What food goes with Riesling? Our pairings from young to aged

With a young Riesling, serve oysters, trout or sushi; with a bottle past five years, a choucroute or a baeckeoffe, the Alsace classics; with a Grand Cru, lobster or capon. Age is what decides here: our guide, from the sharpest to the richest.

Riesling is a white grape from the Rhine valley, first in Alsace by planted area since the 1960s. It gives a dry, lively wine, allowed in the 51 classified sites of Alsace Grand Cru.

Two things govern the pairing: the age of the bottle and the level of the appellation. Young, Riesling is taut, on citrus. With the years, and with the soil, it broadens and picks up mineral aromas the Alsace trade body writes as "gun flint, flint, petrol".

Across the 28 lines of its pairing chart it gives Riesling eleven favourites, more than any other Alsace wine. Shellfish, crustaceans, fish, poultry, goat cheese, choucroute, the local sauerkraut.

Which fish and seafood go with Riesling?

Almost all, from oysters to a pan-fried trout. Seven of those eleven favourites come from the sea or the river, raw, grilled, smoked or in sauce.

Oysters, crustaceans and scallops

With oysters the trade body wants a Riesling that is "well dry"; with fatter, more iodised ones it moves up to a Riesling Grand Cru. Crayfish, spiny lobster and lobster take the same wine, with or without lemon.

Trout, pike-perch and freshwater fish

Riesling is the wine of the Alsace rivers. The trade body serves its trout with almonds alongside one, for its lemon notes. Poached pike-perch, pike in butter sauce, a fry of small fish follow suit.

Smoked fish and fish in cream sauce

Smoked salmon, haddock, fish in cream. The trade body lists creamy, roasted and smoked flavours among those that suit Riesling. A bottle with a few years on it carries cream better than a young one.

Which poultry and white meats go with Riesling?

Roast chicken, blanquette de veau, the creamy veal stew, a bouchée à la reine, the chicken vol-au-vent. Its chart puts a favourite on poultry and white meats, whose flesh has no use for tannin.

Roast chicken, veal stew and vol-au-vent

Its chicken escalope with lemon is served with Riesling, and white meats in cream sauce follow. A young wine is enough on a roast bird; a blanquette wants a broader vintage.

Capon, turbot with caviar and festive tables

Move up a level. It takes "all the character" of an Alsace Riesling to hold caviar, the trade body writes. A Grand Cru, denser, goes with turbot, lobster, a Christmas capon; those 51 classified sites are capped at 55 hectolitres per hectare.

Which Alsace dishes cooked in white wine go with Riesling?

Choucroute, baeckeoffe, coq au Riesling: everything Alsace simmers in white wine. The trade body puts all three on Riesling, with one rule: what cooks the dish is what fills the glass.

Choucroute garnie and fish choucroute

With a choucroute garnie, sauerkraut with pork and sausages, its favourite is Riesling: dry and acid, it fears neither the fermented cabbage nor the fat. A fish choucroute calls for the same bottle.

Baeckeoffe and coq au Riesling

Baeckeoffe, three meats marinated then baked in white wine, wants a structured, fresh wine, it says. Coq au Riesling, a bird slow-cooked in that wine, carries its name. Take an older bottle: it stands up to long cooking.

Which world cuisines go with Riesling?

Raw fish and lightly seasoned dishes. The trade body puts its favourites on sushi, ceviche and poke bowls, and sends strongly chilli-hot cooking to Gewurztraminer.

Sushi, maki and marinated raw fish

A young Riesling is "well suited" to sushi, it writes, because it stands up to the force of wasabi. Its acidity and mineral notes cut the fat of raw fish. Same logic on a ceviche.

Wok dishes, fried noodles and mild spice

A vegetable wok, fried noodles, a fish with Thai herbs stay in its register as long as the chilli stays restrained. Once the dish really heats up, or turns sweet and sour, it changes grape.

Which cheeses and desserts go with Riesling?

