Scalloped Potatoes & Wine Pairing

Creamy scalloped potatoes require acidic white wines, such as,  Chardonnay, Riesling, or Sauvignon Blanc to cut through the starchy and rich flavours. These crisp white wines also add their refreshing citrus, tropical fruit, and green apple notes to the potato landscape, adding further enjoyment.

For red wine pairing with Scalloped Potatoes, light and fruity reds, like a young Tempranillo, Beaujolais Villages, or Pinot Noir are your best options as they will cut through the cream. These tart red wines will also complement any mains that accompany Scalloped Potatoes like Ham, Turkey, Roasted Chicken, Salmon, or Roast Beef.

Scalloped Potatoes are thinly sliced potatoes that have been placed in a casserole dish with heavy cream. After that, the potatoes are cooked till tender and somewhat crunchy. Cheese, herbs, onions, breadcrumbs, and bacon may be added to the dish, depending on the recipe or what you enjoy. Finally, the wine pairings I mention will also work with Au Gratin Potatoes because they are similar to Scalloped Potatoes.

Best Wine with Scalloped Potatoes

Chardonnay & Scalloped Potatoes Pairing

A toasty and full-bodied Chardonnay is an excellent pairing with Scalloped Potatoes as it matches the creamy weight of Scalloped Potatoes in terms of body.  Often buttery, Chardonnay will complement the cream factor in Scalloped Potatoes, as well as any cheese you may have tossed in. Furthermore, it has toasty vanilla notes that are excellent with any breadcrumbs used in your dish.

Chardonnay isn’t all butter and toast, and you’ll find magnificent flavours of tropical fruit, green apple and pear that keep you refreshed as you enjoy your creamy Scalloped Potatoes.

Riesling & Scalloped Potatoes Pairing

Riesling is a crisp and acidic white wine with refreshing flavours of lemon, lime, peach, apple, and pear.   Acidity is essential when enjoying Scalloped potatoes as the cream and starch in this rich dish clog up your taste buds after a few bites.  Thus, midway through your portion of Scalloped Potatoes, you’ll start to notice they don’t taste as delicious as when you started out.  This often leads to overeating, as our brain wants to recapture the original magic of your first bite.  With Riesling, the problem is solved as the wine’s acidity will scrape these rich flavours off your tongue and cheek, ensuring each bite tastes as fresh as the last.

Riesling is not a popular white wine in North America.  Many people are under the impression that it is a sweet white wine, but in fact, it’s not.  At least not entirely.  Riesling does come in a sweet form, however, you’ll find slightly sweet and bone dry versions of Riesling that are wonderful will Scalloped Potatoes.  These dry versions have amazing mineral notes that complement the earthiness of the potatoes, as well as aromatic notes of honey, mango, smoke and spice that whet your appetite.

Riesling is also incredibly food friendly, making this white wine perfect for festive holiday feasts such as Easter, Christmas, Mothers Day and Thanksgiving, where scalloped potatoes are traditionally served as a side dish.

Sauvignon Blanc & Scalloped Potato Pairing

Herbaceous in nature, Sauvignon Blanc shines with Scalloped Potato recipes that use herbs such as basil, oregano and rosemary.  You’ll also find refreshing flavours of grapefruit, lemon, and lime that sharpen the rich flavour of your Scalloped Potatoes, making the dish taste even more exceptional.

Rioja Crianza & Scalloped Potato Pairing

Tempranillo is a Spanish grape that can be found as a single varietal or as the primary grape in blends like a Rioja Crianza. Tempranillo is fruity and fresh when young, with cherry and dried fig flavours and delightful peppery overtones. The peppery notes of Tempranillo blend beautifully with the cheesy, creamy, and starchy textures of Scalloped Potatoes, while the young fruity notes revitalize your palate.

As Scalloped Potatoes are often a side dish, such as Easter Ham, or Thanksgiving Turkey, Rioja is light enough to play well with these main courses. If Roast Beef or Lamb is on the menu, I’d go with a Rioja Reserva as it features more complex flavours to complement these more flavourful meat cuts.

Pinot Noir & Scalloped Potatoes Pairing

Pinot Noir is a light and fruity red wine with plenty of bright acidity that will keep your mouth refreshed between bites of Scalloped Potatoes. The bright fruit flavours of wild strawberry, cranberry and cherry liven up the starchy aspect of Scalloped Potatoes as all the flavours mingle together.

Pinot Noir isn’t all fun and fruit, as the wine has a funky forest floor flavour. This earthiness complements the earthiness in your potatoes, allowing the food and wine flavours to blend and bring out the best in each.