Pairing Wine and Extra Virgin Olive Oil for a Perfect Meal

Summary

Pairing olive oil and wine is a del­i­cate art that can ele­vate the culi­nary expe­ri­ence, with suc­cess­ful pair­ings aim­ing to enrich the com­plex­ity of the meal with­out over­pow­er­ing any com­po­nent. Seasonality sig­nif­i­cantly influ­ences pair­ing choices, with lighter, fruitier olive oils and wines favored in spring and sum­mer, while richer, fuller-bod­ied selec­tions are pre­ferred in autumn and win­ter.

Pairing olive oil and wine is a del­i­cate art that can ele­vate the culi­nary expe­ri­ence. 

Those two pro­tag­o­nists, deeply rooted in Mediterranean cui­sine, enhance each oth­er’s qual­i­ties, cre­at­ing an extra­or­di­nary syn­ergy of fla­vors and aro­mas.

Pairing means enhanc­ing the bou­quet of fla­vors.

A suc­cess­ful pair­ing aims to enrich the com­plex­ity of the meal, empha­siz­ing fla­vors with­out over­pow­er­ing any com­po­nent. Balance is con­sid­ered essen­tial when select­ing olive oil and wine.

Olive oils vary widely, from del­i­cate but­tery to robust and pep­pery, much like wines, which range from crisp and acidic whites to deep, tan­nic reds.

“At the begin­ning of a meal, a good bread with an ele­gant olive oil intro­duces the palate. The olive oil should­n’t over­whelm your palate with bit­ter­ness,” Alex Lomazzi, sous chef at Michelin-starred Il Pulejo in Rome, Italy, told Olive Oil Times.

For exam­ple, Lomazzi cited pair­ing the fruit-for­ward Tonda Iblea olive oil with sparkling wines like Champagne or Franciacorta.

“The gen­tle fruiti­ness of the olive oil beau­ti­fully bal­ances the crisp acid­ity and effer­ves­cence of sparkling wines, set­ting an invit­ing tone for the rest of the meal,” Lomazzi noted.

Such a match avoids clash­ing sen­sa­tions, espe­cially bit­ter­ness, that could dis­turb the per­cep­tion of a sparkling wine.

“You don’t want olive oil dis­turb­ing the first sip of a Franciacorta. That’s why the choice must be soft and round,” Lomazzi explained.

His deep aware­ness of pair­ing came from years of prac­tice and his back­ground. ​“I started cook­ing in Rome, at Il Convivio, a his­toric Michelin-starred restau­rant that taught me the ele­gance of fla­vor,” Lomazzi recalled.

After three years in the cap­i­tal, he moved to France. ​“That’s where my focus on sauces became cen­tral. French cui­sine gave me a tech­ni­cal foun­da­tion. Even if but­ter is king there, I’ve always brought olive oil with me,” he added.

Sauce is the essence of the per­fect meal.

Sauces are often the secret behind remark­able dishes, tying ingre­di­ents together and ele­vat­ing their fla­vors.

In fine din­ing, sauce prepa­ra­tion is a sub­tle but pow­er­ful way to show­case olive oil and wine pair­ings.

“In France, I started blend­ing but­ter with extra vir­gin olive oil in sauces for shell­fish,” Lomazzi said. ​“This approach enhances depth and com­plex­ity, pro­vid­ing new lay­ers of fla­vor.”

For exam­ple, Chardonnay can play a cru­cial role in fish-based sauces.

“Chardonnay pro­vides struc­ture and com­plex­ity, and when com­bined with extra vir­gin olive oil, which cap­tures and ampli­fies seafood’s essence, you achieve a vel­vety, rich con­sis­tency that makes a sauce excep­tional,” Lomazzi remarked.

This thought­ful inte­gra­tion ensures the wine com­ple­ments and enhances the olive oil’s spe­cific char­ac­ter­is­tics, deliv­er­ing har­mo­nious and mem­o­rable fla­vors.

Thus, the sauce becomes not just an accom­pa­ni­ment but the heart of the dish, under­scor­ing the impor­tance of ingre­di­ent syn­ergy.

Lomazzi applies the same approach to sea­sonal veg­eta­bles.

“Now that it’s spring, I make sauces using ten­der turnip greens, emul­si­fy­ing them with light olive oils. The result is a green, fresh sauce with the scent of raw tomato and young fruit,” he said.

This kind of prepa­ra­tion enhances roasted or grilled veg­eta­bles and works won­der­fully with whites that have been briefly aged in wood.

A dif­fer­ent pair­ing for each sea­son

Seasonality sig­nif­i­cantly influ­ences pair­ing choices, allow­ing din­ers to enjoy ingre­di­ents at their peak fresh­ness and fla­vor.

Olive oil and wine selec­tions can shift through­out the year to reflect sea­sonal pro­duce and culi­nary styles.

Spring and sum­mer, for instance, favor lighter, fruitier olive oils paired with crisp, refresh­ing wines, enhanc­ing the fresh­ness of sea­sonal dishes.

“In spring, I pre­pare veg­etable emul­sions using milder, fruity olive oils like Coratina,” Lomazzi explained. ​“Imagine grilled spring veg­eta­bles paired with an ele­gant, lightly oaked Chardonnay, each bite fresh and vibrant.”

