How to pair mushrooms and wine

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Autumn is a very generous season. Since September, we have been seeing new apples and pears, nutritious vegetables like pumpkin, potatoes, or other lesser-known root vegetables, not to mention the grape harvest. But mushrooms deserve special attention – a very special product with unique characteristics.
There are many types of mushrooms, from inexpensive champignons, which are grown artificially and do not disappear from store shelves all year round, to rare and valuable porcini mushrooms. At the same time, mushrooms can be the main element of a dish, a side dish, or part of a recipe. Moreover, other components of the recipe, except for mushrooms, can significantly affect the choice of the type of wine. In this article, we will figure out how to choose a wine for different mushrooms depending on the recipe, list some snacks with mushrooms and wines that go with them, and leave the elite truffle for a separate article.

Taste and texture of mushrooms

Different types of mushrooms have completely different tastes, so it is very difficult to choose one universal drink that will go equally well with all types of mushrooms. In addition to the taste of the mushrooms, you should consider the expressiveness of the latter, as well as the texture of the product. The following types of mushrooms are most often used in gastronomy:

• Champignons
• Chanterelles (there are several varieties, for example, the yellow chanterelle, as well as the gray, yellowing, black)
• Porcini mushrooms
• Morels
• White truffle
• Black truffle

Different types of mushrooms: porcini, true chanterelles, tubular chanterelles… (© AdobeStock neillangan)

Let’s consider their characteristics and wines that will go well with them.

Champignons (Champignons de Paris)

Taste: raw champignons have a subtle woody, slightly earthy taste. But after heat treatment, and depending on its type, the relatively neutral taste characteristics of these mushrooms change. Neutral processing – boiling – enhances the woody taste and the so-called umami taste, and frying, where in addition to heat, champignons are supplemented with butter, salt, pepper, sometimes parsley and garlic, gives the product such components as fat content, light nutty and caramel hints, pepperiness.
Texture: slightly elastic, medium density
How to choose wine: in general, champignons are quite wine-friendly, as their taste does not have the bitterness of other mushrooms. Therefore, the heat treatment of the mushrooms themselves should be taken into account, as well as the tastes of other components of the dish (herbs, spices, sauce, possibly meat), which often turn out to be decisive in the choice of drink:

• For raw or cooked champignons, you should choose a young white wine with a medium body, a rounded texture, but not with excessive acidity, so as not to interrupt the delicate taste of the mushrooms.
• For fried champignons, non-oaked (or with short aging in oak) white wines with lies aging are suitable, which will emphasize the nutty and creamy hints of fried mushrooms.
• Avoid tart or barrel-aged red wines, since the tannins of grapes and wood do not get along with the taste of umami. Therefore, if you are a red wine lover, pay attention to young light, non-tannic fruit wines, or to aged wines in which the tannins have softened.
• If champignons are included in the dish as an additional element (for example, boeuf bourguignon, eggs meurette, kulebyaka, mushroom pie), then when choosing a wine, you should start from the main elements of the recipe.

Examples:

• For raw mushrooms – sparkling from Champagne, Italian Franciacorta, Cremant from Burgundy or the Loire Valley. Rounded, moderately acidic white wines from the Rhone Valley based on Marsanne and Roussanne varieties (Saint-Peret, Saint-Joseph), Italian Pecorino from Apulia are also quite suitable.
• For white meat in mushroom sauce made from champignons, for mushroom pies – Chablis Premier Cru, Burgundy Haute-Côtes-de-Beaune, Beaune with a medium body and fresh acidity, which will balance the fat content of the cream. Spanish white Rioja or French Graves from the Bordeaux region will also be a harmonious addition to such a dish – with sufficient body so as not to get lost behind the meat and acidity to “lighten” the fat content of the cream.
• For a dish in a sauce based on red wines (beef bourguignon, eggs meurette) – based on the locality principle, Burgundy communal names (Volnay, Santenay, Savigny-les-Beaune) with moderate tannic structure and a bright berry bouquet are suitable, juicy Beaujolais Village – a local combination with eggs meurette. In addition, Bordeaux wines with a dominant Merlot in the blend (Côtes de Castillon, Saint-Emilion, Graves).

Brown champignons (Champignons Bruns)

Taste: similar to common champignons (woody and earthy), but more pronounced
Texture: slightly denser than common champignons
How to choose a wine: brown champignons are suitable for wines of a similar profile to common champignons. But their aroma may be more pronounced, and the texture – more intense
Examples: in addition to the previous list of wines, you can add white Pessac-Léognan (for noble white fish in a creamy mushroom sauce, risotto with mushrooms), white wines of the south of France (Fougères, Corbières, Minervois).

