Chardonnay Vs Sauvignon Blanc Vs Pinot Grigio: Your Ultimate Food Pairing Guide

Choosing the perfect bottle to open up for dinner party guests can prove to be a challenging task. Staring at chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, and pinot gris labels may feel like some sort of decoding chore as you read descriptions and compare tasting notes to try to make an informed purchase. Even among certain varieties, like a chardonnay, different labels can offer a range of flavors and expressions to explore. To help make buying decisions easier, we spoke to Gillian Ballance, Master Sommelier and national education manager at Treasury Wine Estates, for guidance on how to go about making our next dinner party that much more memorable with the right wine and food pairing.

While glasses of white can be crisp and refreshing, they can also offer creamy mouthfuls that can reawaken palates in between courses or complement richer dishes of saucy pastas, buttery mains, and toasted slices of homemade garlic bread. Whether you're planning to serve plates of seafood or easy salads for guests to help themselves, having the right pours on hand can help kickstart revelry and ensure each guest leaves satisfied.

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Chardonnay Is The Right Pour With Pasta

If you're planning on serving a pasta dish for dinner, chardonnay may be the white wine you want to reach for. Under the umbrella of chardonnay, you have plenty of options to consider. "It's important to know which style of chardonnay you like or which chardonnay pairs well with certain dishes," Ballance guides. "Chardonnay can be full-bodied with oaky flavors or lean and crisp."

Depending on the style of recipe you're whipping up, you may want to sip on creamier bottles of white that offer brighter notes of fruit. "The 2023 Beringer Private Reserve chardonnay has ripe orchard fruits flavors and creamy texture which pairs beautifully with pasta dishes and cream-based sauces like pasta Alfredo or carbonara," Ballance suggests. Of course, if you can't decide between two bottles of chardonnay, offering up choices for guests to mix and match with garlicky dishes and saucy spreads is never a poor hosting move.

Freshen Up Palates With A Glass Of Sauvignon Blanc

For foods that are light and fresh, Ballance recommends opening up a bottle of sauvignon blanc. "Sauvignon blancs are light, dry, high in acidity, and able to bring extra freshness to lightly dressed salads or in acidic dishes like oysters." Whether you're planning to serve simple salads or seafood, a crisp sauvignon blanc is a reliable party pleaser.

"This varietal is also known for its citrus flavors, boding well next to a citrus dish for complementary flavor profiles," Ballance explains. She suggests the 2023 Stags' Leap Napa Valley sauvignon blanc to accompany plates packed with lively tastes, as the label is known for aromatic notes of fruits like white peach, citrusy elements like lemon verbena and lime peel, and a delicate nose of white elderflower. Sauvignon blancs tend to be expressive and carry a variety of tasting notes depending on the region of production, so you may want to offer a choice of pours for dinner party guests to sample.

Pinot Gris Is A Sweet Sipper To Share

Not to be confused with pinot grigio, pinot gris can offer sweeter, slightly spicy fruity notes that can play well with the right dishes. Though the grapes used to make pinot gris and pinot grigio are the same, the region where each of these wines are produced makes an impact on the taste and the ideal food pairings for each.

Hailing from France, pinot gris generally offers sweeter tasting notes, and the texture of each sip is creamy and rich. "Pinot Gris is a delicious, light-bodied white wine with sweet citrus flavors and crisp, refreshing acidity," Ballance says. "It's a versatile white that pairs best with fresh seafood like oysters or ceviche." She specifically recommends the Etude 2023 Carneros pinot gris, a bottle that delivers waves of honeydew melon and Meyer lemons. "You will find it so refreshing and appealing, especially when paired with seafood or prosciutto and melon," she promises. If you're looking for a wine to pour alongside charcuterie plates set out for your summer dinner party, glasses of pinot gris can be a dependable home run.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.