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Three rules
- Match sweetness. The wine should be at least as sweet as the dish. Dry honey wine with savory food, semi-sweet with anything glazed, spicy or fruity, sweet with dessert.
- Use the missing tannin. Tannin is what makes red wine clash with sweet glazes, chili heat and oily fish. Traditional honey wine has next to none, so it can go places most grape wine cannot.
- Echo or contrast. Either mirror a flavor in the dish (honey glaze, orange, toasted nuts) or cut against it (bubbles with fat, sweetness with salt).
Pairing chart by style
| Style | Great with | Bottle to try |
|---|---|---|
| Dry, still | Oysters, grilled fish, smoked salmon, salads, quiche, roast chicken, goat cheese, light pasta | Brut |
| Semi-sweet, still | Thai, Sichuan, Indian and Ethiopian food, barbecue, glazed ham, blue cheese, fruit tarts | Demi Sec |
| Dry sparkling | Fried chicken, tempura, potato chips, oysters, caviar, aged Parmesan | Brut Sparkling |
| Light sparkling | Aperitif snacks, sushi, ceviche, summer salads | Brut Fresca |
| Off-dry sparkling | Brunch, Cajun food, wedding cake, fresh fruit | Demi Sec Sparkling |
| Oak-aged dry | Roast turkey, lobster with butter, mushroom risotto, Gruyère | Brut Barrel Fermented |
| Dark, forest-honey | Smoked brisket, aged Gouda, dark chocolate, walnuts | Demi Sec Miombo |
Spicy food
This is where honey wine earns its place at the table. Chili heat is amplified by alcohol and tannin and soothed by sugar, which is why a big red wine with a vindaloo is a mistake and an off-dry white is a relief. A semi-sweet honey wine at around 12% alcohol, with next to no tannin, is about as well suited to the job as a wine can be.
It is no accident. Tej evolved alongside Ethiopian cooking, where berbere-spiced stews are the center of the meal. The same logic carries to Thai green curry, Sichuan mapo tofu, Nashville hot chicken, jerk pork and Korean fried chicken.
Cheese
- Blue cheese (Roquefort, Stilton, Gorgonzola) with semi-sweet or sweet honey wine. Salt and sweet is the principle behind blue cheese with honey, and this is the same pairing in liquid form.
- Fresh goat cheese, burrata, Brie and Camembert with dry honey wine.
- Aged Gouda, Manchego, Comté, Parmesan with oak-aged or dark-honey wines, which pick up the nutty, caramel notes.
- Washed-rind cheeses (Taleggio, Époisses) with aromatic semi-sweet wines.
Drizzle a little of the same varietal honey over the cheese and the pairing locks together.
Barbecue, ham and roasts
Smoke and sweet sauce are hard on dry wines. A semi-sweet honey wine handles both, and the producer of our top pick names barbecue among its own suggested pairings. For holiday ham we have a whole guide: what wine goes with honey glazed ham. With roast chicken, turkey and pork loin, go dry, and consider the barrel-fermented style if there is gravy involved.
Seafood and brunch
Dry honey wine behaves like a soft, aromatic white: good with oysters, grilled shrimp, smoked salmon, crab cakes and delicate white fish. Brunch is its other natural home. Eggs are famously hard on wine, but the gentle acidity and floral character of a dry or sparkling honey wine sit comfortably with omelets, quiche and eggs Benedict, and honey wine in place of Prosecco makes a mimosa that actually tastes of something.
Dessert
The wine must be sweeter than the dessert, which rules out most table wines with most puddings. Semi-sweet honey wine works with desserts that are only lightly sweet: fruit tarts, poached pears, panna cotta, almond cake, baklava in small pieces. For anything richer, a sweet sack mead is the answer, or do as the producer suggests and serve a glass of semi-sweet honey wine instead of dessert.
Cooking with honey wine
- Pan sauce: deglaze a pan of pork chops or chicken thighs with half a cup of dry honey wine, reduce by half, and finish with mustard and butter.
- Mussels: steam them in dry honey wine with shallots and thyme instead of white wine.
- Poached pears: simmer in semi-sweet honey wine with a cinnamon stick and a strip of lemon peel.
- Glaze: reduce semi-sweet honey wine to a syrup and brush it on ham, salmon or carrots.
Frequently asked questions
What food goes with honey wine?
Semi-sweet honey wine is excellent with spicy dishes, barbecue, glazed ham and blue cheese. Dry honey wine suits seafood, salads, roast chicken and goat cheese. Sparkling honey wine loves anything salty or fried.
What cheese goes with mead?
Blue cheese with semi-sweet or sweet mead is the classic. Fresh goat cheese and creamy bloomy-rind cheeses suit dry mead, and aged Gouda, Manchego or Comté work with oak-aged or dark-honey meads.
Does honey wine go with spicy food?
Better than almost any grape wine. Sweetness soothes chili heat, moderate alcohol keeps the burn down, and with next to no tannin there is nothing for the heat to turn bitter.
Can you cook with honey wine?
Yes. Use it wherever you would use white wine and want a rounder, more floral result: pan sauces for pork and chicken, steamed mussels, poached pears and glazes.
What do you eat with Ethiopian honey wine?
Tej is traditionally served with injera and spicy stews such as doro wat, along with kitfo and tibs. The sweetness is there to balance the berbere.