The Best Wine To Pair With Vodka Sauce

Creamy yet deeply flavorful, a good vodka sauce instantly elevates many dishes, such as penne alla vodka, or disco pasta. It can be so easy to make, too; Giada De Laurentiis' vodka sauce starts with a store-bought base, for example. And since wine and pasta go hand-in-hand, which wines work best to drink alongside a vodka sauce? To get some expert advice on what can be a tricky pairing, Food Republic asked expert Nathan Grunow, the Wine Director at Jovanina's Broken Italian restaurant in Denver's Lower Downtown, to share some top tips.

Firstly, you need to look at exactly what is in the sauce, Grunow advised, since there are a number of different variations. "It's important to check what other ingredients a given chef or cook may add in addition to the classic garlic, shallots, vodka, and tomato cream," he noted. "Red pepper flakes, fennel, and basil are all common, and each little addition can change what you would want to drink alongside the dish."

If the sauce in question is heavy on the fennel, for example, then a refreshingly acidic sauvignon blanc makes a great pairing. "The classic grapefruit notes in many sauvignon blancs taste remarkably good with those hints of anise," explained Grunow. Specifically, he recommends Venica & Venica Ronco del Cero from Friuli, as "the hints of minerality and freshness fit nicely alongside an herb-forward vodka sauce, especially if the dish includes chicken."

Opting for white may be a basic rule for pairing wine with salmon, but if your vodka sauce features fish or seafood, it's worth looking for something with a little fizz to find the perfect match. Sparkling wines are "the most overlooked pairings for light cream sauces, like a vodka sauce, especially when the dish includes the additions of shellfish," according to wine expert Nathan Grunow.

While you might instinctively think of Champagne when it comes to the various sparkling wines, you can definitely choose a more budget-friendly option. Prosecco, with its fresh and fruity flavor, is ideal. "We especially like a vintage prosecco called 'Giustino B' by Ruggeri," suggested Grunow. "It's made in the more complicated méthode Champenoise and has all the depth and fresh acidity you'd need to cut through the creamy and perhaps rich quality of a vodka sauce with lobster or prawns."

The méthode Champenoise, which comes from the French Champagne region, refers to a style of winemaking where the liquid ferments in the bottle to produce carbon dioxide — in other words, those lovely, bouncy bubbles. As an alternative, if you're not a fan of prosecco, you could try a crémant. It's a French sparkling wine made in the same way as Champagne but which doesn't come from the Champagne region, so it can't be called such. Go for a brut (dry, rather than sweet) version to counteract a creamy vodka sauce.

For a spicy vodka sauce with ingredients such as red pepper and aromatic herbs like basil, wine pro Nathan Grunow recommended a fresher and crisper style of wine. "I would turn to something Sicilian, specifically a fun, highly fresh, and minerally wine from the slopes of Mount Etna," he told Food Republic.

It's the volcanic soil that gives Etna wines such a unique mineral-rich flavor — and Grunow has a particular favorite to pair with vodka sauces in his restaurant. "We serve a wine from Pietro Caciorgna called 'Guardoilvento' made from Etna's famous Carricante grape," he said. "Silky and fresh at the same time, you get bits of white peach and unripe tropical fruit with a big crisp finish combined with hints of sea breezes."

The wine expert believes that whites generally tend to match better than reds with vodka sauce. "[V]odka sauce's delicate quality always calls out for a crisp white wine for me!" he advised. If you do prefer to drink red, you could try a richly fruity cabernet sauvignon or an earthier sangiovese with notes of juicy cherries. But steer clear of pairing vodka sauce with more vodka. "The usual rule of thumb, 'pair the sauce with the spirit you are cooking with,' doesn't apply as vodka doesn't make anything taste better!" warned Grunow.