So what do you drink with pesto?

[David M. Bueker]

Nothing seems to work for me, Italian or otherwise.

What do folks like to drink when they have pesto?

Valpolicella, Bardolino, or Rosato.

How do you make your pesto(Genovese, I’m assuming…seems to most popular)? Are you using raw garlic? We had trouble with wine matching when we were doing that. The raw garlic available to us was pretty strong and bitter.

Then we tried Robin’s technique of lightly browning the garlic in EVOO…which eventually led to just infusing the EVOO with the garlic and using that for the pesto. We now pair it with young sangiovese.

I might add, though, we rarely use pesto as main sauce, preferring to use it more as a condiment for pasta sauces or as a rub for roast chicken.

Richard

Victor Hazan says " for pesto, there is nothing better than the floweriness of a Tyrolean reisling ".

A little garlic pre cook is a great idea. Do it for many other things- never though to do it for pesto. In fact, I often keep a whole head of garlic cloves slightly braised in evoo on the counter for just this reason.

Victor Hazan says " for pesto, there is nothing better than the floweriness of a Tyrolean reisling ".

A little garlic pre cook is a great idea. Do it for many other things- never though to do it for pesto. In fact, I often keep a whole head of garlic cloves slightly braised in evoo on the counter for just this reason.

Riesling is good too (but that's no news, as Riesling is good with almost anything ).

To me there are no great matches, but lots of pleasant ones. Of course, everyone's palate is different, and there is the issue of the ratio of nuts to cheese to basil to oil to garlic. Presumably different ratios change your wine-matching reactions.

Herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc, very herbal southern French and Sardinian whites (Vermentino/Rolle), Tocai Friulano, simpler Chinon/Bourgeuil/Saumur reds, fino/manzanilla sherry have all worked for me. It's not a dish to match with older, refined, subtle or complex wines.

Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo is our favorite with Pesto.

Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo is our favorite with Pesto.

That's a good one too.

David, last time I had pesto was with a Bone Jolly rose and it matched far better than the Barbera's (Contratto and Schiavenza) I tried on the previous two occasions.
When I made a mint/parsley pesto, a young Alsatian riesling worked really well.

Along with Bill, I often drink rose. Other than that, Roero Arneis often works.

Christian already mentioned these, but another vote for Sancerre and wines made from Vermentino. One of my all time memorable food wine matches was seafood with pesto sauce and a Ligurian white that was made from 100% Vermentino.

[David M. Bueker]

Hmm...Bone Jolly Rosé. I think I know where some of that is.

Recently made penne with pesto. Matched it with a vernaccia di San Gimignano which went pretty well. Would definitely do it again.

Then we tried Robin’s technique of lightly browning the garlic in EVOO…which eventually led to just infusing the EVOO with the garlic and using that for the pesto.

A technique from a cooking class was to roast an entire head of garlic in EVOO. At the end of the roasting time, one gets both roasted garlic and garlic-infused EVOO!

Tonight am having an 05 gruner with pesto pizza. Tastes good in my head, will let you know later how it tastes in reality.

I'm with Thomas on the Riesling. But I would lean toward Alsace. I think that the Gruner would be good too.

rwj

Tonight am having an 05 gruner with pesto pizza. Tastes good in my head, will let you know later how it tastes in reality.

I can now confirm, that if you happen to have a bottle of 2005 Schloss Gobelsburg GV Steinsetz laying around, and you happen to be whipping up a pizza with pesto, eggplant, and golden cherry tomatoes, you should not hesitate to consume the two together, because it was delightful.

FWIW, I went easy on the garlic and didn't have pine nuts in the pesto, which may have helped match with this juicy succulent GV. But, when the wine is good and the food is good, it's hard to go wrong.