Potato Salad & Wine Pairing

Potato Salad is often a side dish for picnics, banquets, or backyard barbecues, thus, Potato Salad pairs best with versatile wines such as Albariño, Riesling, Rosé, Beaujolais Villages and Pinot Noir.

Potato Salad recipes can vary, with some variations being creamy with the addition of mayonnaise and eggs. On the flip side, you could also have a recipe that features roasted chunks of potato tossed with baby spinach, slices of bell pepper, fresh herbs and a vinaigrette. The type of potato can also make a huge difference in flavour, especially if you’ve left the skins on.  For example,  red waxy potatoes with the skins left on will tasting much more earthier than boiled and peeled Yukon Gold potatoes which taste sweeter and fluffier.  No matter what variation you go for with your Potato Salad, the wines we’ve paired will match up well.

Best Wine with Potato Salad

Beaujolais Villages & Potato Salad Pairing

Beaujolais Villages has bright but light fruit flavours of cherry and strawberry are refreshing against the starchy nature of the potatoes used in potato salad. The pairing is improved even further if you have a little bacon tossed into your Potato salad, as Beaujolais Villages has earth and smoky notes which will complement the bacon.

Beaujolais Villages is ideal for picnics and family reunion potlucks where you want something inexpensive, versatile and crowd-friendly.   With its tart red fruit flavours, Beaujolais Villages will pair up nice with many of the other dishes you’ll see at a picnic event, such as grilled hot dogs loaded with ketchup, tuna fish sandwiches, macaroni salad, baked beans and tomato feta salad.

Rosé & Potato Salad Pairing

Rosé is, without a doubt, the greatest patio wine you’ll ever try. Rosé is frequently bone-dry and includes strawberry, cranberry, and lime flavours. Its dry acidity makes it an excellent match for potato salad, as it easily cuts through the starchy carbs as well as any mayo, hardboiled eggs, or sour cream used in the dish.  Rosé also has white pepper and herbs notes, which brings a happy little twist to this pairing.

Rosé is also highly food-friendly and adaptable. If you’re having your Potato salad at a backyard BBQ, on a picnic, or as a lunchtime side dish to a salmon burger on a hot summer afternoon, Rosé will go perfectly with almost any other food.

Albariño & Potato Salad Pairing

Potato Salad, to me, always reminds me of early summer as my Mom always made it as soon as it was warm enough to enjoy eating outside again in Canada. Albariño is a Spanish white wine bursting with summer fruit flavours of apricot, lemon, apple, melon and peach.  These light but crisp flavours make a glass of Albariño is perfect with an early summer evening meal of potato salad and a freshly grilled salmon burger or a grilled chicken sandwich at a picnic table.

I prefer Albariño with creamier versions of Potato Salad, however, due to its high acidity, Albariño will pair up great with potato chunks tossed in a vinaigrette alongside leafy greens and other raw veggies.

Riesling & Creamy Potato Salad Pairing

Riesling is one of the most adaptable wines available, making it ideal for potlucks where potato salad is almost always present. Riesling is an electric white wine that comes in a number of styles, such as dry, off-dry, sweet, still, and spritzy.  No matter what the style, expect delicious flavours of green apple, apricot, citrus, honey, peach, pineapple, mineral and tangerine.  Wine enthusiasts swoon over German Riesling, and with good reason – the wines are flawless.  However, if you live in North America, I highly suggest you give New York, Niagara, and Washington State Rieslings a chance as they can be just as incredible!

I recommend a Dry Riesling with Creamy Potato Salad as the wine’s tingling acidity will keep your mouth prepared and ready for each piece of potato salad.  Furthermore, the wine’s crisp acidity will rid your palate of all those starchy potato flavours coated in mayonnaise.  This means each bite of potato salad will taste as fresh and delicious as the first.

Riesling will also work well with a vinaigrette-dressed potato salad.  In this instance, I prefer an off-dry Riesling as the slight sweetness of the wine provides a wonderful contrast to the tart salad dressing.

Sauvignon Blanc & Potato Salad Pairing with Dill

If your Potato Salad is loaded with fresh herbs, like dill, basil or oregano, Sauvignon Blanc is the perfect wine to pair up with it. Loaded with herbal notes of green herbs, asparagus and grass, Sauvignon Blanc will complement the fresh herbs.  On top of the green flavours, Sauvignon Blanc excels at being steely and tart with notes of lemon, lime, gooseberry and grapefruit, which helps provide a refreshing acidity to the mix.  If your Potato Salad is accompanying a grilled chicken breast or a grilled piece of fish, I can think of no better pairing than Sauvignon Blanc.