Goat and sheep on one side, Vendanges Tardives, late-harvest wines, on fruit on the other. Munster goes back to Gewurztraminer, and foie gras to Pinot Gris.

Fresh goat and sheep's tomme

This is the only cheese favourite the trade body gives the grape: the wine's fine, long acidity answers the milk's. A fresh goat cheese, a young sheep's tomme: a young wine is enough. An aged goat wants an older vintage. Washed-rind cheeses want something else.

Vendanges Tardives and fruit desserts

A Riesling Vendanges Tardives comes from grapes picked overripe: 244 grams of sugar per litre of juice before fermentation, where Gewurztraminer needs 270. The trade body sees a balancing act there, for yellow or exotic fruit.

What are the best food pairings with Riesling?

The age of the bottle leads, the appellation level refines. Serve between 8 and 10 °C, cool but not iced: the range the trade body gives for all of Alsace, Grands Crus included.

Its brochure allows six months to five years for most bottles. Its grape sheet goes further for this one: "a wine for keeping that can improve in bottle for decades".

Young Riesling: oysters, crustaceans, scallops, trout with almonds, sushi and ceviche, fresh goat cheese, the aperitif.

Aged Riesling: choucroute, baeckeoffe, coq au Riesling, smoked fish, fish and white meats in cream sauce.

Riesling Grand Cru: fat, strongly iodised oysters, turbot with caviar, lobster, capon; made to age.

Riesling Vendanges Tardives: desserts of yellow or exotic fruit, and nothing savoury.

Bonus: our Rhine matelote in Riesling recipe

Matelote, a river fish stew, is the dish of the Rhine banks: freshwater fish poached in white wine, then a sauce finished with cream. Take a young Riesling: the fish cooks in what you drink.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1.2 kg of freshwater fish (pike, pike-perch, eel, trout)
• 50 cl of Alsace Riesling
• 20 cl of thick cream
• 2 shallots and 1 leek white
• 40 g of butter, plus a spoonful of flour
• 1 bouquet garni, 1 lemon
• Salt, pepper

Method

Clean and cut the fish into sections. Sweat the sliced shallots and leek in half the butter, without colouring them.

Lay the sections on top, pour in the Riesling, add the bouquet garni, season. Let it tremble ten minutes with a lid on, never boiling: the flesh must stay firm.

Lift out the fish and keep it warm. Reduce the liquid by half, bind it with the remaining butter worked into the flour, add the cream and a squeeze of lemon. Serve with fresh noodles.

Riesling is not a cheese wine or a dessert wine. It is the wine of fish and of dishes simmered in white wine. Young, it goes with iodine and raw flesh. After a few years, it holds cream, smoke and choucroute.

Before you choose the dish, look at the vintage rather than the grape name. Two Rieslings from the same grower, ten years apart, do not call for the same plate.

Frequently asked questions about Riesling pairings

Does Riesling need age, or is it good young?

Both, and the dish changes with the age. Six months to five years is enough for most Alsace wines, says the trade body, which calls this one a wine that improves in bottle for decades. Young with iodine, aged with dishes in sauce.

What food goes with a Riesling Grand Cru?

Whatever wants a dense wine: turbot, lobster, capon. The trade body also makes it the wine of the fattest oysters. They come from single sites delimited between 1975 and 2007, and they gain from age.

Where does the petrol note in an old Riesling come from?

From the soil and from time in bottle. The trade body lists "gun flint, flint, petrol" among the mineral aromas Riesling develops according to the soil it is planted in, and places them in terroir wines. It is not a fault.

Can you serve Riesling with dessert?

A dry Riesling, no: it falls flat behind the sugar. A Vendanges Tardives, yes. The trade body writes that Riesling Vendanges Tardives "fully reveals its balancing act" in its pairings with desserts.

Why buy your Riesling direct from the winemaker?

Because you pick the vintage at the cellar itself. The grower knows which one he still has, which drinks now, which will wait two more winters. It leaves him at estate prices, with nobody taking a margin.