Pairings · duck
Which wine with duck?
Rare magret or melting confit: duck is the dish of south-west France, and its wine is on the other side of the Garonne. Bordeaux's Right Bank, Saint-Émilion, Fronsac, Castillon, makes round, fruity merlot that loves the rich, slightly sweet meat of duck. The calculator puts duck into your menu; the page tells you which red, at what age, for a family dinner as for a hunt dinner.
Duck in your menu
The main course is preset to duck. Change the other courses to read the full line of wines and the share of white that follows.
Magret or confit: two ducks, two reds
Pink magret
Cooked rare, crisp skin, often with a fruit or pepper sauce. The meat is red and tender: a young, fruity merlot, without heaviness, goes with it without covering it. A Fronsac or a Castillon gives the same style as a Saint-Émilion for less.
Confit
Cooked in its own fat, rich, salty, slow-simmered: it needs a riper wine, with softened tannins and some flesh. A Saint-Émilion with some age, a Pomerol for big occasions, or a Lalande-de-Pomerol for the same profile at a reasonable price.
Cassoulet, duck parmentier, duck in sauce
Generous sharing dishes where duck is one ingredient among others. A Castillon, a Francs or a Bordeaux Supérieur from a good house is enough, and bag-in-box has its place here.
Duck liver, raw or mi-cuit, is another matter: it does not pair like the meat. It has its own page, foie gras, with the sweet wine or dry white that suits it.
Why the Right Bank
Duck has fattier, softer meat than beef, and a slight sweetness that sauces bring out. Médoc cabernet sauvignon, with its straight tannins, seems dry and austere with it. Right Bank merlot, rounder and fruitier, embraces the richness of the dish. It is a pairing of region as much as of grape: the south-west table grew up with Saint-Émilion and Bergerac close at hand, and it was right.
With magret, stay young: three to six years, fruit, served at 16 °C. With confit, go up in age: six to twelve years, when the merlot has taken on notes of undergrowth and truffle that answer the confit's richness. A Pomerol is not necessary; a good Saint-Émilion grand cru or an eight-year-old Lalande-de-Pomerol does the job very well.
How many bottles, from the family to the hunt dinner
With duck, count two glasses of red per drinker, three when the dish is a confit served with pommes sarladaises and nobody is in a hurry. The quantity calculator adds the starter, cheese and the safety margin.
| Meal | Guests | Red with the main | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family dinner | 10 | 3 to 4 bottles | Two magrets, a four-year-old Fronsac. Your local wine shop is enough. |
| Wedding dinner | 100 | 30 to 36 | Magret is a common wedding dish in the south-west; a Saint-Émilion grand cru holds its own. |
| Hunt dinner | 60 | 24 to 30, plus a bag-in-box | Confit or civet, the meal goes on: a good red for the main, a simple wine in bag-in-box for the long haul. The hunt dinner page covers the organisation. |
Which wine with duck magret?
A young, fruity Right Bank red: Saint-Émilion, Fronsac or Castillon three to six years old, served at 16 °C. The pink meat and fruit sauce call for round merlot, not the straight tannins of a Médoc.
Which wine with duck confit?
A Saint-Émilion or a Lalande-de-Pomerol six to twelve years old, with softened tannins. The richness of the confit and the long cooking call for a riper wine than magret does, with notes of undergrowth.
Can you serve a Médoc with duck?
Yes, but it is not the best choice: cabernet sauvignon seems dry against the soft meat of duck. If you have Médoc in the cellar, pick one with some age, and rather keep it for lamb or beef.
Which wine with duck on a wedding menu?
A Saint-Émilion grand cru four to six years old with the magret, a dry white with the starter, sparkling at dessert. The pairing guide builds the full menu and gives the share of white to plan.