Which wine goes with boeuf bourguignon?

A red Burgundy from pinot noir goes best with boeuf bourguignon, because wine and dish come from the same region and complement each other in acidity and structure.

Boeuf bourguignon is beef that cooks slowly in red wine, with bacon, onions and mushrooms. That produces a savoury, rich sauce. Pinot noir sets fresh acidity against it and is naturally low in tannin, so the wine does not overpower the sauce but cuts through it.

In the specification of the AOC Bourgogne, pinot noir is the main grape variety for red wine. Chardonnay, pinot blanc, pinot gris, césar and gamay may be included as secondary grapes, each with restrictions by area or share. If the label says red burgundy, you therefore know which grape variety you get in the glass.

Bourguignon is the French adjective for coming from Bourgogne, so the name of the dish refers to the same region as the name on the wine bottle.

In French cuisine, a preparation a la bourguignonne means meat cooked in red wine, with bacon, onions and mushrooms. The region supplied the beef and the wine, and gave its name to the result.

Bourgogne is protected in the European Union as a designation of origin, regulated in Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013. The name may only appear on wine that comes from the defined area and meets the specification. The name on the label is therefore an origin, not an indication of style.

Put a dry red wine in the pan that you would also want in your glass, because braising intensifies the properties of the wine and hides no flaws.

During braising, water and alcohol partly evaporate. Acids, colouring matter, extract and tannin remain and become stronger as the sauce reduces. A wine with cork taint, oxidation or rough tannin therefore does not get better in the pan, but more pronounced. Sweet wine makes the sauce sweet, and that can no longer be boiled out later.

Alcohol does not evaporate completely. The USDA nutrient retention table gives about 5 percent of the added alcohol after 2.5 hours of stewing, and about 25 percent after one hour. The same bottle in the pan and the glass is not necessary, but the same kind of wine does make the combination simpler: what the sauce contributes in acids, you then also find again in the glass.

Serve the red wine with boeuf bourguignon at 14 to 16 degrees, cooler than room temperature, so that the fresh acidity holds its own against the warm sauce.

Above 18 degrees the alcohol starts to dominate the nose and the wine loses its freshness, precisely the part you need with a rich stew. Too cold works against you too: below 12 degrees the nose closes up and the tannin comes across as hard.

If the bottle is at room temperature, put it briefly in the fridge before you pour. Keep in mind that wine in a glass next to a hot pan quickly rises a few degrees, so pour it slightly cooler than you want it to end up.

Pinot noir from another region is the first alternative, and besides that any dry red wine with fresh acidity and modest tannin goes with a stew.

Pinot noir grows far outside Burgundy: in Alsace and the Loire, in Germany under the name spätburgunder, in Austria, and outside Europe in, among others, New Zealand, Oregon, Chile and South Africa. The grape variety stays the same; the climate shifts the balance between acidity and ripeness.

If you want to look beyond pinot noir, think of gamay from the crus of Beaujolais or cabernet franc from the Loire: also dry, also with lively acidity and moderate tannin. What you had better leave alone are heavy, strongly wood-built wines with a lot of tannin, because they lie over the sauce. In Bathmen there are 28 red wines with pinot noir from 8 countries, of which 20 from France, within a wine range of 1,082 items.

Burgundy has 84 appellations in three tiers, and for a stew the regional tier is usually the wisest choice.

Of those 84 appellations, 7 are regional, 44 village and 33 grand cru. The AOC Bourgogne is the basis of the whole structure and can carry 14 additional geographical names, such as Cote Chalonnaise or Hautes Cotes de Beaune. Premier cru is not an appellation of its own: these are designated plots, called climats, within a village appellation, and the name is added on the label.

The higher up in that hierarchy, the more narrowly the area is delimited and the more the wine has to say for itself. Next to a powerful sauce of wine, bacon and mushrooms, part of that fine tuning is lost. A regional bourgogne or a village does the job with this dish; a grand cru shows itself better without a stew beside it.