Which wine with which dish? Our festive food and wine pairing guide

In short: oysters and seafood call for a dry, crisp white; festive poultry, reds suited to how it is cooked; lamb, beef and game, more structured reds. With cheese, white is often better than people think. This guide details each pairing, the right serving temperature and the wine we recommend from our range.

Pairings at a glance

Dish	Our recommendation
Oysters and seafood	Sauvignon Blanc 2023
Foie gras	mi-cuit: Sauvignon Blanc 2023 · pan-fried: Malbec Clasico 2021
Capon	roast: Malbec Clasico 2021 · in sauce: Malbec Collection 2019
Christmas turkey	Malbec Clasico 2021
Leg of lamb	Cabernet Sauvignon Collection 2021
Rib of beef, roast	Malbec Clasico 2021 · Corte Gran Collection 2020
Game	furred game: Petit Verdot Collection 2021 · game birds: Malbec Collection 2019
Cheese	goat's cheese: Sauvignon Blanc 2023 · pressed cheeses: Cabernet Sauvignon Clasico 2021

These recommendations come from Vignes des Andes, a French-Argentine estate in Alto Agrelo, in the Mendoza region, whose wines we ship to you from France. Choose your dish in the contents, or discover our estate first.

Which wine with oysters and seafood?

Oysters are briny and salty; prawns, langoustines and shellfish have delicate, slightly sweet flesh. Lemon, shallot vinegar or mayonnaise add acidity or richness.

They need a dry, crisp and fruity white: its freshness answers the brininess and the acidity of the condiments. A wine that is too rich would weigh everything down, and the tannins of a red often give a metallic taste with oysters.

This is the most natural pairing for our Sauvignon Blanc, a dry white with a very fruity profile: served well chilled, it goes as well with the aperitif as with a seafood platter.

Which wine with foie gras?

Rich and melting, foie gras is served cold, mi-cuit or as a terrine, or hot, pan-fried. It often comes with gingerbread, fig chutney or pan-fried fruit.

The classic pairing remains a sweet wine (Sauternes, Jurançon), which extends its roundness. Two other approaches work very well:

• Mi-cuit foie gras or terrine: a fresh white, whose liveliness balances the richness. Our Sauvignon Blanc 2023, dry and very fruity, pairs with a plain terrine on toast.
• Pan-fried foie gras: hot and caramelised, it can take a red, as long as it is supple and fruity. This is where our Malbec Clasico becomes an original alternative to the classic pairings.

Watch the sugar: with a very sweet chutney or gingerbread, a dry wine tastes more acidic than it is. In that case, a sweet wine remains the safest choice; with a dry wine, serve a small touch of chutney rather than a large spoonful.

Which wine with capon?

More tender and richer than a chicken, capon has fine, melting flesh. It is served roast, stuffed, or with a creamy morel or chestnut sauce.

Such delicate meat needs a wine that does not overpower it. Simply roasted, capon calls for a supple, fruity red, like Pinot Noir in Burgundy, or a full-bodied white. With a rich sauce, cream or morels, a fuller red comes into its own.

With capon in sauce, we recommend our Malbec Collection 2019: it has the structure and depth to stand up to a rich sauce. With simply roasted capon, choose the suppleness of the Malbec Clasico 2021.

Which wine with Christmas turkey?

Turkey has lean meat that dries out quickly when cooked: it is the stuffing (chestnuts, mushrooms, dried fruit) and the gravy that give it its flavour.

A wine that is too tannic would toughen this lean meat. A supple, fruity red, served slightly cool, suits it better and matches the sweetness of the chestnuts.

Our Malbec Clasico 2021 meets exactly this need. If you have already chosen it for the pan-fried foie gras, the same bottle will go very well with the turkey.

Which wine with leg of lamb?

Lamb has red meat with a distinctive flavour and aromatic fat. Leg of lamb is served pink, with garlic, thyme, rosemary, flageolet beans or a gratin.

This is the territory of structured reds. In France, leg of lamb is traditionally paired with Bordeaux wines, where Cabernet Sauvignon often leads the Left Bank blends: the wine's tannins answer the texture of the meat, and the lamb's fat softens them.

Our Cabernet Sauvignon Collection 2021 follows this logic: a structured 100% Cabernet Sauvignon that we recommend with rack of lamb and roast red meats. For seven-hour lamb and a large table, consider our Malbec Reserva 2017 in magnum, which we recommend precisely with seven-hour lamb.

Which wine with rib of beef or a roast?

A grilled rib of beef or a roast offers juicy red meat with charred notes and marbled fat.

A full-bodied red with present tannins is the obvious pairing. In Argentina, the land of the asado, grilled beef and Malbec are a classic duo.

For a rib of beef on the plancha or the barbecue, choose the Malbec Clasico 2021, which we recommend with grilled red meat. For an exceptional roast or a fine cut of beef, opt for our Corte Gran Collection 2020, which brings together our three red grape varieties.

Which wine with game?

Venison, deer, wild boar: furred game has dark meat with a powerful flavour, often cooked as a civet, a stew or with grand veneur sauce. Game birds (pheasant, partridge) are more delicate.

