Why Sparkling Wine Pairs So Well With Fried Fish

Any good meal can be completed with wine — but that wine must be chosen with discretion. Fried fish dishes can be harder to pair wine with than other meals. To make the process easier, Tasting Table spoke with an expert to find out what type of wine is the best match for fried fish and why. The expert is Vajra Stratigos, the director of operations at Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar.

First things first, when it comes to picking a wine to pair with fried fish, the answer is easily sparkling wine, be it Champagne, prosecco, or so on. Stratigos explains why, stating, "For fried fish, many of the leaner, brighter, and higher toned wines work just fine but there is that extra thing, beyond acidity in a great bubbly that physically impacts the pairing with its textural fizz. Sparkling wines are inherently more exciting and alive."

Stratigos's specific recommendation is the Von Winning, Riesling, Extra Brut, Sekt, which comes from Pfalz Germany. Taste wise, this wine has notes of citrus, nectarine, and green apple. Additionally, it's much more dry than it is sweet. Put simply, Stratigos described this choice as a "good fried fish wine!" However, if this doesn't sound like your taste — perhaps is you prefer sweet wines to dry — then feel free to branch out into other sparkling wines. After all, there are at least 20 different types of sparkling wine to choose from.

Now that you know to pair fried fish with sparkling wine, it's time to pick which fried fish dish you're in the mood for — and which specific sparkling wine to pair it with. One option is Tasting Table's chili-garlic pan-fried fish, which has a bit of a spicy kick. Because it's pan-fried, it's not as heavy as if it was deep fried, so it's a good option for when you want something a bit lighter. Since it has some spiciness, you may want to pair it with a sweeter sparkling wine to balance out the heat — perhaps a sparkling rosé.

On the other hand, if you do want something deep fried, you can opt for the classic fish and chips dish or even something more unique, like catfish nuggets. Or for something in between lightly fried and deep fried, you can make escalope-style flounder, which is fried in a thin layer of oil. If you aren't sure which type of sparkling wine you want to pair with one of these dishes, you can always put together a flight of sparkling wines to taste test which pair best with each dish. Or you could always stick with a classic sparkling wine type, such as Champagne or prosecco — this way, all you have to worry about is deciding how sweet or dry you want the wine.