Soup and Wine Pairing should be on your to do list this winter!

Soup and wine pairing might seem like an odd combination, but the ingredients in the pot dictate the perfect pairing. Very much the same principle you would use when pairing wine with pasta sauces. Flavors, like spices, herbs, and acidic tomatoes, call for wines with good acidity. But sweeter vegetables, like onions, carrots, and squash, want wines with more rounded, lush, fruity flavors. Also, keep in mind the many different types of soups and various textures, like clear soups, creamy and smooth soups, chunky stews, and chowders.

• For a heavy tomato sauce based soup, ideally, wine with a little less acidity and a well-integrated, elegant tannin structure would be perfect like Zorgvliet Silvermyn Argentum.
• Goulash soup is heavy on meat, wine pairing that has a bit more body and strength like Le Pommier’s Jonathan Malbec will be excellent.
• Chunky, rustic soups with beans or pulses e.g. minestrone, lentil soup or thick vegetable soup that’s almost a stew match well with medium bodied rustic reds like Boplaas Pinotage 2011.
• ‘Sweet’ vegetable soups like Le Pommier’s butternut, squash and pumpkin pair well with rich Chardonnays or try a Fairview Viognier.
• A Cream of Chicken Soup, again, would be best suited to a Viognier or we suggest the Le Pommier Sauvignon Blanc.

Remember there are no set rules for wine pairing with foods and especially soups, stews, pasta sauces and the like; however, there are certainly some wines that will enhance a pot of soup infinitely better than others.

If all else fails a Monis Full Cream or Medium Cream Sherry is always a great backup: Sherry is still an excellent substitute to be considered with an extensive range of smooth or textured soups. Sherry, being a fortified wine adds a delicious depth of flavor to soups.