What wine to drink with paella is not trivial because wine is the ideal complement to enjoy a good paella, whatever its type. However, for the perfect pairing, it is necessary to know very well what type of wine accompanies each type of paella, since if we choose one at random the experience can disappoint us.
Furthermore, it is true that the theme of food and wine pairing is very playful and that you can experiment with many options.
So, if you wonder What Red Wine Goes Best With Paella you will find here many alternatives but at the same time, I hope you discover that there are a lot of great pairing chances with other types of wines such as rose, white or even cava (champagne)
In addition, when we talk about the best wine for paella we can be talking about very different paellas, both for the variety of ingredients it incorporates and the way it is made.
Here, we are going to try to analyze the five most typical types of paellas and their pairing with different wines.
To do this, I will start with the mother of all paellas: the Paella Valenciana.
Wine for Valencian Paella
It is the star dish that has given rise to the rest of the paella typologies. It is cooked with rice, or chicken or rabbit meat, garrofo (local legume similar to runner beans), butter beans, tomato, paprika (sweet), olive oil, salt and saffron.
The variability of ingredients that a Valencian paella has allows it to be paired with a wide range of wines. As at the time of cooking each master has his booklet we can say that if the paella is forceful regarding the flavor we can pair it with a young red wine and fruity that is fresh (eye, not the fridge, that is too cold).
We are thinking of a carbonic maceration of the tempranillo or mencía varieties, for example. White wine lovers can also find a white wine that is powerful in the mouth and has been fermented in barrels, a chardonnay or a godello or verdejo. We can not forget the classic white Bordeaux style (of which few remain. An example, the whites elaborated by López Heredia in Haro).
If paella has a less captivating, more subtle flavor, we can undoubtedly opt for a good rosé that provides balanced freshness and acidity. Then, you will be happy with the rosés of Castilla-La Mancha and those of the Valencian Community. Another ideal option for this case would be a Cava or sparkling wine.
Wine for Seafood paella
This is the result of replacing meat, vegetables and legumes with squid, prawns, crayfish, mussels, clams and sometimes fish.
Perfect seafood paella is dominated by the delicate marine flavors, so it requires fresher and lighter wines that do not mask the flavors mentioned above.
Logically, we are thinking of white wines of the albariño, verdejo or sauvignon blanc variety that has not been fermented in barrels.
Serve them fresh, between 5 and 8ºC. Other interesting options would be either a Txakolí.
Furthermore, we can pair a seafood paella with a good cava, ideally vintage. That saline and iodized sensation that we can find in certain bivalves and crustaceans protagonists of the seafood paella fit perfectly with the cava that.
The reason is its carbonic, freshness and acidity becomes a conductive element of the flavors.Learn more about what wine goes with seafood paella
The same ideas can be applied for fideua or shrimp paella
Wine for Mixed Paella
Paella mixta It is the result of mixing the ingredients of Valencian paella and seafood paella (not all the ingredients have to be there). This is probably the most popular paella in all the menus of the “Thursday” day. It is also the paella of many school menu, or the most typical paella for beach menus designed for tourists.
On the one hand, what we have said about wines for the Valencian paella could serve in this epigraph.
An alternative to pair with a mixed paella is a rosé wine. Rosé wines are somewhat denigrated by ignorance and we have real jewels in our cellars.
Wine for Vegetarian paella
Vegetarian paella is made with rice, artichokes, asparagus, olives, mushrooms, palm hearts, broad beans, green beans…
This sort of paella can be very tasty although a priori its low fat and protein content could indicate the opposite. For this reason, we can be great with:
- Fresh and light rosé
- Sparkling wine (rosé or white)
- Good Cava
Whichever you choose to accompany the vegetarian paella with its bouquet will be a very pleasant and balanced choice.
Wine for Black Paella
Paella Negra is a seafood paella to which ink is added octopus or squid, which gives it that color, consistency and flavor so characteristic. It is not uncommon to see it accompanied by a touch of all-i-oli.
Due to this tasty texture in the mouth and the powerful taste of all-i-oli, we recommend using a white wine of the gewürztraminer variety or sparkling wine of the muscatel variety from the area of Valencia or Alicante. The touch of sweetness provided by these varieties combines magnificently with the delicate texture and sharp flavor of this paella.
To end up, curiously, paella is usually accompanied by light white wines, when the interesting or more appropriate would be to take crianza whites with more structure, especially if the paella is mixed or meat.
It is also important to bear in mind the context in which the paella is taken. In many cases, the paella is a dish that is enjoyed near the sea, with good weather and free air. When temperatures are high it is advisable to think of fresh wines that do not have excessive alcohol content.
I hope this was helpful to know what wine to serve with paella
