Best Wine for Beef Stew: Match It to What’s in the Pot

The best wine for beef stew is a Côtes du Rhône, the Grenache and Syrah blend from southern France, because it brings enough dark fruit and pepper to stand up to the beef without the hard tannin that turns harsh next to a rich, salty gravy. The bottle that beats it depends on what your stew was cooked in: Chianti for a tomato-heavy pot, Merlot for a classic stock-and-potato stew, and a ripe Zinfandel for anything carrying paprika or chili heat. To cook with, use a dry, unoaked red you'd happily drink, and never a bottle labeled cooking wine.

Most pairing advice for stew assumes the pot was braised in a full bottle of red, but plenty of American beef stews are built on beef stock, tomato paste and Worcestershire, or on a can of Guinness, and that changes what tastes good in the glass. So we'll start with the all-rounder, then sort the rest by what's actually in your pot, and finish with the cooking questions people ask most, including how much alcohol is really left after three hours on the stove.

What's the best wine for beef stew?

Côtes du Rhône is the best single wine for beef stew because it sits right in the middle of what a stew asks for: ripe red and black fruit from Grenache, a peppery, savory edge from Syrah, and tannins soft enough that they don't fight a thick sauce. It's also cheap enough to buy two bottles, one for the pot and one for the table.

Take E. Guigal's Côtes du Rhône Rouge as an example of the style. It's 50% Syrah, 40% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre, aged 18 months in foudres, the big old wooden casks that give a wine time to settle without stamping it with the vanilla of new barrels, and Guigal describes its tannins as "rounded and smooth" (E. Guigal). That combination of full fruit and gentle grip is exactly what you want beside a bowl of braised chuck and soft carrots. If you've never really tasted Grenache on its own, our page on what Grenache tastes like and how to spot it on a label shows where the ripe, strawberry-jam side of the blend comes from.

Fiona Beckett, the former Guardian wine columnist behind Matching Food and Wine, makes the case against going too big. Stews are intensely flavored, she writes, so you could argue they need a big wine to hold their own, "But that can be overwhelming. I prefer a slightly lighter more rustic red", and she names Syrah, Grenache, Malbec and Tempranillo as the grapes that hit the spot (Matching Food and Wine). A Côtes du Rhône is two of those four in one bottle, which is why we'd reach for it first.

Why does the liquid in your stew change the wine?

The liquid in your stew changes the wine because, after the beef, it's the loudest flavor in the bowl, and it decides whether the wine needs to bring acidity, ripe fruit or simply stay out of the way. Beckett puts it plainly: "it does depend what liquid's in the stew", and she splits the answer by braise, beer stews one way, wine stews another, spiced stews a third (Matching Food and Wine).

Here's how we'd read the pot before you shop.

A stew braised in wine is the easiest case, because the sauce already tastes like the bottle. Beckett's advice there is to choose a similar style but a slightly better quality than the wine you cooked with, which keeps the glass and the bowl talking to each other. Stews made with stock and tomato are where most people go wrong, since the obvious move is the biggest red in the house, and a stock-based stew is gentler and sweeter than a wine braise.

If you're cooking from a recipe and can't tell which row it belongs in, Pairing in Sommy reads the recipe from a link or a photo of the page and picks out the ingredients that actually move the wine, so the canned tomatoes and the smoked paprika count and the flour doesn't.

What wine goes with a classic American beef stew?

Merlot is the wine we'd pour with a classic American beef stew, the kind made with beef stock, tomato paste, potatoes and carrots and no wine in the pot at all. That stew is savory but mild, a little sweet from the root vegetables, and it doesn't have the dark, winey depth of a French braise, so it suits a red with soft tannin and plummy fruit far better than a firm one.

Merlot is smooth and round rather than grippy, which we unpack in what Merlot tastes like, and its fruit picks up the sweetness of carrots that have spent two hours softening in the broth. A Côtes du Rhône works here too if you prefer a bit more spice, and either beats a heavy, oaky bottle that drowns a stew this gentle.

Is Cabernet or Merlot better for beef stew?

Merlot is better for most home beef stews, and Cabernet Sauvignon earns its place only when the stew is very rich, very beefy and served with plenty of bread to soak up the sauce. Cabernet's firm tannin is a feature beside a seared steak, where fat and char soften it, but a stew has already broken its beef down into tender, saucy pieces, so there's much less for that tannin to grip.

The answer is clearer for the pot than for the glass. Chef Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. of Jasper's Restaurant in Kansas City told Chowhound to avoid "anything that has been aged in oak" in a beef stew, along with "highly tannic wine or a light bodied wine" (Chowhound). A lot of inexpensive Cabernet is oaked on purpose. Bogle, for one, credits the clove, nutmeg and burnt caramel in its Cabernet Sauvignon to aging in American oak barrels (Bogle), which is lovely in a glass and exactly what Mirabile warns about in a long braise.

