The Only Wines to Pair With Artichokes, According to a Sommelier

Among wine nerds, artichokes get no respect. I can’t blame them — the spiky, globe-like vegetable is nearly impossible to pair with.

Artichokes are packed with a naturally occurring chemical called cynarin that magnifies sweetness. Once it’s on your palate, cynarin amplifies the natural sweetness in wines, causing most of them to collapse into flabby, one-dimensional blobs.

Because of this, many sommeliers call artichokes their kryptonite. Thankfully, there are superhero wines hiding in plain sight, just waiting to save the day — and the meal. Here are four rules to keep in mind when pairing wine with artichokes.

Avoid wines that have been aged in oak

Among other effects, oak, by way of barrel fermentation or barrel aging, imparts sweet notes to wines, like vanilla, toffee, and caramel. So when oak meets cynarine, you know what happens: the wine falls flat. As a general rule, choose wines to go with artichokes that are light, crisp, and bone-dry, with high acidity and no oak contact, such as dry Riesling, Pinot Grigio, and Grüner Veltliner.

Pair artichokes with sparkling wines

It’s a rule of thumb with many pairings that effervescence in wine scrubs our palates clean, and this axiom works particularly well with artichokes, so long as the sparkling wine is dry, tart, and minerally. Look for bottles labeled ‘zero-dosage,’ ‘brut,’ or ‘sauvage,’ all of which mean that the wine has little to no perceivable sweetness on the palate. Softly bubbly Txakoli from Spain’s Basque, with its high acidity and bright, citrusy notes, also works well.

For pairing with raw artichokes, look for wines with salinity

When artichoke hearts are served raw or chilled in a salad, complement the salad’s inherent salinity and the earthiness of the artichokes with a wine that possesses both characteristics. A white Carricante from Sicily’s Mount Etna is a great choice thanks to its elegant minerality; so, too, a Savagnin-based Vin Jaune from France’s Jura, a dry, coastal Sauvignon Blanc from Sonoma, or even a briny, nutty Fino Sherry from Spain. 

If you’re eating fried artichokes, try richer-style wines

When artichokes are fried into fritters or in the Roman style of Carciofi alla Giudia, their bitterness is transformed into richness (and that villainous cynarine is less aggressive after a bath in boiling oil). Meet that delicious fat with slightly richer, rounded, fuller-bodied whites, but still: nothing that’s come in contact with oak. Silky, luscious Grüner Veltliners labeled ‘Smaragd’ from Austria; spicy, minerally Vermentinos from Italy’s Tuscan coast; savory Albariños from Spain’s Galicia region, or even an herbaceous Verdelho from Portugal are all good choices.