Autumn Pairings: Wines to Enjoy This Season
By Laura Conde, wine write
Autumn not only ushers in shorter days and cooler temperatures but also transforms the food on our table. We bid the colourful fresh summer produce farewell and welcome sweet veggies like pumpkin and sweet potato, irresistible seasonal mushrooms, chestnuts, and wild game, which is making its annual debut on restaurant menus. It is the season of slow-cooked stews, warm creamy soups, roasts that fill the house with their delicious aroma, and warm salads – exquisite reminders that autumn meals can be just as vibrant as their summer counterpart.
And, of course, it is the season to enjoy good wines. Autumnal recipes find a perfect match in wine, capable of elevating every recipe and transforming a simple meal into a special moment. Here are some delectable ideas of how to pair autumnal flavours with some of Familia Torres’s flagship wines.
Carrot cake
Carrot cake is synonymous with autumn comfort, the ideal treat for a rainy afternoon. The combination of spices and creamy topping find an ideal match in Floralis, our Moscatel Oro, with its beautifully balanced sweetness of honey and floral notes.
For a less sweet option, Waltraud Riesling brings freshness and acidity to the union, not only cleansing the palate but enhancing the complexity of this dessert. This Penedès wine, created in honour of Waltraud Maczassek, wife of Miguel A. Torres, pairs perfectly with any pumpkin dish, from creamy soups to oven recipes.
Chestnuts
Autumn wouldn’t be autumn without the smell of roasted chestnuts wafting down the street. Their warm flavour stands out in combination with character-driven reds like Malpastor, an intense, velvety Tempranillo with notes of spices. Another lovely option to go with a platter of chestnuts is Clos Ancestral Tinto. This expressive Penedès red has plenty of personality and combines beautifully with the earthy flavour of the chestnuts.
Wild game
Deer, pheasant, wild boar, partridge: wild game is one of the great luxuries of autumn. The meat is intensely flavourful, rife with wild notes, and calls for a wine potent enough to hold its own. Mas La Plana, Familia Torres’s iconic Cabernet Sauvignon, is a classic: potent, elegant, with the right amount of structure to balance the deep flavours of wild game. Salmos, on the other hand, brings the full potency of great DOQ Priorat reds to the table, perfectly enhancing the gamey intensity of the meat and, in this case, adding spicy and mineral notes.
Seasonal mushrooms
Milk-caps, black chanterelles, porcini mushrooms…few things represent autumn as authentically as a flavourful mushroom casserole. This dish finds a perfect match in Purgatori, a Costers del Segre made from Cariñena, Garnacha, and Syrah – an autumnal wine par excellence. Laden with ripe fruit aromas, spicy notes, balsamic hints, and mineral undertones, the wine is powerful on the palate, with well-integrated tannins and a long, elegant finish. It possesses certain nuances imparted by ageing in French oak that underscore the umami of the mushrooms, from a simple sauté to more elaborate rice recipes.
Truffled dishes
Truffles reign supreme in autumn and need a wine that is their equal. If we’re making a delicate dish like poached eggs or fresh pasta with white truffles, an elegant Chardonnay varietal like Milmanda is ideal – a wine that has few rivals when it comes to expressing the unique character of Conca de Barberà. For dishes with black truffles or heartier recipes, Perpetual, an old vine Priorat that spends 18 months in oak, complements and rounds out the unique flavour of this coveted autumnal delicacy.
If we really want to pull out all the stops, nothing beats a bottle of Reserva Real when it comes to black truffle recipes, be it eggs, potatoes or a simple spaghetti dish. This exclusive wine – a Familia Torres gem and one of the finest Spanish reds – is deep and refined, with notes of black fruit, sweet spices, cedarwood, cocoa, and a subtle mineral nuance. On the palate, it unfolds long and silky, potent and delicate at the same time, just like a good truffle.
Escudella, soups and stews
On cold days nothing warms body and soul more than a soup or stew. Celeste Crianza takes us to the heart of Ribera del Duero, offering a wonderful match for slow-cooked stews, whether meat or veggie, thanks to its warmth and structure. This is also true of Gran Coronas, an oak-aged Penedès Cabernet Sauvignon, that pairs perfectly with hearty or fatty foods, because its acidity and tannins bring every bite into balance.
Warm autumn salads
Whether featuring roasted veggies, sweet potato, pumpkin, sautéed mushrooms or legumes, autumn salads are the perfect start to any meal. Pazo das Bruxas, a fresh, aromatic Albariño, adds a lively touch, whereas Clos Ancestral Blanco, a Penedès white made from the pre-phylloxera variety Forcada, offers greater complexity, ideal in combination with more intense aromas. The latter also pairs well with certain ingredients that are notoriously difficult to pair, such as Brussel sprouts, because it not only softens their bitter notes, but brings out their flavour.
