Food and wine
What wine with coq au vin?
The same wine as in the pot: a red Burgundy, or its Beaujolais cousin.
Chicken braised in red wine with mushrooms, bacon and small onions. Softer and more savoury than bœuf bourguignon, with the same wine-dark sauce.
Why this pairing works
Poultry is more delicate than beef: too powerful a red would make it disappear. Keep the dish's own logic (a red from the same place as the one it was cooked in) but in a supple register.
Look for on the list
Bourgogne rouge
28–55 €The original pairing. Light, fruity, saline enough for the bacon in the sauce.
Morgon
24–42 €Fleshy gamay from Beaujolais: the same suppleness, markedly cheaper.
Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil
24–42 €A Loire cabernet franc, fresh and faintly peppery, which lifts the mushrooms.
What to avoid : Powerful southern reds, which bury the chicken. And whites: unless the dish is coq au vin jaune, which calls for a white from the Jura.
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 qui irait avec le coq au vin ? »
pronounced : kess-kee ee-RAY a-vek luh kok oh VAN
What would go with the coq au vin?
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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