IntoWine asked our experts for their top pairings for pasta with white wine sauce, and they served up an affordable Muscadet, an eco-smart option that's 100% organic, plus an unexpected red:
Pasta with white wine sauce is best with a wine that you can both use for the recipe and enjoy along side it when you’re finished cooking. One of my favorite versions of pasta with white wine sauce is the Italian Linguine alle Vongole (linguini with clam sauce). The recipe is quite simple: the sauce consists of olive oil, garlic, white wine, clams, fresh parsley, and if you’re so inclined, a pinch of red pepper flakes. Linguini alle Vongole is so easy to make, that I always keep a bottle of Muscadet around the house in case I get a craving for it. Muscadet, not to be confused with Muscat, comes from the western most part of the Loire Valley, and is made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape. The best Muscadets are from the sub-appellation Sèvre-et-Maine, named for the two rivers that occupy that region, and they are aged sur lie (on the spent yeasts) for added flavor. My favorite wine to use with Linguine alle Vongole is the Chateau de la Cantrie Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine. It’s inexpensive ($8.99/bottle), so you don’t have to feel guilty about using part of it for the sauce. On the palate it contains bright citrus notes and a touch of stony minerality. There’s a nice richness that shows through on the mid-palate (a likely result of the extended maceration on its lees) which gives way to a racy finish. This wine has a ton of character for the price and would be a good addition to any pasta with white wine sauce. - Kareasa Wilkins, Wine Consultant for Weimax Wines & Spirits in Burlingame, CA and an IntoWine Featured Writer
------------------------------------------------------
I love to cook fresh linguini and drink a fruity, and slightly floral white wine. Smelling the garlic, shallots and parsley steaming from the pan as I douse it with a shot of 2008 Yellow and Blue Torrontes and listening to the garlic and shallots snap, crack and pop brings culinary tears as I gaze through the rising cloud of aroma. And what’s not to love about the Yellow and Blue Torrontes. Packaged in a one-liter Tetrapak, the grapes are 100% certified Organic and will only set you back a whopping 12 bucks. When I add a squeeze of lemon to the simmering sauce the Yellow and Blue simultaneously displays a lovely nose of key lime, pineapples and freshly cut herbs. By the time I drop the linguini, watching it swim harmoniously through olive oil, I laugh and give the entire dish a few tosses, realizing, I still have 750 milliliters of Yellow and Blue remaining. And I toast the whole affair with a giant gulp of wine filled with flavors of lychees, orange zest and melons. - Michael Whitehead, IntoWine Featured Writer
------------------------------------------------------
It might seem odd to suggest a red wine to pair with a pasta made with a white wine sauce. But in reality, it’s the ideal choice. It’s going against type. A new outfit, Pianetta Winery from the Paso Robles region, has produced a sangiovese which is fruity, light and earthy, and which combats and enhances a white wine sauce. To think you need another white wine would be overkill. The Pianetta Sangiovese ($26) has the acidity, the light notes of cherry and raspberry to transcend regular pasta and bring a depth to it. Aged in French, American and Russian oak, this 100 percent sangiovese is subtle and ripe, simple and uncomplicated, perfect to cut through a sauce, and, as an Italian varietal, the best choice for pasta to begin with. - Michael Cervin, Wine Judge, Restaurant Critic, and IntoWine Featured Writer