This care­ful pair­ing high­lights the nat­ural sweet­ness of veg­eta­bles, cre­at­ing a refresh­ing din­ing expe­ri­ence ideal for warmer weather.

Autumn and win­ter, how­ever, invite richer, fuller-bod­ied selec­tions. Robust, pep­pery olive oils com­ple­ment heartier ingre­di­ents such as roasted root veg­eta­bles, hearty soups, and rich, meat-based dishes.

These dishes pair nat­u­rally with robust red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah, whose tan­nins and com­plex pro­files com­ple­ment the inten­sity of robust olive oils, cre­at­ing warm­ing and sat­is­fy­ing culi­nary expe­ri­ences suited to colder months.

“Lately in Rome, restau­rants have started serv­ing but­ter with bread, like in France, hay but­ter, whipped but­ter… It’s a trend. But when tem­per­a­tures go above 20 °C, that’s the per­fect time to return to our roots,” Lomazzi said.

“It is then time to bring back good olive oil to the table. It’s part of our Mediterranean cul­ture, and it’s lighter, fresher,” he added.

The sur­pris­ing pair­ing with fish dishes

Fish dishes pro­vide excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for cre­ative pair­ings, par­tic­u­larly because of their del­i­cate fla­vors, which need care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion to avoid over­pow­er­ing.

Olive oil and wine pair­ings in seafood dishes must be sub­tle yet com­ple­men­tary. Lomazzi favors using Leccino olive oil for raw seafood dishes, such as shrimp or del­i­cate raw fish serv­ings.

“Leccino has bal­anced fla­vors with sub­tle almond notes, adding just the right touch of com­plex­ity,” he said.

Paired with a flo­ral, cit­rus-dri­ven white wine, this com­bi­na­tion per­fectly accen­tu­ates raw seafood’s fresh­ness and nuanced fla­vors.

“It gives a slightly spicy and nutty note that works so well with raw red shrimp,” he said.

In this case, Lomazzi relies on wines that match that tone. ​“The wine I think of is flo­ral, slightly trop­i­cal, with white flow­ers and a hint of pineap­ple. It has to match the sweet­ness of the raw shrimp and the almond note of the Leccino,” he said.

Beyond raw dishes, cooked seafood also offers intrigu­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties. Lomazzi described how olive oil inten­si­fies fla­vors in cooked fish dishes.

“Using a slightly more intense extra vir­gin olive oil for cooked seafood dishes helps ele­vate and inte­grate fla­vors, par­tic­u­larly when paired with fuller-bod­ied white wines such as Chardonnay or Viognier,” he explained.

Meat and its chal­leng­ing pair­ing

Pairing olive oil with meat dishes can be chal­leng­ing due to the meat’s robust fla­vors and tex­tures. 

Cooking directly with olive oil can risk over­pow­er­ing or mask­ing the meat’s char­ac­ter­is­tics. Lomazzi acknowl­edged this chal­lenge.

”Cooking meat directly with olive oil can be tricky. Instead, I use extra vir­gin olive oil as a fin­ish­ing touch. For instance, I can pair grilled meats with smoked olive oil, a spe­cialty from Puglia, which imparts a gen­tle, smoky fla­vor,” he said.

This fin­ish­ing touch requires wines capa­ble of with­stand­ing the smoky, rich fla­vors with­out over­whelm­ing the palate. Wines such as Montiano, with its soft tan­nins and vel­vety tex­ture, com­ple­ment smoked olive oil beau­ti­fully.

“Montiano’s warmth and rounded pro­file har­mo­nize excep­tion­ally well with smoky notes,” Lomazzi elab­o­rated, mak­ing it a ver­sa­tile choice for grilled meats.

“It’s a wine that I love with smoked oil on grilled meat, full, envelop­ing, with a nice bal­ance. It sup­ports the dish with­out com­pet­ing with it,” he said.

That atten­tion to detail is part of a broader phi­los­o­phy.

”It’s rare to find restau­rants that use sev­eral oils for dif­fer­ent uses. Most chefs stick with one or two. But if you really research fla­vors, the right oil can unlock a dish. Just like wine,” he said.

Exploring pair­ings beyond tra­di­tion

Innovative chefs and som­me­liers are increas­ingly push­ing the bound­aries of tra­di­tional pair­ings, explor­ing unex­pected com­bi­na­tions that might sur­prise and even delight.

Aromatic olive oils infused with herbs or cit­rus can offer dis­tinc­tive pair­ings, par­tic­u­larly wines that echo or con­trast these fla­vors.

Lomazzi’s culi­nary curios­ity was sparked dur­ing his time in France. ​”I worked in a restau­rant called Fussa. One day, I met a cousin of David Muñoz. He sold olive oil, which was pro­duced in Tunisia and Sicily. That moment sparked my research.”

“We don’t give enough impor­tance to olive oil. It’s cul­tural. Most cus­tomers in Italy never ask which extra vir­gin olive oil is used. But some do, and they’re the ones who appre­ci­ate what we’re doing,” Lomazzi said.

For him, olive oil deserves the same atten­tion as wine. It varies by region, cul­ti­var, process and sea­son. Like wine, olive oil changes a dish.

“When you work with sauces, espe­cially with fish, you choose the olive oil, and you choose the wine. And they become part of the same story. They speak the same lan­guage,” Lomazzi con­cluded.