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Looking for the perfect wine to serve with duck? Well, you’re in luck. Here you’ll find five delicious recipes with spot-on wine pairings – from Chianti to rosé Champagne.
A candlelit dinner for two, cool jazz playing in the background, a perfectly plated dish of grilled duck breast with cherry sauce, and a cracking bottle of Chianti Classico …
Duck is a great choice if you want to create a sense of occasion without spending hours in the kitchen – especially when you’ve chosen with the right wine to go with it. Read on to discover my five favourite duck recipes – and what wine to pair with them.
1. Duck breast with cherry sauce
As already mentioned, this is a really quick and easy dish to produce. But it’ll make you look like a gourmet chef, especially if it’s well presented.
There are plenty of recipes for this classic dish online – but here’s the gist of it. Pan fry the duck breasts to crisp up the skin and seal in the juices, then roast them in the oven for about 20 minutes. When you slice the meat before serving, it should be crispy on the outside and pink in the middle.
The sauce is easy, too. While the duck is cooking, fry up some shallots and cherries in a little spare duck fat, add some chicken stock and a splash of red wine, and simmer until it is reduced nicely. Serve with plain greens and roast or creamy mashed potatoes.
Best wine for duck breast with cherry sauce A good Chianti is a slam dunk here. First off, its intense cherry and red fruit flavours will be in perfect harmony with the sauce. Secondly, Chianti tends to be quite high in acidity – so it will cut through the rich fatty meat, allowing the wine’s fruit to really shine.
Best wine for duck breast with plum sauce This recipe works really well with a plum sauce, too. In this case, I’d go for a good Merlot – maybe a Right Bank Bordeaux from Saint-Emilion or Côtes-de-Castillon. The plummy fruit and silky texture of the wine will make the dish even more memorable.
2. Confit de Canard
I’ll never forget the time a good friend brought me a gift from France that came, not in a bottle, but a tin. What on earth was this? Where’s the wine? Little did I know that I was about to discover one of my all-time favourite dishes.
It was Confit de Carnard, the classic French dish of roast duck legs preserved in goose fat. And, in good French supermarkets, you can buy it in a tin. It makes for some seriously good eating. Plus, you can use the duck fat to cook some epic roasties.
You can make your own if you like. But it takes three days just to cure the duck legs. Then you need to bake the legs in goose fat for three hours and crisp them in a skillet before serving. I’d personally recommend finding a good deli and doing it the easy way.
Best wine with Confit de Canard Ooh, we’re spoiled for choice here. Ideally you want something medium bodied but fresh and well-structured to match the rich dish. My first thought is a Rioja. A mature Crianza or Reserva with fine tannins and gamey notes will really complement the meat.
A good Pinot Noir (from New Zealand or Burgundy) with its naturally smoky, gamey character would be an excellent choice too.
3. Duck à l’orange
There’s something of a 1970s vibe about duck à l’orange – probably because it was one of the first fancy French dishes many of us Brits learned to cook. But unlike sherry trifle or prawn cocktail, it has remained a gourmet favourite – because it is delicious.
The method of cooking hasn’t changed – though as Germaine Greer notes in The Guardian: “In the 70s, we put sauces on our food; nowadays, food is put on sauces, so you have no choice but to eat your duck with orange sauce whether you like it or not.”
Whichever way up you serve it, duck à l’orange is a feast for the senses, with crispy skin, succulent meat and a piquant semi-sweet orangey sauce. And it gives you a perfect opportunity to open a bottle or two of aromatic white …
Best wine with duck à l’orange You can go two ways here – lighter red or aromatic white. I think a Gewürztraminer from Alsace or New Zealand would be most interesting. The wine’s spicy aromatic character, often with orange blossom notes, will add an extra dimension to the dish. If you prefer a red, a Pinot Noir (ideally French) is the classic choice.
4. Crispy duck or Peking duck
OK, these are two completely different dishes – well kind of. Peking duck is the traditional Chinese recipe, carefully roasted to produce a thin crispy skin and very tender meat. In top Chinese restaurants, the chef will often slice the duck theatrically at the table, layering it carefully onto your plate.
For crispy duck, the meat is cooked and then deep fried to obtain a crispier texture. But both dishes tend to be served with sliced raw vegetables, Chinese pancakes and, of course, Hoisin sauce. You can find a great recipe for crispy duck on BBC Food – or cheat like I do, and buy a ready-made crispy duck kit for an easy midweek treat.
But the wine choices for both dishes are the same – as you’ll need something to match the rich dark meat flavours and intense spicy sauce.
Best wine with Peking duck or crispy duck For white, pick an off-dry Riesling as its gentle sweetness will offset the spiciness of the food. For reds, I’d go for a Grenache – from southern Rhône or Australia perhaps. Its red fruit and gentle spice will pair beautifully with the sweet and savoury flavours. Best of both worlds? A southern French Grenache rosé will really hit the spot.
5. Duck Penang
Duck is such a staple of South East Asian cooking that it felt right to include this classic Malaysian duck curry. It’s simple enough that you can make it at home – and a good way to use up left over duck meat from other recipes.
With the rich coconut sauce and a host of other flavours (the recipe includes garlic, ginger, fish sauce and more), you’ll want to pick a really versatile wine to go with it. And when I think versatile, one wine style always comes to mind.
Best wine with duck Penang Rosé is of course the ultimate versatile wine for food matching. Red fruit flavours, good acidity to cut through any fatty sauces, a palate-cleansing lemony zip – a Provence pink will make a perfect partner to a creamy curry dish like duck Penang. Or go one better – and choose a sparkling rosé – an English Sparkling wine or a rosé Champagne perhaps.
About the author
Chris Larkin
A seasoned copywriter with over two decades experience, Chris has been part of the team since 2021. At Laithwaites HQ, you’ll find him either working on our latest catalogue or creating informative content for our website. Qualified to WSET Level 3 Wine, Chris is as geeky about wine as he is about copywriting. But when it comes to choosing a special bottle, he is a traditionalist, and loves a good Bordeaux or Mâcon Chardonnay.
