What food goes with Gewurztraminer? Our pairings style by style

With a dry Gewurztraminer, serve a curry, a Munster or chicken in cream sauce; with a medium-sweet one, Peking duck or a prune tagine; with a Vendanges Tardives, foie gras and Roquefort. Sugar decides the dish: our guide, style by style.

Gewurztraminer is an Alsace white grape, an aromatic selection of the old Traminer rose; its name means "spiced". It is one of four grapes allowed in Alsace Grand Cru, the region's 51 classified sites.

Two things govern the pairing: residual sugar, the grape sugar left after fermentation, and aromatic power, lychee, rose and spice. A Gewurztraminer is dry, medium-dry, medium-sweet or sweet, and the dish changes with it.

Since the 2021 vintage, the labelling of an Alsace wine must state its sugar level. Dry up to 4 grams per litre (9 with high acidity), medium-dry up to 12 (18 with high acidity), medium-sweet up to 45, sweet above.

Two mentions, recognised in 1984, escape this rule, their name says enough. Vendanges Tardives, "late harvest": grapes picked overripe, for a medium-sweet wine. Sélection de Grains Nobles: hand-sorted berries taken by noble rot, the fungus that concentrates sugar, for a sweet wine.

Which Gewurztraminer for the aperitif and with foie gras?

A dry one for the aperitif, a Vendanges Tardives with foie gras. The Alsace trade body lists both, and its foie gras favourite is Pinot Gris, not Gewurztraminer.

Aperitif, cheese puffs and onion tart

A dry one, served at 8 °C, with cheese puffs, an onion tart or smoked salmon toasts: its aromas are enough.

Alsace foie gras, terrine or pan-fried

Vendanges Tardives give a medium-sweet wine the trade body serves with foie gras, fig compote or mango chutney. With pan-fried foie gras, hot and sugarless, a dry wine holds better.

Which world cuisines go with Gewurztraminer?

Hot dishes with a dry wine, sweet and sour with a medium-dry or medium-sweet. Two of the trade body's three favourites for the grape.

Curry, Thai food and chilli-hot dishes

A chicken curry, a pad thai or a garam masala dish take a dry Gewurztraminer. Its spice answers the plate's, its weight tames the chilli. Thai cooking is home ground.

Peking duck, caramel pork and tagine

Once the sauce is sweet, Peking duck, caramel pork, sweet and sour fish, move to medium-dry or medium-sweet: sugar answers sugar. A prune tagine follows suit; with olives, it goes back to dry.

Which cheeses go with Gewurztraminer?

Washed-rind cheeses with a dry wine or a Grand Cru, blues with a Vendanges Tardives. Gewurztraminer is the only Alsace white the trade body sends to the "strong-flavoured" cheeses: Munster, Maroilles, Livarot, Pont-l'Évêque.

Munster with cumin, Maroilles and Livarot

Munster, a soft cow's milk cheese with a washed rind, rubbed with brine as it ripens, in appellation since 1969: powerful smell, mild paste. Alsace cumin, in fact caraway, in the paste or on the side, links it to the wine's spice.

A young Munster takes a dry wine; a ripe one, a Grand Cru, longer on the palate.

Roquefort, Fourme d'Ambert and blues

Blues, Roquefort or Fourme d'Ambert, call for a Vendanges Tardives according to the trade body. The sweetness wraps the salt; the cheese gives the wine back a saline edge.

Which desserts go with Gewurztraminer?

Dry or medium-dry with lightly sweetened cakes, Vendanges Tardives with cooked fruit, Sélection de Grains Nobles with dark chocolate. The trade body calls Gewurztraminer the "great specialist" of desserts.

Plum tart, apricots and bredele

Bredele, Alsace's small Christmas biscuits, a plain cake or an apricot tart go with a dry or medium-dry wine. The trade body wants them "moderately sweet". Its tarte aux quetsches, Alsace's purple plum tart, is served with a Gewurztraminer.

Exotic fruit and chocolate

Mango, pineapple and passion fruit get on with a Gewurztraminer; stewed or baked in foil, they move to a Vendanges Tardives, as does milk chocolate. Dark chocolate, tannic, wants a Sélection de Grains Nobles.

Which Alsace dishes go with Gewurztraminer?

Munster, Alsace foie gras, plum tart and tea-time kougelhopf, not sauerkraut. The trade body keeps Riesling for its white-wine dishes, which guides forget.

