An Expert Recommends Pinot Noir For Dishes With This Classic Sauce

Expert food and wine pairings go beyond the broad strokes of protein-based guidelines like pairing light meats with white wines and red meats with tannin-rich red wines. They're much more specific and nuanced. And in an exclusive interview with Mashed, Ashley Herzberg, consulting winemaker at Avaline Wine, emphasized that it's important to consider the sauce and herbs in a dish when choosing your wine. That's why she recommends pinot noir for dishes with popular herbaceous sauce chimichurri. "Maybe a steak will pair super well with your bold red wine," Herzberg told us. "But the chimichurri sauce might take it in an entirely different direction and want something a little brighter like ... a Pinot Noir."

Chimichurri is a zesty Argentinian sauce made from raw chopped herbs, garlic, oil, and vinegar. Pinot noir is a lighter red wine coveted for its delicately complex flavor and relatively high acidity. Each is delicious in its own right, but the key here is that the pinot noir's bright fruitiness balances with the smoky, acidic chimichurri so the flavors harmonize without overpowering each other.

Chimichurri and pinot noir are both famously excellent with a juicy steak — their vibrant acidity balances perfectly with the rich, salty meat. As such, pinot noir with steak and chimichurri sauce is one of the best ways to take your basic red-wine-and-steak dinner to another level. You can make the sauce yourself using Mashed's versatile chimichurri recipe or buy a premade sauce for convenience; Trader Joe's Chimichurri Sauce and Fotis Fine Foods Chimichurri, which is sold at Costco, are both popular options.

If you're new to wine, you can still select a stellar pinot noir if you read up on ways beginners can identify quality wine, such as paying attention to terroir and picking wines with good clarity. As for the steak, leaner cuts, such as filet mignon, skirt steak, and flank steak work particularly well. If you're not into steak, pinot noir also goes well with lamb or pork chops and chimichurri sauce. No matter how you slice it, this tangy culinary power couple is well worth a shot.