Pairings · game
What wine goes with game?
Venison, wild boar, pheasant, wood pigeon: game has flavour, blood and often a long-cooked sauce. It calls for reds with age and flesh: Pomerol, Lalande-de-Pomerol, Saint-Émilion eight to fifteen years old, Right Bank Merlot rather than Médoc Cabernet. The calculator below puts game into the menu; the page then says what to open with each animal, and how to organise the wine for a hunt meal: the good bottles on the tables, the volume behind.
Game in your menu
The main course is preset to game. Change the starter, cheese and dessert to see the full wine line-up and the share of white, low here by nature.
Venison, wild boar, pheasant: three animals, three wines
Roe deer, venison
Fine, lean meat, often served pink: a rich wine but not a rustic one. Merlot from Pomerol or Lalande, at ten years old, brings the roundness and truffle that suit venison. It is the most elegant match of the season.
Wild boar, civet
Strong, fatty, cooked for a long time in wine: it needs a red that stands up to it. A structured Saint-Émilion or Castillon, six to twelve years old, served at 17 °C. This is the wine for a hunt meal, the one you can also buy in volume.
Pheasant, wood pigeon, partridge
Game birds, roasted briefly, want a wine where everything has melted together: supple tannins, forest-floor aromas. A Saint-Émilion or a Médoc ten to fifteen years old, opened an hour ahead, not decanted. Small quantities, great bottles.
Why the Right Bank, and at what age
Game has aromas of forest floor, leather and blood; aged Merlot wines naturally head in that direction, whereas Médoc Cabernet Sauvignon keeps a straight-backed quality for longer that comes across as severe against a grand veneur sauce. That is why Pomerol, Saint-Émilion and their satellites are the game wines of Bordeaux. Age matters as much as appellation: under six years, the wine is still on fruit and oak and fights the sauce; between eight and fifteen years, it has taken on the tertiary notes that make the match. With a civet cooked in a Bordeaux, serve a wine from the same family, a few years older than the one in the pot.
The duck page deals with the neighbouring case, magret and confit, where the Right Bank also wins but with younger wines: farmed duck lacks the wildness that calls for age.
The hunt meal: bottles on the tables, volume behind
A hunt meal in the Gironde brings together sixty to a hundred guests, almost all drinkers, over three or four hours. Two wines are enough, at two levels: one serious bottle per table, a Saint-Émilion or Lalande-de-Pomerol around eight years old, opened with the main course, and a volume red, Bordeaux Supérieur or young Castillon, in bottles or bag-in-box, for the length of the meal. The first makes the match and the memory; the second quenches the thirst.
| Meal | Guests | With the game | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dinner at home | 8 | 3 bottles | An older Pomerol or Saint-Émilion, opened an hour ahead. Your local wine shop or your own cellar. |
| Hunt meal | 60 | 10 serious + 25 volume | One eight-year-old bottle per table of six, and four cases of a young red behind. Details and calculator on the hunt meal page. |
| Large hunt meal | 100 | 17 serious + 40 volume | Seven cases of volume red, or three 5-litre bag-in-boxes at the bar, plus the bottles for the tables. |
What wine goes with venison?
A Pomerol or a Lalande-de-Pomerol eight to twelve years old: aged Merlot brings the roundness and truffle notes that suit a fine, lean meat. Served at 17 °C, opened an hour ahead, not decanted if it is over ten years old.
What wine goes with a wild boar civet?
A structured Right Bank red, Saint-Émilion or Castillon six to twelve years old, from the same family as the wine in the pot and a little older. Wild boar is the game of the hunt meal, and it is also where a volume red can play second fiddle without trouble.
Does game need a very old wine?
Some age, yes; very old, no. Between eight and fifteen years, a Bordeaux has taken on the forest-floor aromas that make the match and kept enough substance for the sauce. Past twenty years, it becomes fragile and is drunk for itself, not for the dish.
How much wine for a hunt meal for sixty people?
One serious bottle per table of six and four cases of a young red for the length of the meal, about thirty-five bottles with the main course, with 90% drinkers. The pairing guide puts game back into a full menu; the hunt meal page has the calculator set for this format.