Furred game calls for a powerful wine with firm tannins, able to stand up to a wine sauce. For game birds, a suppler red is enough.

Our Petit Verdot Collection 2021 is made for the former. A late-ripening variety used in small proportions in Bordeaux, Petit Verdot is rarely vinified on its own; ours is 100% Petit Verdot, harvested by hand on our estate: a rare wine, worthy of game. For pheasant or partridge, choose the Malbec Collection 2019.

Which wine with a cheese board?

A cheese board mixes very different flavours: fresh, tangy goat's cheeses, pressed cheeses (Comté, Cantal, Tomme), powerful washed-rind cheeses (Munster, Époisses) and salty blue cheeses.

Red is not always the best choice. Goat's cheese and dry white are a classic pairing, like Sauvignon with Crottin de Chavignol in the Centre-Loire. Aged pressed cheeses go well with a red. For blue and washed-rind cheeses, a sweet wine or an aromatic white works better than a tannic red.

Our advice: two bottles for the cheese board. The Sauvignon Blanc 2023 for the goat's cheeses, and the Cabernet Sauvignon Clasico 2021, fruity and supple, for Comté, Cantal or Tomme.

Argentine wines on a French table

Our vineyards are in Alto Agrelo, in the Mendoza region, at around 1,050 metres above sea level, at the foot of the Andes. We grow Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Sauvignon Blanc: all our wines are made from the grapes of our estate.

Our story is shared between two countries. In Argentina, our teams look after the vines, the harvests and the wines in Mendoza, and our sales offices are in Buenos Aires. In France, VDA Europe, our company based in Poissy, in the Yvelines, imports our wines and ships them from France. And if you are passing through Mendoza, the estate can be visited by reservation.

Serving a Mendoza Malbec with a French dish is something of a return to the roots: Malbec comes from south-west France, where it is also called Côt, notably in Cahors. It was in Argentina that it became the emblematic grape variety we know today.

Our range falls into two families:

• Clasico: our fruity, supple wines, which bring out the character of the grape variety and go with poultry, grilled food and everyday dishes.
• Collection and Gran Collection: our more structured and complex wines, for red meat, game and dishes in sauce.

Wines for the whole meal, in a single order

A festive meal often calls for several wines. Our cases bring several wines together at a lower price than buying them individually, with free delivery in France. The saving is shown for each one.

Looking for a gift? See our wine gift box ideas for Christmas.

Temperatures and serving tips

Wine	Serving
Sauvignon Blanc 2023	8 to 10 °C
Malbec Clasico, Cabernet Sauvignon Clasico 2021	16 to 18 °C, no decanting
Malbec Collection 2019	17 to 18 °C, decanted 30 minutes beforehand
Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot Collection 2021, Corte Gran Collection 2020	17 to 18 °C, decanted 1 hour beforehand

• Put the white in the fridge 2 to 3 hours before the meal.
• A red served too warm tastes heavy and alcoholic: above 18 °C, cool it for a few minutes.
• Serve the wines from lightest to most structured: the white with the starters, then our Clasico reds, then our Collection and Gran Collection wines.

Advice from the estate

“For a festive meal, our advice is simple: choose your wines according to the dishes, but don’t hesitate to step away from traditional pairings. We particularly enjoy introducing Argentine Malbec to a French table. It is a lovely way to share our French-Argentine story and to take your guests, for the length of a meal, all the way to the vineyards of Mendoza.”

François Andurand, Sales Director – Vignes des Andes

Frequently asked questions about food and wine pairing

Which wine to serve for Christmas dinner?

Follow the order of the menu: a dry, fruity white with oysters, seafood or a foie gras terrine, a supple, fruity red with turkey or capon, a more structured red with lamb, beef or game.

Can one wine be served for the whole meal?

Yes, if the menu centres on poultry and meat: a supple, versatile red such as our Malbec Clasico 2021 goes from pan-fried foie gras to turkey and rib of beef. With oysters or seafood, however, plan a white.

Which red wine with poultry?

A supple, fruity red with little tannin, served at about 16 °C. Very structured, very tannic wines are best kept for red meat and game.

Should the wine be decanted?

For our Collection and Gran Collection wines, yes: 30 minutes for the Malbec Collection, one hour for the Cabernet Sauvignon Collection, the Petit Verdot Collection and the Corte Gran Collection. Our Clasico wines are served straight away.

At what temperature should red wine be served?

Between 16 and 18 °C: about 16 °C for supple reds, 17 to 18 °C for our Collection and Gran Collection wines. The “room temperature” of a heated living room is often too high.

What is Malbec?

A red grape variety originally from south-west France, where it is also called Côt, which has become Argentina's emblematic grape variety, particularly in the Mendoza region. Discover our Malbecs and our article The Malbec grape in Argentina.

Order our wines for the holidays

Delivery within 2 to 3 business days from our warehouse in France. Delivery is free in France from €130 of purchases and always on our cases. To receive your order before the holidays, remember to order early enough.

See all our wines Our cases and gift boxes

Read also:

• Which dish with an Argentine Malbec? Our food and wine pairings
• Argentine wine: grape varieties, regions and how to choose
• The terroir of Vignes des Andes

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