Food » Dinner in a Breeze » 15 Foolproof Seafood and Wine Pairings Photo: Howard L. Puckett We love: Martín Códax Albariño Rías Baixas (about $14) Seafood and wine make a natural pair, and choosing the right wine for your dish can really highlight those flavors of the sea. In this recipe, you have scallops and shrimp and mussels and oysters—oh my! When there’s this much delicious seafood in the mix, a semi-dry white is a terrific choice. A light red, which you can use in the risotto, is another good pick; serving both will please all palates. In either case, look for light-bodied wines to balance the richness of the buttery rice, the piquancy of the garlic, and the fatty, spicy chorizo. Other can’t-miss matches: Albariño, red or white RiojaGalleryAsk a Sommelier: What's the Best Wine for Seafood? In the hot summer months, even if we can't be relaxing by the beach, we find ourselves planning meals that revolve around seafood: briny raw oysters, buttery lobster rolls, wild salmon charred on the grill.

But what should we drink? What about red wines? How do you go about choosing a wine for seafood dishes? We asked our sommelier crew for a few wine-and-fish tips. Here's what they had to say. Chat with SE: Drinks on Twitter. Keep in the loop with our weekly newsletter. The tastiest bites delivered to your inbox! Keep up with our latest recipes, tips, techniques and where to eat! Sparkling wine, whether it's from California, France, Spain or Italy, is spot-on perfect for fried food. I list this one first because most of us love fried seafood, and while light beers match up well with fried seafood, most wines lose something when you pair them with tempura or a thick beer batter. Not so with sparkling wine, whose bubbles cut through the weight of fried food as if the wines were made for the dish. These wines also pair well with caviar. Don't like sparkling wine?... Lauri Patterson / Getty Images These are the aristocrats of white fish wines. Dry, austere and crisp, Chenin Blanc and Pinot Grigio are the wines I reach for when I am serving lean, white fish cooked simply.

Flounder, halibut, walleye, snapper, raw clams or oysters all do well with these wines. Alternately, you can use these wines to cut through the natural fat in some fish, such as striped bass, catfish, lobster, or mussels. Looking for something off the beaten track that fits this style? Try an Italian Vermentino or a Greek... dapan photography / Getty Images This is the realm of the fuller whites. red wine glass cell phone caseOaky Chardonnay gets a bad rap these days, but I love it with striped bass, crab, raw oysters -- even lobster. buy wine online in njThe theory here is to match a full-bodied wine with a full-bodied dish. glass of wine birthday imagesIf you have a broth-based soup, such as , Chardonnay works wonderfully. top 10 quotes about wine

If you have a fish that's a little oilier, such as bluefish or mackerel, try Pinot Gris or Viognier, or an Italian Grillo. Owen Franken / Getty Images These are even fuller whites that often have some lingering sweetness to them. I go for these wines with Asian seafood or anything spicy. Gewurztraminer is especially good with the zingy Vietnamese seafood I eat often, and the tropical aromas of Roussanne and Marsanne, which are Rhone white varietals, marry perfectly with the flavors of Asia.black ink wine com John Peacock / Getty Imagesbest wine texas These varietals are from Spain and Portugal, but are increasingly being grown in California. There's something about them that makes these wines absolutely perfect with shellfish: clams, mussels, scallops as well as crab and lobster. It is rare that I will not open an Albarino when I eat clams or scallops.

Claudia Totir / Getty Images I split this one out because it is the perfect wine with simply cooked shrimp. Period, end of story. If you eat a lot of shrimp cocktail, steamed, grilled, stir-fried or , this is the drink to go with it. Be sure to buy real Spanish dry fino sherry, which is achingly dry and slightly salty. Tip: This wine marries well with almonds, too. alle12 / Getty Images Basically, this is the light red wine category. There are precious few instances where you'd want a big red with seafood, but light reds do quite well with salmon, tuna, marlin, swordfish, mackerel, bluefish or other fatty, meaty, big-flavored fish. I love a Chianti -- which is mostly Sangiovese -- with spaghetti and clam sauce or octopus stewed in tomato sauce. Be careful, though: Avoid combining reds with spicy seafood, as you will probably get a nasty metallic taste. Foodcollection RF / Getty Images Kind of a 'tweener of a wine. I will serve Spanish, French or California roses when the sauce is heavier than what I want for a white, but not quite right for a full-on red.

Roses can substitute for full-bodied whites such as Chardonnay and Fume Blanc. I use them a lot in summer, too, when I am grilling swordfish or tuna steaks. Rose is also a good choice with a tomato-based seafood soup, such as cioppino or zuppa da pesce.The rule of thumb for pairing wine with food is red wine goes with meat and white wine with fish. This well-known statute is strictly observed the world over -- but are there ever exceptions? Like most culinary rules, if you understand why they exist you can usually break them, within reason. For example, you don't have to truss a chicken before roasting it and scrambled eggs do not necessarily need to be cooked on low heat, the Amateur Gourmet says. Sometimes it's fun to break the rules -- and it can be a rewarding way to discover something new. Drinking red wine with seafood instead of white is a perfect example. In some cases, red wine may actually be preferable to white, but you'd never find that out if you were a stickler for the rules.

Sommelier and restaurateur Paul Grieco of New York wine bar Terroir and restaurant Hearth believes the red-with-meat and white-with-fish rule is severely outdated. "The last time this expression held true, Nixon was still in the White House. Everything is up for grabs these days, except for the supremacy of Riesling," he told Serious Eats. So when is it okay to pair red wine with fish? It all comes down to texture and flavor. Wine Enthusiast magazine explains the importance of texture, which is defined by cooking method, when pairing wine. The same fish prepared differently could go with either red or white -- it all depends on how you cook it and what texture it obtains. A heartier fish cooked in the oven, like a roasted salmon, could work well with a red. A silky salmon that was poached in olive oil, on the other hand, would work better with white. Wine Enthusiast's basic guideline is to match the texture of the seafood with the body -- the lightness or heartiness -- of the wine.

Lighter seafood dishes go well with lighter reds, like Grenache, Syrah or a light Pinot Noir. Heavier, meatier seafood dishes, like grilled swordfish and tuna, hold up well with bolder red wines like Gamays. Flavor is equally important. As the New York Times puts it, "for a rich fish, red wine flatters."The Times explains that if you're treating fish like meat -- like cooking tuna with a red-wine sauce -- red wine is preferable to white. Also, if you're cooking seafood with meat, you should consider a red. The Times suggests staying away from oaky or tannic wines and choosing lighter wines like a Cabernet Franc, Burgundy or Rioja. Grilled fish might have a smoky flavor that would taste really good with red wine, as would fish cooked with a savory, mushroom sauce. Master Sommelier Virginia Philip told Serious Eats that tuna tartare "can easily go with a rosé or Pinot Noir." Kerri O'Brien, Sommelier at DBGB Kitchen & Bar, thinks that a light Pinot Noir can work with arctic char or roasted black bass.