When you think about Scandinavian food, what are the first things that come to mine? Salmon, dill, almond, cardamom, berries, mushrooms, potatoes, pickled herring, apples–and that’s just a starting place. The food of Scandinavia is guided by tradition as well as geography and the seasons, resulting in a variety of regional cuisines with no shortage of seafood, game, cakes, cookies, dairy, and produce that varies widely throughout the year. As rich as Scandinavian cuisine can be, it’s not typically one of the top ones for wine pairings. After all, what kind of wine would really go well with pickled herring?
At a wine pairing session this weekend at the International Food Bloggers Conference in Seattle, I decided to get to the bottom of wine pairings for Scandinavian food. I asked chef John Sarich, culinary director at Chateau Ste. Michelle, what he’d pair with Scandinavian food. Riesling, Riesling, Riesling, he repeated as I listed some of the hallmark flavors in many dishes–salmon, dill, horseradish, potatoes. And then I stumped him with pickled herring. Sure enough, my suspicions were right: Don’t even try, stick with aquavit and beer. But I’m intrigued by the Riesling pairing. Much Riesling is too sweet for my palate so I rarely consider it. But as I’ve been mulling over the flavors of both the food and this particular wine (especially the drier ones), I think he’s onto something.
What about you? What do you like to pair–wine or otherwise–with your favorite Scandinavian foods?
Full disclosure: Although I paid my way to the conference, there were plenty of free things handed our way, including a cookbook from Sarich and a discount on the conference for people blogging about it. Just thought you should know.
3 thoughts on “Wine Pairings for Scandinavian Food?”
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One of the best meals I ever had was at the Vox Restaurant in the Hilton Hotel, Reykjavik, Iceland, specializing in local Nordic food. I had it with excellent Danish cider and it suited the food perfectly.
Jenny, Danish cider sounds fantastic. What were some of the dishes you ate at Vox?
Riesling can be everything from sweet to dry, off-dry fits modern Scandinavian seafood well. However Scandinavian food is a lot more than seafood from Game meats, vegetable dishes, Beef, Pork, Mutton and lots more. So you need to think of fat content in food, how heavy the food is, etc. Merlot fits a lot of dishes with mushroom and game for instance.
A speciality in West Coast Norway is wild fermented apple cider from Hardanger its very fresh and (strong) Beer is popular (Pilsner type, or Viking Ale (Kveik) is brilliant and typical staple) Vodka, Aquavit and Gammeldansk is traditional spirits. Christmas dinner in Norway is usually with Aquavit as a snaps to cleanse the palate etc. Else traditionally there is Danderlion wine, Elderflower wine, Blueberry wine, Apple, Plum and Pear ciders, and not to forget Meade which is made from Honey. Also a lot of types of liqueur Strawberry, Plum, mullets, blackberry, raspberry and a lot more, also some medicinal plants which can be for ailments is used.
So the varieties are way more than people think.
However the traditional drink is beer, there were beer laws before, that basically read if you did not make enough beer for your household, and did not offer to guests you would be banished from the land. Hence it is a beer culture more than anything. Meade was a feast drink for the wealthy.