Pairings | Salmon with beurre blanc

12 great wine pairings with salmon

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on March 25 2024 at 07:11

Salmon is in many ways the chicken of the fish world - an ingredient you can serve in many different ways and therefore match with a number of different wines.

That said, it’s a rich fish, often served with cream or butter and therefore a natural candidate to pair with a medium-to-full-bodied white wine such as chardonnay.

But nowadays it’s often served raw or grilled which opens to the door to many other wine pairings. Read on for my wine pairing suggestions with different salmon recipes.

Wine pairing with salmon at a glance

Best with raw salmon: Gruner veltiner or dry rosé
Best with grilled salmon: Pinot noir
Best with poached salmon: Chablis
Best with blackened salmon: Merlot
Best with salmon teriyaki: Pinot Noir
Best with smoked salmon: Champagne

12 favourite ways to serve salmon and the wines to pair with them

Raw salmon such as salmon sashimi or tartare

Try a crisp fresh white such as a gruner veltliner or a dry rosé - a surprisingly good match with salmon sashimi as I discovered here.

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Comments: 12 (Add)

john burns on July 6 2024 at 20:00

I'd just like to add that you should not buy supermarket Salmon as it is destroying the native stocks. There is notrhing quite like wild fish but they are almost impossible to buy unless you are freindly with a coble fisherman. I was once privileged enough to get a side of wild smoked salmon by Macritchies - absolutely fantastic! Sea trout are not farmed so are far more ethically correct and some prefer them..

john burns on December 6 2023 at 18:42

I recently discovered Salmon done in a parchment parcel. butter Garlic, wine etc can be added and the edges folded over and sealed with the handle of a knife or similar to fold it really tight. then done at high heat for a short time - 8 mins? Done right it steams the fish and leaves it beautifully tender. Foil tends to dry it out and overdo it. see here https://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/blogs/articles-and-stories/how-to-cook-fish-en-papillote As to wine I once ate fresh sea trout with a light Burgundy and that was delicious!

Pep Daniels on March 19 2022 at 11:47

I'm loving this site, even the misguided comments and the overtly promotional ones, which serve to emphasise the liberal and informed nature of the rest of the content. Personally, I like the simplicity of salmon topped with a nob of butter and baked in a foil parcel, washed down with a room temperature, heavily oaked Australian chardonnay - not a style I normally drink otherwise.

Peter F. on November 13 2021 at 16:24

Would you please add Baked Salmon to your list? I am baking a three-pound salmon filet with a sour cream and coriander crust.

Fiona Beckett on February 28 2021 at 08:47

Wow - that's a really interesting suggestion!

Diderot on February 27 2021 at 20:59

Try salmon topped with blackberries and poached with Zinfandel. Add toasted almond slices to top it off, and enjoy the rest of the Zin with the fish.

Charlie Stricklen on January 9 2020 at 22:00

Also, Bill, depending on the mismatch, the wine often suffers more than the food.

Charlie Stricklen on January 9 2020 at 21:56

Bill Gould, a wine is paired with a meal; not with a type of fish or meat or poultry. Pinot Noir is often nice with salmon, but would you really drink it with salmon prepared with a creamy sauce or a lemon-garlic recipe?

Bill Gould on August 19 2019 at 13:25

You must have unusual taste buds. The wine for salmon is Pinot Noir. Ref. Red wine with fish. by Josh Rifkin A message for you cooks: One can drink any wine with any food but when the match is incorrect the food suffers the most, not the wine.

Dano on June 16 2019 at 17:22

Those are all certainly nice pairings. I am disappointed you passed over Thunderbird.

Emma Brown on May 21 2018 at 12:00

Thank you for this amazing list of pairings. I love to have salmon with my 2016 Gearbox Chardonnay. It is a Napa Valley wine and goes really well with salmon. I bought it online from Precision Wine Company. Visit- https://www.precisionwineco.com/Brands for more information.

m m walker+ on June 29 2016 at 19:55

since I love salmon and also wine, it makes no difference which wine I have as long as there IS wine and Salmon!

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