Roast Beef

Roast Beef

Roast beef sets a structural test: the seared, fat-marbled meat and its savoury gravy need a wine with tannin and body to cut through, while horseradish adds a pungent heat that wants freshness alongside. Reach for structure and acidity together, and avoid anything light or delicate.

Pairs Perfectly

A Cabernet-Merlot blend, Bordeaux, France. The firm tannins of classic claret scrub the fat from the palate, and its cassis and cedar fall in naturally beside the Maillard crust on the meat.

Pairs Well

A Rioja Reserva, Spain. Tempranillo with bottle age brings leather and gentle dried-fruit depth that meets the gravy without dominating, and it sits on every supermarket shelf for an easy weeknight roast.

A Barossa Shiraz, Australia. Where the beef is generously fatted and the gravy deep, Barossa's dense black fruit and fuller body match it pound for pound.

Avoid

Lean, delicate whites and light-bodied reds, which both vanish against the meat and gravy.

Failing That

A Cotes du Rhone, France.

If All Else Fails

Malbec, Mendoza.

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