How To Pair Wine With Scallops Like A Sommelier
Sommeliers go to school for years to learn how to perfectly pair wines — down to the region, vineyard, and year — with any possible dish. No one would expect that level of know-how from the average diner. But with some handy tips from sommeliers, you can make excellent choices when buying wine to go with scallops, depending on how the dish is being prepared.
The first rule of pairing wine with scallops is to keep it light and bright. Something with a good acidity generally always goes over well. Though that often means white wine, it doesn't have to — the old "rule" of never pairing red wine with seafood isn't quite true, as long as you're not reaching for a big, bold, heavy red. Although they can be prepared with pungent ingredients, scallops are delicate, subtle, and sweet. The last thing you want to do is pick a wine that overwhelms them. The wine should be dry or off-dry unless the scallops are served in a very spicy preparation, in which case they can stand up to a touch more residual sweetness.
The best, most versatile white wines are going to be dry riesling, albariño, Bourgogne Blanc, and pinot gris. If you need a red wine, lighter-bodied gamay wines like Beaujolais will do the trick. Does your favorite wine make the cut with the pros?
Pairing raw scallops
You'll want to aim exclusively for a white wine with raw scallops. Dishes like scallop carpaccio or scallop ceviche really sing with a dry riesling, albariño, or pinot gris, as recommended by the head sommelier of The Goring in London, Jean-Baptiste Lemoine. Dry riesling can be found in areas like Alsace, France, Austria, the Rheingau region of Germany, and Washington and New York states, and features a more balanced acidity with notes of lime, apricot, or jasmine. According to Eric Zwiebel, sommelier at Summer Lodge in Dorset, southern England, grassy green chiles and lime share similar sharpness with wines from the Clare Valley in South Australia. If your scallop carpaccio is made with spicy Asian flavors like chiles and ginger, a slightly sweeter German riesling can stand in here.
Albariño is a coastal wine of the Iberian peninsula, and it's known to pair well with almost any seafood. It has a minerally saline quality and high acidity, but can also feature citrus zest, honeydew melon, or nectarine notes. If you like buttery chardonnays, try a lightly oaked vermentino from Sardinia or Tuscany with raw scallops (if you don't like oaked whites, try an unoaked vermentino). Both pair well with herb-forward sauces and gremolatas.
Pinot gris, also known as pinot grigio, has a medium-high acidity and lemon notes, sometimes featuring almond, white peach, or cantaloupe. It works exceptionally well with scallops accented by lemon juice and/or lemon zest.
Pairing cooked scallops
Seared scallops in butter develop caramel-rich flavors that stand up to slightly more complex wines. They should still have good acidity to their backbone, but they can be a little rounder and more full-bodied. Oaked or not, wines with a little more age on them do well here. Baked, roasted, or seared scallops are where — if you must — you can venture into red wines, as long as they're on the light-bodied side, like pomegranate or blackberry-noted Beaujolais.
Though the Burgundy region calls forth ideas of deep red wines, it is also the home of French chardonnay. A Chablis-style chardonnay will punch right through the fattiness of the butter with briny, tart apple or pear notes that work well with mollusks. If you like oaky wine, Bourgogne Blanc wines are easy to drink and taste a little like how young parmesan cheese tastes: salty, nutty, slightly creamy, a bit fruity, but fully balanced. A Rhône viognier will really lean into the butteriness of seared scallops, with medium-low acidity and full body, plus notes of tangerine, honeysuckle, and peach. Meanwhile, Andy Meyers, wine director for José Andrés' Think Food Group, told Wine Enthusiast that "pairing with a just off-dry Chenin Blanc is incredible."
Baked or roasted scallops call for champagne. Jean-Baptiste Lemoine pairs chardonnay-dominant champagne with scallops baked with rosemary and orange. The bubbles really cut through the butteriness, but the chardonnay offers a smooth, round character that helps the orange shine through, and it's a party.