Food and wine
What wine with bœuf bourguignon?
A red Burgundy, of course, but not just any, and there are cheaper ways in.
Beef braised for hours in red wine with onions, carrots and bacon. The sauce is deep but not heavy, and it carries a clear note of the wine it was cooked in.
Why this pairing works
The dish was cooked in red wine, so it wants the same register in the glass. You need freshness to answer the sauce and enough fruit not to vanish behind it. Hard tannins, on the other hand, fight the meltingly soft meat.
Look for on the list
Bourgogne rouge
28–55 €The region's own pairing, and the safest: pinot noir has the freshness and red fruit needed, with no aggressive tannin.
Mercurey
32–60 €The same pinot noir with a little more frame, often half the price of a Côte d'Or Burgundy.
Côtes du Rhône
22–40 €Outside Burgundy and cheaper: spicier, rounder, and it holds the sauce well.
What to avoid : Very tannic, very young reds, which turn hard against the sauce. And whites, which have nothing to answer with.
The ranges are restaurant prices for a full bottle. By the glass, reckon on roughly a quarter. At a wine shop, divide by two or three.
What to say
« Qu'est-ce que vous me conseillez avec le bœuf bourguignon ? »
pronounced : kess-kuh voo muh kon-say-YAY a-vek luh buhf boor-gee-NYON
What would you suggest with the bœuf bourguignon?
Yes, but on this list?
Knowing which style of wine you want still does not tell you which one to take from the thirty lines in front of you. Photograph the list: Cépage compares what is actually available, at your budget, and decides.
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