Fish, chips and bubbles: pairing champagne with classic takeaway food

It’s Champagne Day today so why not pop the cork on a bottle and enjoy a glass of bubbly with your evening meal.

Champagne can be paired with all sorts of cuisines, but did you know that it’s an ideal accompaniment for classic takeaway food? You can pair champagne with burgers, pizza and even fish and chips.

Francoise Peretti, director of the UK’s Champagne Bureau, shares some top tips on how to elevate your takeaways with the perfect style of champagne.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Fish and chips

Pair this British classic takeaway with a vibrant and zingy Blanc de Blancs champagne, a 100% chardonnay style with citrus notes will match seafood and cut right through that naughty batter, making the whole meal feel much lighter.

Burgers

Whether you’re craving Honest Burger or Five Guys, for meaty meals with bold flavours like cheese, choose a Blanc de Noirs champagne. Literally meaning “white of black”, it’s made from 100% black grapes (Pinot Noir, Meunier), which means the structure and body of the wine has the strength to enhance this tasty, complex dish.

Sushi

Pairing perfectly with sushi, sashimi or Poké bowls, Extra Brut or Zero Dosage champagne is the purists choice – a no-frills style that is extra fresh with ultra-low sugar, meaning it’s only 60 calories a glass.

Pizza

As pizza can quite often have multiple toppings, the best partner would be a vintage, or a Blanc de Noirs, champagne. Like a Blanc de Noirs, vintage has more body and complexity, as it is aged for a minimum of three years, and is strong enough to balance stronger, more complex flavours.

Sweets and desserts

For sweet snacks like doughnuts or cookies, it is best to pair with a demi sec champagne – anything dryer could be jarring. With champagne, you will find that the sweeter styles are not cloying, but maintain the wine’s signature freshness that shines through.