Pairing squash soup and wine?! Who would've thought that it can be such a joyful experience?
There are tons of recommendations on pairing beef or chicken with wine, fish or shrimp with wine, and many more. What about the squash soup?
Not much.
This seasonal comfort food is hardly as sexy as sizzling Wague steak or grilled Alaskan salmon. Can you recall upscale restaurants running with it as a signature dish? Nuh. Neither waiters and sommeliers will try to sell you top-shelf wine to go along with it. It's just not that kind of a dish.
Yet, there's something homey and majestic about this creamy soup with earthy and often sweet flavors. That unforgettable sign of impending winter, the anticipation of stuff-your-belly Thanksgiving, thrill of Black Friday shopping hunt, Christmas Eve, dark snowy evenings in front of the fireplace with a glass of wine. Yes, wine!
Without wine, squash soup is just comfy food you start dinner with and forget when you get to the steak. With wine, you may discover the depth of flavors you missed all these years. Hey, you may even like squash soup.
Squash Soup Basics
The key to delicious squash soup is high-quality ingredients and cooking techniques to concentrate the flavors. There are many different varietals of squashes, but we prefer Kabocha squash for this soup. Many recipes call for roasting the squash before making a soup to reduce the water content, and "ding-ding-ding" concentrate the flavors. That's how we start.
Once squash is roasted, you can prepare soup in many different ways. Let's explore how your choices may change the taste and find the best wine to go along with it.
Recipes
Pairing Squash Soup with Wine
Fall is a pick season for squash soup and is a part of almost all holidays during fall and winter, except Valentine's Day. Although it may change by the time you finish reading this post. Hey, Honey, guess what I made for our romantic Valentine's dinner?
Well, enough with distractions! Let's learn how to pair wine with squash soup!
The combination of earthy and often sweet flavors makes this soup unique and tricky to pair with wine. But no worries. We got you covered. Just follow along to find the right wine for your squash soup.
Your choice of wine will depend a lot on the recipe you use. First, you have to ask yourself these questions:
- Are you going to use vegetable, chicken, or beef stock as a base for the soup?
- Is it going to be sweet or spicy or both?
- What spices are you going to use?
- Are you using heavy cream?
- Are you adding any garnish?
Depending on the flavor profile, some wines will work better than the others. In general terms, you either complement or contrast the flavors of the dish. Let's do a deep dive and find the best wine for your squash soup.
Sparkling Wine
Prosecco can pair well with most recipes because it often has an off-dry profile and plays along with the squash's sweetness.
Another option is a Moscato d'Asti - the lightest and sweetest sparkling to complement a spicy version. It's substantially sweeter and can help to tame the heat of spice.
Chardonnay
There's a Chardonnay for every kind of squash soup because it's made in so many styles. French Maconnay or Oregonian Chardonnays are the best with vegetable or chicken-based stock soups with light or no sweetness.
Buttery California Chardonnay will go well with beef-based stock and soups with heavy cream and sweeter styles.
Riesling
Riesling is another universal wine for any kind of squash soup. The off-dry styles, such as Austrian 2013 Nikolaihof Wachau Guts Riesling is perfect for sweet and spicy soups.
The dry 2016 Hyland Old Vine Riesling from Oregon, for example, can balance the richness of soups with heavy cream and just touch sweet.
Outstanding Riesling is produced in many wine regions worldwide. Still, the world's best comes from Germany, Austria, and the Alsace region of France. Alsace Riesling tends to produce fuller-bodied wines with higher alcohol than Germany or Austria. On the other hand, German and Austrian producers have a sweetness scale on the back label that can help you find the right Riesling for your squash soup. They also make lighter wines, and that's perfect for a lunch meal.
Viognier
Viognier is a full-bodied wine with intense aromatics of peach and tropical fruits that perfectly complement autumn aromas of squash. It's dense and sometimes oil-like texture keeps up with the richness of squash soups. It works well with soups that are a touch sweet, mildly spiced, and soups with heavy cream.
Chenin Blanc and Vouvray
Chenin Blanc or Vouvray (France), is an aromatic floral wine made from bone-dry to sweet styles. The richer off-dry Vouvray and Chenin Blanc is your best bet because it can stand up to creamy soups' richness. The dryer style wine has substantial acidity and can balance the heavy cream and elevate the soup's flavors.
Rosé
There are many different Rosé wine styles, and you can find one that can complement or contrast the squash soup. Here are some suggestions in our article, Summer Rosé Wine Challenge.
The general rule is off-dry Rosé for sweet and spicy soups and dry Rosé for non-sweet squash soups. Some of our favorite American dry Rosé wines come from Oregon and Washington.
Fruity Reds
Fruity light to medium-bodied low tannin red wines is another excellent option. Red wines pair best with non or lightly sweet squash soups made with beef-based stock or heavy cream.
You can try them with younger Pinot Noir from California, Oregon, or Burgundy. Look for the bottles from the riper years with 13.5% alcohol and above. For California, it's going to be pretty much every year. For Oregon, the warmer vintage Pinots are from 2014 through 2016 vintages and some 2017. For Burgundy, 2018, 2017, and 2015 had riper grapes and fruitier wines.
The French Gamay and Beaujolais (the youngest Gamay wines) pair well too. It's red berry fruity nature can make squash soup tastes sweeter and deepen the flavor. Beaujolaise - the younger version of Gamay-based wines works exceptionally well. After all, it's a super young wine released without ageing on the third Thursday of every November. It meant to be drunk by springtime, which coincides with the squash cycle. Looks like nature giving us a tip on how to live with the seasons, isn't it?
Another excellent option is delightful wines made with St. Laurent and Zweigelt, native Austrian grape varietals. These are light-hearted wines with a red berry fruit character. They are not sweet wines, but thanks to low tannin and fruit-forward character pair well with touch sweet squash soups.
What wines to avoid?
The big, bold reds are likely to clash with squash soup. In turn, squash soup can make those wines taste harsh and even bitter. So keep your Cabs for the steak.
Bone-dry white wines can make squash soup tastes super sweet, and soup can make these wines taste sour in return.
Pairing Squash Soup Step by Step
We must say it's super easy. First, don't be intimidated by all the information we shared with you.
Squash Soup, while a process, is among the easiest soups to make. Start with picking the squash you want to use. When your soup is done, taste it for sweetness. Now you're ready for a quick run to a wine shop.
Depending on the size of the squash, you might have enough soup for two-three meals. It means you can experiment with different wines.
We would pick wines with different levels of sweetness. Remember, German and Austrian Rieslings have sweetness level on the back label. And maybe another bottle of something we haven't tried before. Zweigelt anyone?
If lost, ask for help. Good wine shops always have someone who can advise you on what to pick.
We would love to hear from you about your experiments with squash soup and wine pairing and excited to try your suggestions. Please leave comments under the post and reach out if you are struggling to pick the wine.
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