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Pour a medium-bodied red with bright acid and soft tannin. Sangiovese, Barbera or a cool-climate Shiraz will handle almost any pizza you order. The acid in the wine has to match the acid in the tomato, and that one rule solves most of the problem.
Pizza looks like the easiest food in the world to match, and it is not. A margherita and a meat lovers are completely different jobs. There is salt in the dough, acid in the sauce, fat in the cheese and char on the crust, and a wine has to get past all four.
Table of Contents
The Short Answer
- Sangiovese. The default. High acid, sour cherry, gentle tannin, built over centuries to sit next to tomato. Serve it slightly cool, about 16 degrees.
- Barbera. Even more acid and even softer tannin. The one to pour if the pizza has a lot of sauce.
- Cool-climate Shiraz. For anything with sausage, pepperoni or smoke. Look for peppery rather than jammy, and serve it at 16 to 18 degrees.
If you want one bottle for a table where everybody ordered something different, make it the Sangiovese.
What Pizza Does to Wine
It helps to know what is actually on the plate. The rules for true Neapolitan pizza were written down in 1984 by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, and they are unusually specific about the things that matter to a wine.
Salt
There is more of it than you think. The AVPN recipe calls for 40 to 60 grams of salt per litre of water in the dough, before anything goes on top. Salt makes tannin taste harder and more bitter, which is the single biggest reason a big Cabernet goes wrong with pizza.
Acid
Tomato is sharp, and sharp food makes a low-acid wine taste flat and slightly sweet. The wine has to bring at least as much acid as the sauce does. This is why Italian reds work so well: they grew up next to the same tomatoes.
Fat
Mozzarella, whether buffalo in slices or fior di latte in strips, coats your mouth, and so does the olive oil poured over the top. Fat needs acid or tannin to cut it. Acid is the safer of the two here because of the salt.
Char
A true Neapolitan pizza goes into a wood-fired oven at 430 to 480 degrees for 60 to 90 seconds. That is what gives you the blistered, slightly burnt spots on the crust. Char likes a wine with a bit of smoke or pepper of its own, which is where Shiraz earns its place.
The topping, not the pizza
Match the loudest thing on top. Mushroom wants earth. Chilli wants fruit and lower alcohol. Prosciutto wants acid. Four cheeses wants something closer to a white. Our cheese and wine guide is useful once the toppings get serious.
Best Wines for Pizza
Sangiovese
The grape behind Chianti, and the safest bet on any pizza list. Sour cherry, dried herb, firm acid and tannin that does not get in the way. Australia makes good ones in the King Valley, Heathcote and the Adelaide Hills. Works with margherita, pepperoni and anything tomato based.
Barbera
From Piedmont, and the wine locals drink with food rather than admire in a glass. Very high acid, very low tannin, dark cherry fruit. If your pizza is drowning in sauce, this is the one.
Cool-climate Shiraz
Not the big warm Barossa style. Look for a peppery, medium-bodied Shiraz from the Adelaide Hills, the Grampians or Canberra. It has the spice to sit beside sausage, pepperoni and a charred crust without flattening everything else.
Pinot Noir, for the lighter ones
Pinot Noir is a better match than people expect on mushroom, prosciutto or a simple margherita. Light body, high acid, earthy edge. Serve it cool. It falls apart against chilli and heavy meat, so know when to stop.
A white, if the pizza has no tomato
White pizzas, four cheeses, potato and rosemary, or anything with a cream base, all want a white with some weight. An unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay does it. For a seafood pizza, follow the advice in our guide to wine with seafood instead.
What to Avoid
- Big tannic reds. Cabernet Sauvignon and full-bodied Shiraz turn bitter against all that salt. This is the most common pizza night mistake.
- Heavily oaked whites. Vanilla and toast next to tomato is an odd combination that nobody enjoys twice.
- Anything over about 15 per cent alcohol. High alcohol makes chilli burn harder, and it clashes with the salt.
- Very sweet wine. Unless you are eating a dessert pizza, and if you are, we have questions.
Drink One Tonight
One bottle that covers the widest spread of toppings, stock-checked on the day this guide was updated.
Minimum Central Victoria Organic Red Sangiovese Syrah 2022
Exactly the blend you would design for pizza if you were starting from scratch. The Sangiovese brings sour cherry and the acid that matches the tomato, and the Syrah adds enough dark fruit and pepper to handle sausage and a charred crust. Organic, Australian, and priced so you can open it on a Wednesday without a discussion.
- Sangiovese for the acid, Syrah for the spice
- Certified organic fruit from Central Victoria
- Medium-bodied, so it will not flatten a margherita
- Around twenty-three dollars
- Not a wine to think hard about, and it is not trying to be
- Best served slightly cool, so give it fifteen minutes in the fridge
If You Are Ordering It
Serve the red cooler than room temperature. Fifteen minutes in the fridge before you open it makes a medium-bodied red taste fresher and stops the alcohol standing out, which matters a great deal when there is chilli involved.
If the table cannot agree, order one pizza with tomato and one without, and open a Sangiovese and a lightly oaked white. Two bottles, everybody happy, nobody lecturing. A decent all-purpose glass does more for this than people expect, and the glasses roundup has the ones worth owning. If you are counting what you drink across a long Friday, the wine calorie calculator does the maths.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best wine to drink with pizza?
A medium-bodied red with bright acid and soft tannin. Sangiovese is the safest single answer, with Barbera close behind for very saucy pizzas.
What wine goes with pepperoni pizza?
A cool-climate Shiraz or a Sangiovese. Both have enough spice and acid to handle the fat and salt in cured meat without turning bitter.
Can you drink white wine with pizza?
Yes, especially with white pizzas, four cheeses or anything on a cream base. Choose a white with some weight, such as an unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay.
Why does Cabernet Sauvignon not work with pizza?
Salt makes tannin taste harder and more bitter, and pizza dough alone carries 40 to 60 grams of salt per litre of water. A high-tannin red ends up tasting harsh.
What wine goes with margherita pizza?
Sangiovese or a light Pinot Noir. A simple margherita is about tomato, mozzarella and basil, so the wine needs acid and restraint rather than power.
Should red wine be chilled for pizza?
Slightly, yes. Fifteen minutes in the fridge brings a medium-bodied red to about 16 degrees, which keeps it fresh and stops the alcohol standing out against chilli.
Baked tomato runs the same way on a parmigiana, which is why our guide to wine with eggplant parmigiana lands on the same grapes.
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