Pizza and Wine: What Actually Works
Andi Healey
Web Manager
From Margherita to ‘nduja, here’s what to pour with your pizza, and why some pairings work better than others.
Match the acid to the sauce, match the tannin to the fat, and don’t let “it’s just pizza” talk you out of pouring something decent.
These are the last few weeks before the Ooni goes back in the shed until the spring... allegedly.
Mind you, I say that every October and still usually end up out there firing it up again on Boxing Day, so you can probably take that with a generous pinch of salt (and flour, yeast and water… oh, and a glug of olive oil.)
However, homemade or delivered, the wine and pizza question doesn’t change.
Pizza isn’t one dish, it’s a delivery system for wildly different combinations of acid, fat, salt and char, and each one wants something different in the glass.
Get the pairing wrong and it’s not exactly a disaster.
You’ve still got pizza and wine.
You just end up with two tasty things on the table that don’t do much for each other.
Get it right and the sauce, the toppings, the cheese and the wine all come together to be more than the sum of their parts.
Margherita
This is the pizza the “red wine goes with pizza” rule was written for, and it’s the one place it mostly holds true. Tomato sauce is acidic, and a wine with a similar level of acidity stops the sauce tasting sharp against it.
A Sangiovese or a dry Provence rosé does this well: the acid works with the sauce, and there’s just enough grip to sit alongside the mozzarella without flattening the basil.
Barbera is another very good option. High in acidity and relatively low in tannin, it has the freshness to cope with the tomato without bringing enough structure to bully a fairly delicate pizza.
Don’t reach for anything oaky or heavy here. Margherita is a quiet pizza and wants a quiet wine.
Anchovy, Caper and Olive
This one’s usually still on a tomato base, but the salt and umami from the anchovies, capers and olives push it somewhere the Margherita never goes. Heavy tannin is the enemy here. Big, tannic reds can make oily fish taste metallic and accentuate the bitterness of the wine, while the salt just makes everything feel drier.
A dry, high-acid white sidesteps the problem entirely. Albariño, Assyrtiko (my favourite) or Vermentino all have enough acidity to sit alongside the tomato and a mineral, saline character that works with the brine rather than fighting it, with no tannin around to clash with the fish.
Pepperoni and Cured Meats
Fat is the important bit here. Tannin gives you that drying sensation in the mouth, and rich, fatty foods soften its rougher edges. That’s part of the reason the classic red-wine-with-steak pairing works, and the same principle applies here to the pepperoni.
A Zinfandel, Primitivo or Cabernet Franc has enough tannin and ripe fruit to stand up to the fat and spice, while the richness of the pepperoni makes the wine’s tannins feel softer. A wine that’s too light just gets steamrollered by the spice and the salt.
And if you’re dealing with the full meat-lovers selection rather than a few slices of pepperoni, you can go a little bigger. A ripe Shiraz has enough fruit and weight to avoid being completely flattened by sausage, bacon and whatever else has been thrown onto the pizza.
White Pizza (and Anything Without Tomato)
Take the tomato away and the whole calculation changes. Without that acidic sauce to match, you want the wine’s acidity doing the work instead, cutting through the cream, the olive oil and the cheese rather than echoing it.
A crisp Vermentino or Pinot Grigio resets your palate between bites in a way a soft, low-acid white can’t. This is also where a good Chardonnay with some texture can work, provided the pizza itself has enough richness to meet it halfway.
If you’re adding prosciutto and rocket after the pizza comes out of the oven, a dry rosé is another very good option. The fruit works with the ham, while the acidity copes with the cheese and the peppery rocket.
Mushroom and Other Earthy Toppings
This is the pairing people are most surprised by: sparkling wine. A Brut Champagne, Crémant or Franciacorta works surprisingly well here. The acidity cuts through the cheese and oil, while the bubbles lift the richness from your palate without adding another layer of weight to an already earthy topping. It’s not a novelty pairing, it’s just a genuinely good one that gets overlooked because “fizz and pizza” sounds like a joke.
Hawaiian
The pineapple argument is a whole different discussion, but wine-wise the sweet-salty contrast is actually one of the easier pairings to get right. An off-dry Riesling has enough natural sweetness to sit alongside the pineapple without a clash, while its acidity keeps things from feeling cloying and resets your palate for the salty ham.
A dry rosé is the other safe route, bringing enough fruit to cope with the pineapple without introducing the sweetness of an off-dry wine. Either way, avoid anything tannic and dry: it’ll taste bitter against the fruit.
Spicy Pizza
Sugar and cold temperature both blunt the perception of chilli heat, which is why an off-dry Riesling or a lightly chilled Lambrusco earns its keep with anything with ‘nduja or fresh chilli. This isn’t just sweetness providing a pleasant contrast. The sugar helps take the edge off the chilli, while the acidity keeps the wine from becoming syrupy.
High alcohol, incidentally, is not your friend here. Alcohol can make chilli feel hotter, which is another good reason to leave the big, powerful reds on the rack.
And Yes, the Glass Still Matters
Not enough to rescue a bad pairing, but enough to make a good one better. You don’t need a different glass for every pizza, despite what I might occasionally seem to suggest. You just need one that lets the wine do what it’s supposed to do.
There’s another rule hiding underneath all of this: match the intensity of the wine to the intensity of the pizza. A delicate Margherita doesn’t need a muscular red, just as a pizza buried under ‘nduja isn’t going to be impressed by a whisper-light wine.
The short version: match the acid to the sauce, match the tannin to the fat, and don’t let “it’s just pizza” talk you out of pouring something decent.
Saluti!
Whatever’s going in the oven tonight, it tastes better from the right glass. Explore our full range of wine glasses.
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Andi Healey is the Web Manager at The Riedel Shop with over 10 years of experience helping customers understand and appreciate quality wine glassware. Based in Surrey, UK, Andi combines practical retail experience with a genuine passion for wine culture and the stories behind the grapes.
- Official UK Riedel specialist retailer
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