Brown and regular champignons (© AdobeStock Anatoly_Repin)

Real chanterelles

Taste: delicate, with fruity (especially apricot) and nutty tones
Texture: medium density, depending on the size and subspecies of chanterelles, it can be more or less compact
How to choose wine: the main criterion is the special, rather bright, fruity-nutty taste of chanterelles. I would advise choosing wine based on the principle of matching the bouquet and expressiveness of tastes. Similar shades are found in white wines with moderate aging in barrels after several years of maturation in the bottle.
Examples:

• White Viognier from the Rhone Valley (from Condrieu appellation) or from Languedoc with expressive aromas of stone fruits (apricot, peach), flowers and sufficient, but not too high acidity.
• Chardonnay from the warm climate of the New World, but not too barrel-aged (examples can be found in Australia – Margaret River, Adelaide Hills).
• White Beaujolais (Chardonnay).
• Mâcon from Burgundy.

Trumpet Chanterelle

Taste: similar to the taste of real chanterelles, but with a smoky and earthy hint
Texture: more elastic and dense than common chanterelles, with hollow stem
How to choose a wine: With these less fruity chanterelles, you can move away from traditional whites and try red varieties, guided by the principle of matching the bouquet. Earthy tones are found in aged Bordeaux, especially those based on Merlot. But here you should avoid excessive tannic structure, limiting the choice to a wine from the right bank.
Examples:

• Saint-Emilion and satellites – with 7-10 years of aging in the bottle.
• Fronsac – 5-7 years of aging.
• A ten-year-old Chinon from the Loire Valley (single-variety Cabernet Franc) will also be an interesting option.

Porcini mushrooms, or Italian porcini

Taste: noble, expressive earthy shade of undergrowth and hazelnuts. The taste of young porcini mushrooms is subtle, with age it intensifies, but becomes less delicate
Texture: young porcini mushrooms have a dense, fleshy texture, which becomes crumbly as the mushroom grows
How to choose a wine: you should be guided by the fleshiness of these mushrooms and the hint of undergrowth in their taste, as well as the ingredients that accompany them (meat, fish, seafood, cream …)
Examples:

• For the Bordeaux classic – rare meat served with fried porcini mushrooms with garlic and parsley – an aged Bordeaux with a dominant Merlot in the blend. You can experiment with aged Medoc based on Cabernet Sauvignon from the left bank, if it has already developed tertiary nuances and the tannins have become more delicate.
• Super Tuscan – Italian wines from Bordeaux varieties (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon) are similar in style to their French version, but they have more ripe fruity than non-fruity (floral, herbal) aromas. This is also a good option for fleshy porcini mushrooms and juicy meat.
• Barbaresco, Valpolicella Classico – predominantly fruity bouquet, moderate tannins and good acidity – a friendly ensemble with dishes, especially with simple recipes, such as pasta or pizza with porcini mushrooms
• Wines of the south and center of Italy (Lazio, Greco di Tufo, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Gesi).
• Serious barrel Chardonnays of Burgundy (Meursault or Puligny-Montrachet) or the New World (American Carneros).
• White barrel Bordeaux from Pessac-Léognan – rich and deep, these white wines will perfectly emphasize the unique taste of porcini mushrooms. Moreover, this will also be a local combination.

Porcini mushrooms (© AdobeStock vpardi)

Risotto with porcini (© AdobeStock travelbook)

Pasta with porcini (© AdobeStock Piotr_Krzeslak)

Morels

Taste: unusual, bright, but at the same time – subtle, combines hints of hazelnuts, smoked meat and raw meat
Texture: spongy, elastic
How to choose wine: in order not to create competition between the tastes of the wine and the dish with morels, without erasing its organoleptic profile, you should pay attention to a wine with medium aroma and velvety tannins of medium level. In my opinion, for morels, including in dishes, a white with a medium-medium (+) body and oily texture is better suited. This option will not emphasize the bitterness of the mushrooms and will not be inferior to it in aroma.
Examples:

• Fried morels, morel risotto – aromatic white barrel Burgundy (Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet) and Bordeaux (Pessac-Léognan) white wines would be quite appropriate here. But since the main element of these dishes is morels, then red wines are also suitable as a pairing, especially if they have a similar smoked note (red wines of the Rhone Valley – Gigondas, Vacqueyras, red Burgundy – aged Pommard, New Saint Georges) or a rich, but moderate fruity bouquet (Pinot Noir from American Oregon or New Zealand Marlborough).
• Morels with Asparagus – aromatic and rich Grüner Veltliner from the eastern part of wine-growing Austria (for example, the eastern part of the Wachau Valley), Riesling from the Rheingau, Viognier from the northern Rhone Valley – here it is better to stop at non-asparagus, expressive fruity white wines due to the presence of asparagus, which does not get along with red wines due to its bitterness and ability to make the tannins of red wines unpleasant – dry and bitter. For the same reason, it is better to avoid barrel white wines in this combination, which have not grape, but oak tannins.
• Chicken in morel sauce and vin jeune de Jura is a classic of French cuisine and pairings with morels. In this case, a white wine from the Jura region will be more than appropriate – the same oxidative vin jeune de Jura, which is part of the sauce. It must be admitted that this wine is not for everyone, so in the same region you can find an alternative – a slightly oxidative Chardonnay or wine from a local of the Savagnin variety. Or you can choose an aged white Pessac-Léognan, whose bouquet is also distinguished by oxidative shades of wax, honey, dried flowers and fruits.

Morels (© AdobeStock drakuliren)