Choucroute, baeckeoffe and coq au Riesling

With choucroute, Alsace sauerkraut with pork and sausages, the trade body backs Riesling and leaves Gewurztraminer out: its aromas clash with cabbage and smoke. Same for baeckeoffe, three meats marinated in white wine and baked, and coq au Riesling, chicken braised in Riesling: the wine served is the wine in the pot.

Tarte flambée and kougelhopf

Tarte flambée, thin dough with cream, onions and bacon, takes a Sylvaner according to the trade body. Topped with Munster and grilled, it tips towards a dry Gewurztraminer. Kougelhopf, the raisin and almond brioche, goes with Crémant, the Alsace sparkling, or a medium-dry at tea time.

What are the best food pairings with Gewurztraminer?

Sugar picks the dish, then the level, Alsace or Grand Cru. All are served cool, never iced, at 8 to 10 °C according to the trade body. Most are drunk between six months and five years; Grands Crus, Vendanges Tardives and Sélection de Grains Nobles age far longer.

Dry Gewurztraminer: aperitif, curry and Thai food, pan-fried foie gras, young Munster, tarte flambée with Munster, bredele and exotic fruit.

Medium-dry or medium-sweet Gewurztraminer: Peking duck, caramel pork, prune tagine, kougelhopf.

Gewurztraminer Grand Cru: more tension, a saline touch according to the trade body; ripe Munster, festive dishes; made to age.

Gewurztraminer Vendanges Tardives: foie gras terrine, duck in orange sauce, Roquefort and blues, stewed fruit. At least 270 grams of sugar per litre of must, the juice before fermentation.

Gewurztraminer Sélection de Grains Nobles: dark chocolate, or nothing; these wines "are enough on their own", writes the trade body. At least 306 grams of sugar per litre of must.

Bonus: our chicken in Gewurztraminer recipe

Coq au Riesling moved to the spiced grape, with cream and mushrooms. Take a dry one and serve the same at table: in Alsace, the wine in the pot is the wine in the glass.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1 free-range chicken in 8 pieces
• 25 cl of dry Gewurztraminer
• 20 cl of thick cream
• 250 g of button mushrooms
• 2 shallots and 1 clove of garlic
• 20 g of butter and a spoonful of oil
• 1 sprig of thyme, 1 pinch of caraway
• Salt, pepper

Method

Brown the chicken in butter and oil, salt, pepper. Add sliced shallots and garlic, two minutes to soften.

Pour in the Gewurztraminer, scrape the pot, add thyme and caraway. Cover and simmer thirty minutes, low heat.

Fry the mushrooms separately, add them with the cream, ten minutes uncovered. Serve with spätzle, Alsace's small egg noodles, and the same dry Gewurztraminer, well chilled.

Gewurztraminer is not one wine, it is four. The dry goes with curry and Munster, the medium-sweet with Peking duck, the Vendanges Tardives with foie gras, the Sélection de Grains Nobles with dark chocolate, or with nothing.

Before choosing, turn the bottle round: since 2021, the label says dry, medium-dry, medium-sweet or sweet. Leave the sauerkraut to Riesling.

Frequently asked questions about Gewurztraminer pairings

How can you tell a dry Gewurztraminer from a sweet one before opening it?

Turn the bottle round. Since the 2021 vintage, Alsace labels must carry it, in words or on a cursor scale: sec, demi-sec, moelleux or doux, dry to sweet. No mention means an older vintage, or a Vendanges Tardives or Sélection de Grains Nobles, always rich.

Can you serve Gewurztraminer with sauerkraut?

The trade body does not: its pairing chart puts sauerkraut with Riesling, Sylvaner and Crémant, never with Gewurztraminer. Fermented cabbage and smoke fight with the rose and lychee.

Which Gewurztraminer with a Munster and cumin?

A dry one with a young Munster, a Grand Cru with a ripe one, as the smell rises. Served alongside, caraway lifts the wine's spice. A medium-sweet works less well: its sugar weighs down an already rich paste.

Is a Gewurztraminer Vendanges Tardives for the aperitif or for dessert?

Both, according to the trade body, which also lists it with foie gras. Its rule: dishes "with temperament", duck in orange sauce, lobster in sweet sauce, Roquefort. For dessert, stewed yellow or exotic fruit. Serve it cool, 8 to 10 °C.

Why buy your Gewurztraminer direct from the winemaker?

Because the style is chosen at the source: the winegrower knows which of his Gewurztraminers is dry, which keeps sugar, which is a Grand Cru. The wine leaves his cellar at estate prices, with no middleman's margin.