Best Viognier & Food Pairings

Fruity and bold, Viognier is wonderful with lighter fare with a touch of weight, such as potato soup, cornbread, chicken pot pie, Pad Thai, Lobster, New England clam chowder, crab cakes and Salmon.  The floral floral notes of Viognier of  rose petal and honeysuckle fool you into thinking this is a dainty and sweet white wine, however, Viognier is a dry tropical fruit bomb with the creamy texture of Chardonnay and a unique oily sensation that coats your tongue with its delicious flavours of apricot, orange rind, peach, pear, tropical fruit, tangerine and lime.

Viognier is a fresh, dry and rich white wine that should always be drunk young.  Most Viognier is produced oaked and comes across as bold and creamy.  However, you’ll also find unoaked Viognier on shelves that are lighter-bodied and spritzy.

While Viognier can be full-bodied, you’ll want to stay away from bold dishes, such as red meat, or acidic tomato sauces.  Viognier is not high in acidity, and has delicate floral notes that can easily be swamped out by strongly flavoured foods.

Best Food with Viognier

Baked Salmon & Viognier Pairing

Baked Salmon is rich and meaty, but to some degree it’s also plain and boring (especially if you eat it every day, and if it is Atlantic Salmon).  That’s where Viognier kicks in as it’s amazing flavours of apricot, citrus, honeysuckle, peach and orange rind provide an exciting contrast to the fleshy taste of Salmon.  Meanwhile, the round flavours of Viognier perfectly complement the rich and oily body of Salmon.

Viognier ranges from medium to full-bodied depending on if it is oaked or not, and Salmon can vary in flavour as well depending on the species, where it was caught and what time of year it was caught at.  For richer Salmon dishes, go full-bodied to ensure that the Viognier stands up to the richness of the Baked Salmon.  Meanwhile, for more delicate and lighter Salmon, you could get away with a lighter-bodied unoaked Viognier.

Potato Soup and Viognier Pairing

Potato soup has a luxurious creaminess to it from all the Potato starch that makes it wonderful to pair up with the round and silky Viognier.  Notes of vanilla, cream, and nutmeg found in Viognier only seal the deal with this pairing.  On the opposite side of things, you’ll also get contrasting flavours of pear, melon, mango, tangerine, citrus and apple that provided a refreshing contrast.

When you taste Viognier, it starts subtly with its floral notes of roses and honeysuckle but grows broader as it sprawls out, developing an oily texture that blends in perfectly with the creamy flavours of Potato Soup. Viognier also has a light bitterness that complements any sharp green herbs you may have sprinkled upon your Potato Soup.

For similar reasons, Viognier is an excellent wine pairing with Perogies pan fried in butter and moderately topped with bacon, sour cream and melted cheese.

Chicken Pot Pie and Viognier Pairing

With its savoury flavours of rich gravy, root vegetables and pie crust, Chicken Pot Pieis delicious with a refreshing white wine like Viognier.  Viognier, with its tropical fruit flavours, rush in and provide a refreshing diversion with its flavours of passion fruit, mango, apricot, pear, peach and pineapple that reset the clock on every sip, ensuring your taste buds don’t get numbed by the gravy and starch factor of your Chicken Pot Pie.

Furthermore, the creamy and silky texture of Viognier complements the body and weight of the chicken gravy and the bread in your Chicken Pot Pie, making for luscious marriage of food and wine.

Pad Thai and Viognier Pairing

Pad Thai is a slightly sweet and mildly spicy noodle dish that frequently includes a lot of lighter flavours of shrimp, chicken and tofu that blend well floral and tropical flavours of Viognier.  While dry, Viognier can be perceived as sweet due to its flavours of apricot, pear, peach, mango and tangerine.  This perceived sweetness plays well with the slightly sweet factor of Pad Thai.

Pad Thai also contains almonds, tamarind, fish sauce and chilli peppers which are all amused by Viognier’s subtle flavours of spice, vanilla, ginger, mineral and bitter almond.

If your Pad Thai is spicy hot, stay away from Viognier completely.  Viognier tends to be higher in alcohol compared to other white wines like Riesling or Pinot Grigio, and the higher alcohol will make the heat taste unbearable and hostile.

Lobster & Viognier Pairing

Lobster is a delicate tasting meat that tastes slightly sweet and sea-kissed salty.  As such, we often drown our Lobster in butter to give it more flavour.  Viognier has a creamy texture that complements Lobster drizzled with butter.  While butter is rich, it’s not bold, so it won’t drown out the floral or stone fruit flavours of Viognier.  Furthermore, you’ll find a minerality in Viognier that complements the sea-breeze saltiness of your Lobster dish.

Finally, Viognier’s tropical fruit flavours shine bright and teasingly flirt with the sweet and subtle flavours of Lobster, brightening up the dish and ensuring the lobster meat remains the star of the show.