The pairings library
What to pour with what you’re cooking.
Food and drinks are a duet. Every recipe lists what to pour next to it. Every bottle we recommend lists what to cook beside it. Browse by cuisine to start.
Pair by cuisine
Four pairing rooms to start with. Each one tells you what to drink with what you’re eating, and why the obvious answer is usually wrong. More cuisines land every week.
Australian · Our backyard
Australian
Sunday roasts, lamingtons and a lager in the esky. The pairing room built for the country this site lives in.
Mexican · Tequila country
Mexican
Tequila, mezcal, Margaritas and Palomas next to tacos al pastor, carnitas, ceviche and slow-roasted barbacoa. The room that started the site.
Italian · Always Sangiovese
Italian
Sangiovese with ragu, vermentino with snapper, an Aperol Spritz before dinner. The pairing room for the long lunch and the slow-cooked Sunday.
Indian · Riesling beats beer
Indian
Off-dry Riesling, Kingfisher lager when it’s thirty-five degrees, and gin with cardamom. Built for butter chicken, dal, biryani and the Friday takeaway.
How we pair
Most pairing guides default to the same two answers: a big red, or a crisp white. We don’t. We test the dish with three or four bottles and we tell you which one actually worked, even if it’s the unfashionable one. A 2012 Coonawarra cabernet might be the textbook match for a roast lamb, but if the daily drinker off the bottom shelf at Dan Murphy’s for fourteen dollars holds its own, that’s the bottle we name.
Every pairing post has the same three sections: the dish (what to cook and how), the drink (the bottle, the cocktail, the bargain alternative), and the table notes (what to do if you don’t have the exact bottle, and which supermarket carries the closest swap).