Top 6 Wines to Pair with Chicken & Turkey
Chicken & Turkey are such versatile meats, creating a wide variety of delicious dishes. Great news for wine lovers as it gives lots of wine options. But what are the best wines to enjoy with your chicken and turkey? We cut through the choices and select the top 6 best wines to pair with specific chicken and turkey dishes.
Six best wines with chicken and turkey Index
All you need to know in less than three minutes:
>> Watch top 6 wines with chicken & turkey video
Summary:
>> Six best wines with chicken and turkey
More about the wines and the dishes they pair with best:
>> Best sparkling wine with chicken and turkey
>> Best white wines with chicken and turkey
>> Best rosé with chicken and turkey
>> Best red wines with chicken and turkey
Food & wine pairing:
>> Top Tips on Wine and Food Pairing
Comprehensive guides:
>> Guide to best wines to pair with chicken
WATCH 3-minute video
Top 6 Wines with Chicken & Turkey
Simple straightforward video in which, in less than three minutes, Janne Hallinan DipWSET shares her top 6 wines to pair with your chicken or turkey dish.
Summary - 6 best wines with chicken and turkey
These are our top 6 selections of the best wines with chicken and turkey. They give you the perfect wines to pair with all styles of dishes. Read more about the wines and the dishes they best pair with, in the next sections.
- Crémant de Bourgogne
- English Bacchus
- Sauvignon Gris
- Provencal-style rosé
- Cabernet Franc
- Valpolicella Ripasso
Best sparkling wine with chicken and turkey
Sparkling wines are fantastic paired with fried foods and creamy sauces, the bubbles and refreshing acidity of the wine cuts through the fattiness and creaminess making a wonderful contrast.
This makes sparkling wines ideal for fried chicken, creamy chicken pie and creamy chicken or turkey risottos.
Best sparkling - Crémant de Bourgogne
There are lots of sparkling wine options. Living in England, the increasingly high-quality English sparkling wines are always a good choice. I could have gone further afield to Italy for a Franciacorta (delicious champagne-method wines) or Prosecco. Or ventured to Spain for some Cava.
Champagne always springs to mind, but instead I have gone for that other great French sparkling wine option - Crémant.
Most wine regions have their version of Crémant. They are all made using the traditional champagne-method, often using the local grapes to the area. They tend not to undergo as long lees ageing as Champagne and are refreshing and fruity. The great thing about Crémant is they are great value.
I have selected Crémant de Bourgogne, since being from Burgundy it is often made with the same grape varies as Champagne (Burgundy being the home of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir).
Crémant de Bourgogne - made like Champagne, with the same grape varieties as Champagne but not at Champagne prices.
Crémant de Bourgogne is a great choice!
Best white wines with chicken and turkey
The fantastic thing about chicken and turkey is that they make such a wide variety of dishes. From light cold turkey with vegetables, through creamy chicken pie, right up to rich roasts and casseroles, chicken and turkey provide the opportunity to pair with all styles of white wines.
The two wines on our list span the wine styles providing white wines to pair with a wide variety of chicken and turkey dishes.
Crisp refreshing aromatic English Bacchus
Our first choice is a crisp refreshing aromatic white wine. Sauvignon Blanc would also be a good option, but we have gone for an aromatic wine that is like Sauvignon Blanc on steroids.
English Bacchus will pair with lighter chicken and turkey dishes, cold cuts, lightly grilled chicken, chicken and turkey salads, and lighter chicken and turkey pastas.
These wines also work with creamy chicken and turkey dishes like chicken pie and Caesar salad. The crisp acidity cuts through the creaminess providing a delicious contrast between the wine and the food.
Fruity, rich aromatic Sauvignon Gris
Sauvignon Gris is one of our favourite white wines, a wonderful foodie white wine. Fresh & fruity, aromatic with a rich smooth texture.
This historic grape variety almost died out. Not many winemakers are making 100% Sauvignon Gris, look out for some good ones from France and New Zealand.
Sauvignon Gris pairs with almost every style of chicken and turkey dishes. With its intense aromatic flavours, it is a great choice as flavours become more intense, like char-grilled chicken and more intense pasta chicken and turkey dishes, and smoked turkey, the intensity of the wines balancing with the more intense foods.
With its rich smooth texture, Sauvignon Gris can even complement casseroles, roasts with rich gravy, and creamy dishes like chicken pie, creamy chicken and turkey risottos and pasta dishes.
Best rosé with chicken and turkey
Provencal-style rosé
Rosé wines are perfect with many styles of food. They work particularly well with summer foods like BBQ and all types of grilled and char-grilled chicken & turkey.
Provencal-style rosés are a fantastic style of rosé, and our favourite style of rosé. With lighter strawberry and citrus flavours, these are fantastic wines with BBQ chicken, grilled chicken & turkey, and for chicken & turkey dishes which include dried fruit.
Rosés also make an interesting pairing with spicy dishes. Like turkey curry, that popular method for using up left-over Christmas and Thanksgiving turkey. Look for deeper coloured rosé wines, with a hint of sweetness for your turkey curry.
Best red wines with chicken and turkey
With the versatility of chicken and turkey and the wide variety of dishes you can make, mean all styles of red wine can pair beautifully. By selecting two styles of red - the first, fruity & smooth, the second rich & bold you have pairings for a wide range of chicken and turkey dishes.
Fruity smooth Cabernet Franc
Our choice for your fruity smooth red wine is Cabernet Franc a particular favourite. With delicious red fruits (raspberry, plum, cherry), blueberry, sometimes with bell pepper or chocolate (depending on where it is grown). With smooth tannins, these are fantastic foodie reds.
Cabernet France will pair with chicken and turkey dishes as they start to become more intensely flavoured such as char-grilled chicken and turkey, dishes with rich fruity sauces, tomato sauces, BBQ, Italian and Middle Eastern dishes. They also have enough flavour intensity to work well with roast chicken and turkey with gravy.
A good choice if you prefer a lighter red wine with your Christmas Dinner and for Thanksgiving.
Rich bold Valpolicella Ripasso
Valpolicella Ripasso pairs beautifully with the richest chicken and turkey dishes, such as roast chicken and turkey with & gravy, Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, and rich casseroles.
Valpolicella Ripasso are made partially with dried grapes giving these dry wines a hint of sweeter dried fruit flavours, this makes them wonderful when paired with rich fruity sauces, and Middle Eastern dishes like a chicken Tagine.
SHOP our delicious examples of Cabernet Franc and Valpolicella Ripasso:
Recchia Valpolicella Ripasso “Le Muraie”
Top tips on wine and food pairing
Wine and food pairing is not an exact science, that’s what makes it fun. There are no right answers and your personal preferences come into play. Use our wine & food pairing basics to help guide you through the options to find the best wine to pair with your chicken and turkey.
Wine & food pairing basics
There are three factors to consider in food & wine pairing, weight, flavour intensity and flavour characteristics. The weight and flavour intensities of the food and wine are best when they are balanced, so one does not overwhelm the other. For example, an intensely flavoured chicken dish like roast turkey with rich gravy would overwhelm a light white wine like Pinot Grigio. A richer red wine would provide a better balance.
With flavour characteristics you can look to complement the flavour characteristic of a dish with the same characteristic in the wine. For example, a creamy chicken pie would pair beautifully with a creamy chardonnay.
However, there are also some fantastic pairings where opposites attract, like sparkling wine with fried chicken.
Guide to best wines to pair with chicken
If you would like to know more about the best wines to pair with chicken, READ our simple, comprehensive guide to selecting the perfect wine for your chicken dish.
Cheers!
Janne
