The Best Winter Wine To Pair With Your Slow Cooked Roast

A slow-cooked roast is a comfort food for those cooler months when you need to throw dinner in your small appliance and get on with your day. The tender meat, along with the flavorful potatoes and carrots that have soaked up all those delicious meaty juices, can be quite satisfying. But when you are ready to eat, you want a wine that complements this hearty dish. For her Rump Roast Crock-Pot recipe, Tasting Table recipe developer Christina Musgrave recommends a dry pairing, saying, "Any dry red wine like a Cabernet or Merlot would be great." But why these?

A nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, with its complex flavors that center around dark ripe fruits like blackberries, currants, and plums, along with complementary herbal notes, is perfect for balancing the richness of this succulent and rich meaty dish. This vino is full-bodied and falls in the middle of the acidity spectrum, giving your mouth a dry, tart experience. Aged in oak barrels, the tannins tend to be noticeable, but on the milder side. Its texture has a thickness to it that tames the heaviness of the meat.  If you are looking for a good Cab to serve up with your slow-cooked roast, you might want to try one from Chile or Bordeaux, France, where some of the best are produced.

Merlot is another red wine that works well with a slow-cooked roast. The soft tannins make it a silky sip and while it is a winter wine, the fruity taste is reminiscent of summer with hints of cherries, raspberries, and plum juxtaposed to essences of licorice and coffee. Its acidity is more of a yin and yang for the taste buds, playing with both the sweet and tart sensations of your tongue. 

Merlot also feels different in your mouth. If you want a wine that has a thinner viscosity to it than a Cabernet, a Merlot is not as full-bodied; however, it still has that dryness to it. The flavor profile of this wine makes it an overall perfect pairing when serving up a roast with such vivid and bold flavors. If you are looking for a good Merlot, you can't go wrong with one from California's Napa Valley, Sonoma County, or Washington State.