So if you want one bottle for both jobs, pick Merlot, and if you love Cabernet, drink it and cook with something softer. Our Cabernet Sauvignon vs Merlot comparison goes through the wider differences between the two.

What wine should you pour with a tomato-heavy beef stew?

Chianti is the wine to pour with a tomato-heavy beef stew, because Sangiovese, the grape it's made from, has the high acidity to match the tang of tomatoes, where a softer red tastes flat and a little sweet beside them. Italian stews built on canned tomatoes, rosemary and red wine are this wine's home ground.

Mirabile's first choice for beef stew is the same bottle. "The Sangiovese grape is best because [of its] rich notes of cherry and plum along with earthy flavors", he told Chowhound, adding that he has also enjoyed a beef stew made with Sicily's Nero d'Avola (Chowhound). Nero d'Avola is a riper, darker red than Chianti, so it's the better pick when the stew is tomato-based but also long-cooked and rich, and our page on Nero d'Avola wine covers the styles you'll find on the shelf.

If your store's Chianti selection is thin, the other Sangiovese-based wines and the Italian reds that drink like them all work, and we list them in our guide to wines similar to Chianti.

What wine goes with spicy or paprika beef stew?

A ripe Zinfandel goes best with a spicy or paprika beef stew, because its jammy fruit and touch of sweetness soften the heat instead of making it sharper. Hungarian-style goulash, stews with chipotle or smoked paprika, and anything with cinnamon or cumin all fall in this group.

Beckett's advice for spicy stews like goulash is a slightly sweeter style of red, naming Australian Shiraz, Zinfandel, Pinotage and modern Spanish reds, with a clear warning to "watch out for big tannins which can combine with spicy flavours to create a palate overload" (Matching Food and Wine). That's the opposite of the Cabernet instinct, and we think it's right, because heat and heavy tannin pile on top of each other, so the wine has to bring fruit to the table rather than grip.

Bogle's Old Vine Zinfandel is an easy example to find. It comes from 60 to 80 year old head-trained vines and leads with raspberry, cranberry and baking spice, and Bogle itself suggests it with osso buco, which is another long-braised meat dish (Bogle). For more on the grape, see what Zinfandel wine is, and if you want something less familiar, South Africa's Pinotage has the smoky depth to handle a deeply spiced pot. The same thinking applies to a bowl of beef chili, which we cover in wine with chili.

What should you drink with Guinness beef stew?

The best drink with Guinness beef stew is the rest of the Guinness, and if you want wine anyway, a soft, fruity Côtes du Rhône is the safest bottle. Beckett is blunt about beer-braised stews, writing of a Belgian carbonnade that "it's almost wilful to drink anything else" (Matching Food and Wine).

Wine struggles here because stout brings roasted, bitter flavors to the sauce, and a tannic red stacks more bitterness on top, so choose a red with ripe fruit and very little grip, the kind we describe in our guide to low-tannin red wine.

Which red wine should you cook beef stew with?

Cook beef stew with a dry, medium-bodied red that has little or no oak and moderate tannin, and that you'd be happy to drink a glass of. Côtes du Rhône, Merlot, Chianti and Pinot Noir all work, and Mirabile's own picks for the pot are Chianti, a Burgundy or a Pinot Noir (Chowhound).

Price is where people overthink it. A long braise reduces the wine and cooks away the delicate aromas you pay extra for, so an inexpensive bottle and an expensive one end up much closer in the pot than they are in the glass. Spend the money on the bottle you drink, not the one you pour into the stew. A typical recipe asks for about a cup and a half of wine, which Winetraveler's classic version adds after the vegetables and reduces by half before the stock goes in (Winetraveler). That reduction step is what cooks off the raw, boozy edge.

Skip anything sold as cooking wine. Holland House Red Cooking Wine lists salt and neutral spirits among its ingredients and carries 190 mg of sodium in every 2-tablespoon serving (Holland House). A cup and a half is 24 tablespoons, or twelve of those servings, which works out to roughly 2,280 mg of sodium in the pot before you've added any salt, stock or Worcestershire of your own.

If you want the longer version of the cook-versus-drink question, we've written it up dish by dish for the best wine for pot roast and for wine for beef bourguignon, which is a beef stew with French manners and a Burgundy in the pot.

Does the alcohol cook out of beef stew?

Most of the alcohol cooks out of a beef stew, but not all of it. The USDA's own retention table, built on lab measurements, puts the alcohol left in a dish where it's stirred in and baked or simmered at 25% after one hour, 10% after two hours and 5% after two and a half hours (USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6).

So a stew that simmers for two and a half hours still holds about a twentieth of the alcohol you poured in, spread across the whole pot. The same table shows why timing matters: wine stirred into a hot liquid and taken off the heat keeps 85% of its alcohol, so a splash added at the end for flavor barely loses any. If you're cooking for someone who avoids alcohol entirely, the honest answer is that a wine-braised stew isn't alcohol-free, and the easy fix is to braise their portion with extra stock.

Can you use wine in a slow cooker beef stew?

You can use wine in a slow cooker beef stew, but reduce it on the stove first, because a slow cooker barely lets anything evaporate. Susan Goldenberg, who tests recipes for her blog The Lazy Slow Cooker, told The Takeout that "Alcohol does not cook off in a slow cooker the same way it does in an open pot", because slow cookers are humid by design and "purposefully do not allow for much evaporation" (The Takeout).

The result of skipping that step is a stew with a sharp, raw-wine taste and a thinner sauce, since the liquid never concentrates. Simmer the wine in the pan you browned the beef in until it's reduced by about half, scraping up the browned bits as it bubbles, then tip it into the crock. Goldenberg's other tip is to cook with the lid off or set askew for an hour or so to let some evaporation happen. We'd treat an electric pressure cooker the same way, since it's sealed too: reduce first, then lock the lid.

How should you serve the wine with beef stew?

Serve the red slightly cool, around 60 to 65°F, which usually means 20 minutes in the fridge before dinner. That's the "20 minute rule" VinePair describes, red into the fridge and white out of it, because most people drink red at a room temperature of about 68 to 70°F, warmer than it tastes best (VinePair). Guigal recommends 16 to 18°C, roughly 61 to 64°F, for its Côtes du Rhône, which lands in the same place (E. Guigal).

That matters more with stew than with most dinners, because the bottle has probably spent three hours in a hot kitchen. Our chart of wine serving temperatures has the numbers for every style if you're opening something other than a red.

One more thing, from our own table rather than a study. Stew is famously better the next day, when the sauce has thickened and the flavors have settled, but it's also saltier and more concentrated by then, so lean toward the fruitier bottle on night two. A Zinfandel or a Grenache-heavy Côtes du Rhône handles reheated stew better than a firm, tannic red.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best wine for beef stew?

The best wine for beef stew is a Côtes du Rhône, a Grenache and Syrah blend with ripe fruit, a peppery edge and soft tannins. Choose Chianti if the stew is tomato-heavy, Merlot for a classic stock-and-potato stew, and a ripe Zinfandel if it's spiced with paprika or chili.

What's the best red wine to use in beef stew?

Use a dry, medium-bodied red with little or no oak, such as Côtes du Rhône, Merlot, Chianti or Pinot Noir, and pick a bottle you'd happily drink. Avoid heavily oaked or very tannic reds, and never use cooking wine, which is salted.

Is Cabernet or Merlot better for beef stew?

Merlot is better for most beef stews, both in the pot and in the glass, because its soft tannins suit tender, saucy beef. Cabernet Sauvignon works with the richest, beefiest stews, but many inexpensive Cabernets are oaked, which turns bitter in a long braise.

Does red or white wine go with beef stew?

Red wine goes with beef stew almost every time, because the dish needs a wine with body and dark fruit. If someone at the table only drinks white, choose a full, dry white with good acidity, such as a dry Chenin Blanc, rather than a light, crisp one.

What's the best wine for beef stew made in a slow cooker?

The pairing is the same as for any beef stew, so pour Côtes du Rhône or Merlot. The difference is in the cooking: reduce the wine on the stove before it goes in the slow cooker, because the sealed lid stops the alcohol from evaporating.

What is the 20 minute wine rule?

The 20 minute rule says to put red wine in the fridge for 20 minutes before serving and take white wine out of the fridge 20 minutes before serving. It brings a red down to about 60 to 65°F, which is where a stew red tastes freshest.

Which bottle should you open with tonight's stew?

If you're buying one bottle and you haven't decided which stew you're making yet, buy a Côtes du Rhône. It's the wine that handles the most versions of this dish, from a French-style wine braise to a stock-and-potato weeknight pot, and it's soft enough to forgive a stew that ended up saltier than planned.

If you already know the recipe, let the pot decide: Chianti when the sauce is red with tomatoes, Merlot when it's brown with stock, Zinfandel when it's orange with paprika, and the rest of the stout when it's black with Guinness. Cook with a dry, unoaked red that cost less than the bottle you're drinking, reduce it before it goes near a slow cooker, and give the drinking bottle 20 minutes in the fridge while the bread warms. Then taste the wine with a forkful of beef and carrot together, and notice whether the next sip makes you want another bite, because that's the only test that counts.