How-To: Pair Wine and Brussel Sprouts

When thinking about a nice meal with a glass of wine, brussel sprouts aren't the first food to spring to mind. They're not everyone's favorite vegetable, but when prepared correctly, you can avoid that stereotypical whiff of sulfur. Still, no matter how the dish is prepared, you can always taste the brussels sprouts. Earthy, but sweeter than cabbage or broccoli, with just a hint of that funk: they are a great vessel for other flavors. Many people just simply roast them with a bit of olive oil or butter, maybe adding some balsamic vinegar, or...that favorite ingredient to fix a dish--bacon!

If you're looking for a wine to pair with brussels sprouts, look for a big wine, with some of those similar flavors: Earthy, funky, maybe a bit of sweetness.

• Classic Cotes du Rhone, with big flavors of herbs and spices
• Australian Shiraz (the same grape as the Cotes du Rhone) will give you just as big, but rounder, fruitier flavors.
• Italian Barolo will have some interesting earthy flavors, but might be even bigger flavors than the brussel sprouts
• Stone-y white wines like Chenin Blanc or some dry Rieslings can match the mineral flavors.

Pairing Wine with Brussel Sprout Curry

Pairing wine with food is mostly about history. Finding a wine to pair with a meat or fish is fairly easy, with the long traditions of wine and food in France and Italy. With other dishes, it can be a bit harder.

With a tofu dish, especially one with a curry sauce, there isn't the same depth of history to draw from, so you have to be a little more creative in your wine pairing. Tofu has little flavor of its own, while curry is a strong flavor tough to match with wine. In deciding to pair a tofu and vegetable curry, we looked to the most powerful flavor among the vegetables to find our match for the wine: brussel sprouts seemed the biggest flavor in the dish, providing earth, green vegetable, and a bit of funk.

Still not an easy match, but our thought was to search for a white wine. We decided to look for something with a bit of crispness to it to counter the richness of the tofu and curry. The earth and funk can be emphasized by a bit of minerality. With that in mind, we picked a Chenin Blanc. The younger versions from the Loire Valley can be bright, with a sharp, almost metallic edge. The pairing was pretty decent.