PSA for wine lovers: you can pair chili with wine. While this dish is more often associated with beer, you, the wine enthusiast, do not need to settle. Chili has all the hallmarks of a great partner to wine – plump beans and hearty beef bathed in a bright tomato stew, sprinkled with cheese, and dolloped with sour cream. I tested six different wines alongside a classic ground beef and bean chili. Since there is so much variation in chili, I also tested various chili recipes and serving methods, including with more and less beans, with and without spicy jalapeños, and with different side dishes like cornbread, tortilla chips, and rice. I was surprised to find that no matter how I changed the chili, there was still one winning wine pairing. Read on to discover what it was.
Important Considerations when Wine Pairing with Chili
Everyone’s preference for chili is personal. Some like it bolder and beefier. Others might go all out on the beans, with a vegetarian-style chili. Here are some guidelines that can help guide you to the right wine for your chili.
1. Tomato Dominates
You may be digging into beef chili, but it’s the tomato that defines this dish. Most ground beef in stores these days is 85% or even 90% lean. Lean beef has a lighter flavor, taking a backseat to tart, earthy tomatoes. Without much fat for tannins to bind with, highly tannic wines taste astringent and harsh against tomato sauce.
Take Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah, for example. We often pair these wines with beef, but I did not enjoy them with chili. Even when I tried a recipe with double the amount of beef versus tomato, I still found that the tomato sauce clashed with red wine blends containing Syrah. Instead, look to Italian wines, which have evolved to fit tomato-based dishes.
2. Chili Adds Earthiness
Chili powder gives chili a distinct earthy, smoky flavor. Most standard chili powder is made from a blend of mild peppers (such as ancho and poblano), cumin, coriander, garlic, and oregano powder. Its rich, earthy, smoky flavors sing with the tobacco, leather, and savory spice notes of Italian red wines. Chili powder is only faintly spicy, and does not overpower wine in small quantities. If you aren’t sure about your chili powder’s spice level, just give it a small taste first.
3. Side Dishes Matter
If you’re taking bites of buttery cornbread alongside your chili, pick a white wine with some residual sugar to match. Dry, tannic red wines will taste harsh against the sweeter flavors of cornbread. However, if you’re dipping salty tortilla chips or garlic bread into your chili, an off-dry white will taste too sweet. A medium-bodied Italian red wine will match these salty sides better (more details below).
4. Jalapeño is Fine, But Taste It First
Sliced jalapeño is often used as a garnish for chili. I would normally recommend an off-dry white wine with spicy food, but I’ll make an exception here. First, jalapeño is an unpredictable pepper, ranging anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 scovilles. I find that the vast majority of jalapeños are not that spicy — and I’m someone who starts sweating even when I eat spicy mayo! I recommend tasting a slice before you add it to your chili, to confirm this.
Next, jalapeño’s spice is isolated. Usually, only a few slices are used atop the chili. It is not chopped or cooked into the stew. The heat from the few slices of jalapeño I had was quickly soothed by the heavy ingredients in the rest of the dish — beans, sour cream, cheese, cornbread, etc. It did not have the same persistence as sauces like sriracha or tabasco, whose spices spread throughout an entire dish and thoroughly coat the palate.
So, my opinion — there is no need to avoid red wine if you have a few slices of jalapeño sitting atop your chili.
My Favorite Wines for Pairing with Chili
Pair classic chili with beef and beans (mild) with Italian Negroamaro or Sangiovese. No matter how I changed the chili recipe or its side dishes, I consistently found Sangiovese and Negroamaro matched chili the best. Both have an earthy quality that is beautiful with the smoky flavors of chili spices and beans. They have just the right level of medium-bodied tannins to mingle harmoniously with the chili, without overpowering its flavors. Fat from the ground beef softens the wine’s tannins, letting more fruit aromatics come to the fore – black plum, black cherry, and licorice.
Sangiovese comes under many names. It’s hard to go wrong with Brunello di Montalcino. But if you’re on a budget, Rosso di Montalcino or Chianti Riserva will also offer earthy, tobacco and leather aromatics, but with more youthful fruit on the palate.
Can’t find Negroamaro? Consider other wines grown in the warmer regions of southern Italy, such as Puglia. These include Primitivo (Zinfandel) and Susumaniello.
Consider pairing spicy, jalapeño-laden chili 🌶️🌶️ or cornbread and chili with off-dry Riesling or Chenin Blanc. The touch of residual sugar in these wines soothes against the scorching heat of jalapeños. It also happens to be delicious with the gentle sweetness of cornbread. If you must have a red wine, consider Amarone della Valpolicella. This wine is made from raisined grapes, and offers a concentrated sweetness that will soothe against the spice. It also offers earthy, medium-bodied tannins that match the flavors in the chili.
About This Red Wine-Friendly Chili Recipe
One of the best things about cooking your own chili is that you can tailor it to the wine you’re serving. This reduces the uncertainty around pairing, since there is variability even within the same varietal and region.
To make the recipe below more red wine-friendly, I am limiting the amount of beans in the recipe to just one 14 oz can. I find that too many beans lightens the dish and makes even medium-bodied red wines taste too tannic. Also, while some recipes call for draining the ground beef after browning it, I keep the fat. You’ll want every drop to add richness to the stew and help soften the wine’s tannins.
If you really want to pair this dish with a fuller-bodied red wine, see if you can find 80/20 or even 75/25 ground beef. Higher-fat ground beef will give this stew the richness it needs to pair well with more tannins.
Easy Classic Chili Recipe and Wine Pairing
Ingredients
For Chili:
- 1 onion
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 lb ground beef
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1.5 cups beef broth
- 1 can crushed tomatoes (24 oz)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
For topping:
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Sour cream
- Optional: sliced jalapeños (with seeds for more spice, without seeds for less spice)
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic, and sauteé until golden brown and softened.
- Add spices and toss briefly to let the aromatics bloom.
- Add ground beef and salt and pepper to taste. Sauteé until browned.
- Add bell peppers, beef broth, tomatoes, and tomato paste.
- When mixture comes to a bubble, lower to medium-low heat. Let the chili simmer for at least 15 minutes so the flavors integrate. Personally, I like to simmer the mixture for about 45 minutes for better flavor.
- Add the beans and simmer for just 10 more minutes (otherwise the beans may become soggy).
- Garnish with cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream.
- Enjoy with Negroamaro or Sangiovese, or off-dry Riesling or Chenin Blanc if you are adding a lot of jalapeños or pairing with cornbread
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