The Ultimate Wine Pairing For Rich And Creamy Chicken Pot Pie

Nothing elevates a weeknight dinner at home quite like a complimentary glass of wine on the side. If cozy, comforting chicken pot pie makes its way into your cold-weather menu rotation, then a bottle of chardonnay should find its way onto your bar cart, too. Today's pro tip comes from Lexi Stephens, a wine educator, recipient of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust's Level III award, and the founder of Lexi's Wine List. "An oaked chardonnay from [California], [Oregon], or France is my go-to for creamy chicken dishes," Stephens explains. "They are full-bodied enough to stand up to the weight of the creamy dish, but they also have acidity that can work as a palate cleanser."

As a general rule, when determining a wine and food pairing, the intensity and weight of the food should match the intensity and weight of the wine. Chardonnay is arguably the most full-bodied variety in the entire white wine spectrum — a fitting reflection of the proportionately rich, hearty cream sauce that binds chicken pot pie. Additionally, chardonnay's buttery, dry palette mirrors the flaky butteriness of the pie crust.

Chardonnay is an often bone dry wine with medium acidity. On the palate, zesty lemon meets baked apple and tropical papaya, with a vanilla warmth emerging when the wine is oaked. Distinctive chardonnay can often be a challenging wine to pair well with food. However, in this case, that toasty oakiness is just robust enough to complement the pot pie without getting lost.

An important distinction mentioned by Stephens (and crucial for discussing chardonnay at any length) is the difference between oaked versus unoaked. These production terms refer to whether the wine is fermented, stored, or aged in wooden or metal barrels. Unoaked chardonnay is designed to present a bright and crisp profile, so it's fermented and stored in stainless steel. Conversely, winemakers ferment and age their wine in oak barrels (aka "oaking") to create a fuller-bodied wine with subtle tasting notes of vanilla, coconut, baking spice, butter, and caramel. The roundness and warmth of oaked chardonnay perfectly complement the comfort food classicism of chicken pot pie.

Specifically, Stephens recommends oaked chardonnays from California, Oregon, and France. These three regions are classified as cool-climate in terms of viticulture, producing more pronounced citrus notes, deeper minerality, and higher acidity in chardonnay. California, in particular, is renowned for its oaked chardonnays.

Thanks to the fact that chardonnay is such an easy, unfussy grape variety that is cultivated at an industrial level in a diversity of climates, an abundance of quality chardonnay is widely available for less than $20 a bottle. If you opt for a budget-friendly drink, you could even add a splash of the wine to your pot pie's cream sauce for impressive dimensionality. (Here is a list of our favorite affordable chardonnays to get you brainstorming.) For a restaurant-worthy meal at home, serve your pot pie oven-warm and your chardonnay between 50 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit.