best thing.

Sushi has a refined and delicate flavour profile, and can be easily overwhelmed by a wine that’s too bold or heavy. A key thing to be aware of is that you’ll find many umami foods in this cuisine – in the fish, the soy sauce, seaweed, avocado and even in the pickled ginger palate cleansers.

Umami is a savoury taste that can be a difficult food category to successfully pair with wine as it increases the perception of alcohol burn in the wine it’s partnered with. It also has the ability to appear to increase bitterness in wine, and decrease any fruitier, sweeter notes – so it’s pretty important you choose a style of wine that hits all the right notes for this takeaway.

Wines to Pair with Sushi

A good way of balancing out umami on your palate is with a fruity, acidic wine. Chablis is known for having zingy acidity and pronounced citrus fruit flavours that aren’t dulled down too much by umami. The Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis, for example, is crisp and light in style, which suits light sushi and sashimi dishes perfectly, while also bringing an elegant minerality that complements rice, raw fish and seaweed very well.

A fruity yet acidic rosé is also a delicious match for this Japanese delicacy. Just make sure it’s from a cooler climate French wine region or similar, as rosé wine from a hot climate will be less acidic and higher in alcohol – which could lead to that alcohol burn we spoke about! The Cuvee de L’Aubade Cotes de Provence is a peach-tinted beauty that’ll make a refreshing and sophisticated pairing for your Saturday night sushi supper.

Who doesn’t salivate at the thought of a traditional Thai meal cooked to perfection? A mouth-watering balance of vibrant citrus flavours, spice, umami and nuts, Thai food has become a hugely popular cuisine on the UK restaurant scene in recent years – and now a highly in demand restaurant takeout treat!

There are a few factors to weigh up here when it comes to your wine choice. Across the selection of main and side dishes you choose for your Friday night feast, you’ll likely have crushed peanuts and coconuts, a fair amount of chilli heat, a dash of lime zest and plenty of saltiness from the fish sauce and shrimp paste. Chicken and pork are popular meats in Thai cooking, so this is worth keeping in mind too when choosing your vino.

Wines to Pair with Thai Food

Salty food can make a wine feel fuller and richer in body, and also tones down any bitterness or acidity in the wine. A great wine style to balance out the salt coming from those Thai sauces and pastes is a sweeter white wine with plenty of acidity, such as Riesling. This is a grape variety that produces fresh, aromatic, zingy white wines with sweet notes of apricot and honey.

Look to cool climate Germany for the best examples of this, including the multi award-winning Hiestand Asia de Cuba Riesling. Everything about this drop makes it a match made in heaven for your Thai takeaway – notes of lime and lemon to complement the lime in the food, just enough sweetness to balance out the salty ingredients and to complement your pork dishes, light enough to not overpower the chicken and umami dishes, and a wonderfully rich body that will be further accentuated on your palate by the salty food. Pure magic.

You’ve been craving a beautiful pasta dish from that little Italian place down the road, and you know recreating it at home just won’t be the same. So put your feet up, place that order and indulge yourself – all you’ve got to do is decide which bottle to open.

Authentic Italian cuisine is all about rich, flavoursome sauces, fragrant herbs and cheese. While these are key considerations in your wine of choice, you’ll also need to consider whether you’re wanting a creamy seafood dish, or something with red meat and tomatoes. Whichever way you go, our one golden rule for you is this: Match Italian with Italian.

Wines to Pair with Pasta

Italian wines are shaped in flavour and style by the terroir their grapes were grown in, which is exactly why they are naturally strong matches for the flavours found in Italian food. Italy’s second most planted native red grape is the deliciously juicy and fantastically food-friendly Montepulciano – and it’s the one to go for if you’re ordering a rich red meat spaghetti or ragu, or any dish with a herby, tomato-based sauce. Our top pick is Brio Montepulciano d’Abruzzo for its moreish bright cherry and red plum palate and pleasantly soft tannins.

