Pairing Wine With Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff is a Russian dish of what even peasants could even afford! Consisting of intensely savory flavors of mushrooms, mustard, onions and sauteed pieces of beef with sour cream and dash of paprika make it very appealing. Pale brown creamy in color and thickened with flour also dashes of white wine added to balance the flavors.

Beef Stroganoff is served on a bed of large flat egg noodles or rice. A dish of intense flavors and the ultimate winter comfort food, this dish has become an international culinary phenomenon around the world!

Wine Characteristics To Pair With Beef Stroganoff

Characteristic	Detail
Sweetness	Dry
Acidity	High
Tannins	High
Body	High
Notes	Earth, Herbs, Smoke

Best White Wines To Pair With Beef Stroganoff

Now white wine is definitely not where your head goes when you think of pairing with a super rich course like Beef Stroganoff. But a heavily oaked white wine does work! So here it is, a list of the best recommended wines to serve with Beef Stroganoff!

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is definitely not the first wine to come to choice when drinking white wine with beef dishes but a rich, mature and full bodied Chardonnay that has acquired a buttery taste and a creamy texture from fermentation and aging in oak barrels does work super well with Beef Stroganoff.

Best Red Wines To Pair With Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff and red wine are wonderful together. The richness of the Stroganoff makes the options of pairing with red wine exciting. You must definitely go for a heavier red in terms of weighty tannins, full body with real umami flavors.

Syrah

Syrah is a very popular red wine that is full of heavy fruit filled flavors and aggressive tannins, carried out with distinct spicy tasting notes that make it a perfect match for beef stroganoff with a spicy gravy that uses lots of black pepper and spices. Syrah often aged in oak helps soften tannins while allowing the wine’s flavors to develop and mature; an aged bottle of Syrah with many layers of flavor make an even better pair for a beef stroganoff!

Nero D’Avola

Nero D’Avola is a full bodied dry red wine from Sicily that pairs wonderfully with Beef Stroganoff. It’s known for its bold black cherry, blackberry, raspberry and plum flavors; also having high tanning and higher acidity, this combination of this makes it great with meaty dishes! Along with the refreshing fruit flavors, you get some earthy herbal notes as well as mocha, spice, mint, licorice, violet, vanilla and coffee notes; so these earthy notes of the wine makes it a winning pairing for beef stroganoff!

Barolo

Barolo is a big red from Piedmont Italy with intense flavors of blackberries, cherries, chocolate, leather, tar, smoke, violets and tobacco, which all meld beautifully with Beef Stroganoff. A young Barolo high in both tannin and acidity paired with a Beef Stroganoff softens the tannins while the high acidity of the wine cleanses of the heavy flavors of the stroganoff. The tannins from the Barolo also breaks down the beef flavors even further making them taste even more flavourful and savory; also on the nose white truffles dominate the nose, which is just a perfect pairing for stroganoff with the mushrooms in the sauce! Yum!

Bordeaux Blend

Bordeaux is a French red wine that is a blend of several grapes where either Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon are the dominant grape varieties. Wines with either dominant grapes will go well with Beef Stroganoff! When drinking a young bottle of Bordeaux it will have lots of tannins, so pairing it with a Stroganoff will soften the tannins in the wine from the meaty Stroganoff sauce, allowing the wine to open up and showcase its dark berry fruit, smoke, earth, vanilla, herbs and black pepper flavors which pair so well with the Stroganoff sauce! When drinking a Bordeaux with age, expect deeper flavors of mushroom, earth and leather which melds nicely with the mushroom flavors in the Stroganoff sauce.

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is a super match for a beef stroganoff, due to its structure and unique tasting notes of herbaceousness, raspberry, strawberry and red plum along with a peppery finish; also with layers of flavor that are not present in any other wine grape, often produced in France today. This super variety makes for a great wine pairing with nearly all red meat dishes and beef stroganoff is no exception!

Best Wines To Pair With Beef Stroganoff

As Beef Stroganoff is a rich dish that is full of heavy ingredients, pairing with wines consists of wines with full body, high in acidity and tannins so think of a big red! This dish can be complicated to pair wine with as there are contrasting flavors of cream, mushroom and beef; and can be heavy on the palate. Your brain may go to Pinot Noir where mushrooms are a key ingredient in this dish however these wines would be overwhelmed by beef stroganoff’s creamy, rich flavors. However, there are wines which are complete winners for this dish!