If you’re going for a creamy lobster dish, a rich, honeyed, sweeter white wine like Soave is a great option. While seafood risotto or mussel linguine calls for a crisp and dry Pinot Grigio. Again, we’d recommend another from the Brio range – the Brio Pinot Grigio is light-bodied, vivacious and will allow those glorious shellfish flavours to shine.

Mexican cuisine is a popular eating out option for its big bold flavours and contrasting textures. You’ll find succulent meat-heavy dishes and spicy salsas that pack a real punch, with rich, buttery-textured beans and avocados served alongside crunchy coleslaws, crispy tacos and tortilla chips.

Classic dishes like beef burritos, chilli beef nachos, pulled pork carnitas and chicken enchiladas all require a wine that balances out the richness of the food. The star ingredients of the dishes you’ve gone for on the menu should dictate whether it’s best to crack open a bottle of red or white.

Wines to Pair with Mexican Food

Mildly spicy white meat dishes such as chicken enchiladas and chicken quesadillas are often served with mild and creamy sides like avocado and sour cream, and garnished with a squeeze of lime and coriander. A crisp and zesty Sauvignon Blanc will work wonders here, as its high acidity will cut through the fattiness of the avocado and creamy textures of the dish to create a refreshing balance on the palate.

In a French Savvy B you’ll find notes of lime and green bell pepper, while examples from Marlborough will also display tropical fruit flavours of papaya and mango – all of which go wonderfully with the ingredients you’ll find in your Mexican chicken dishes. Try the legendary NZ Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc and you won’t be disappointed!

For more powerful flavours – red meat, jalapeños, pungent spices – you want a robust, fruity red that can handle the intensity of the dish, but one that has lower tannins (as this will take the edge of the burn from the spice). Fruit-forward Malbec and Zinfandel both have moderate tannins and a juicy palate, so will soften that chilli pepper kick nicely. Both grape varieties are an extremely strong match for beef too, so you really can’t go wrong with either. We’re a little obsessed with the Schola Sarmenti Cubardi Primitivo IGT Salento (Italy’s answer to Zinfandel) at VW HQ, and would highly recommend a bottle of this deeply-flavoured, dark fruit-driven masterpiece for your meatier Mexican plates.

Many of us are missing that Saturday night treat of going out for a fabulous feast at our local curry house. And it’s a dining experience that certainly divides everyone at the table – the play-it-safe chicken korma crew vs the blow-your-head-off spicy vindaloo-ers! But regardless of where your favourite curry sits on the hotness scale, there’s one key factor that unites them all – their creamy texture.

Finding the perfect wine pairing for your Indian takeaway is really dependent on your own personal preferences with hot food and how sensitive you are to it. An important wine and food pairing rule to be aware of here is that chilli heat intensifies with alcohol, not only amplifying the burn of the chilli on your tongue but also increasing the alcohol burn in your throat and perception of bitterness in the wine (all in all, it’s a bit much – even for the vindaloo fans!). So consider alcohol content, as well as whether the wine complements the texture of the curry.

Wines to Pair with Indian Food

To avoid any overly bitter or burning sensations as you tuck into your takeout, two pretty safe bets are low alcohol white wines and low alcohol red wines with low tannins.

For the red wine lovers, opt for a grape variety that has a lovely balance of red fruit flavours and savoury notes. A fruit-forward Pinot Noir is a strong match for this very reason, but also for its low tannin levels and lower alcohol content. Mountain View Marlborough Pinot Noir is an impressive drop from one of New Zealand’s most innovative winemakers who, through some very clever experimentation in their winery, have produced a truly stunning floral and rich dark cherry Pinot that sits at just 9.5% ABV. Ideal for your spiciest dishes, and with a savoury undertone that pairs well with many classic Indian ingredients.

For your milder, more coconut-heavy dishes, go for a sweet and aromatic Gewürztraminer. Fruit-packed and full-bodied with a luscious mouthfeel, the Cave de Turckheim Gewürztraminer Grand Cru is a great example of this, offering a palate that’ll blend with the flavours of your dish sensationally, as well as a rich body to complement those creamy coconut sauces.