What's the best wine to drink with pepperoni pizza?

On this episode of Pinkies Up, we set out to make your life just a little bit better by finding the perfect wine to drink with pepperoni pizza! Whether you're doing take out, eating at your favorite pizza place, or eating a frozen pizza on a Thursday night, having a bottle of wine the complements your pepperoni pizza is going to help put a smile on your face. The wines we tried are easy to find, affordable, and versatile, so watch the episode to see what we think worked best with the pizza!

Our wine expert Nick set out some standards on what a wine should have to complement pepperoni pizza:

- It should have good, crisp acidity to stand up to the tomato sauce.
- It should have red fruit (not black fruit) flavors to go with the sweetness of the tomato sauce and spice notes of the pepperoni.
- It should be "wet" to help you chew the crust, especially when you have crispy crust!

To fit within those standards, Nick recommends four different types of wine. Here's an outline of the recommendations:

DRY ROSÉ
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A dry rosé wine from Spain or France (like the Rosé All Day we drank) is crisp and refreshing with just enough red fruit to balance out the tomato and pepperoni flavors. Especially in the summer time, this is a terrific pairing with the pepperoni pizza. If you're not a red wine drinker, try a bottle of rosé instead of a white wine like chardonnay or sauvignon blanc. It'll work much better!

SPARKLING RED / CHILLABLE REDS
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If you like sweeter wines, try a sweet, bubbly red like Lambrusco to go with your pizza. It has plenty of fruit and the bubbles are super refreshing. If you prefer something a little less sweet, try a red wine that can be served chilled, like the Keep It Chill red wine that we tried. You'll have lovely red fruit flavors and a cold wine to enjoy after the hot pizza!

SANGIOVESE BASED ITALIAN REDS
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This is the no-brainer pairing, and it's a classic. Sangiovese is Italy's most popular red grape, and for good reason. It has nice acidity, is medium bodied, and pairs perfectly with pizza and pastas with red sauces. We recommend having a less expensive, more basic Chianti or Sangiovese for your pizza - it'll have more red fruit flavors than an aged version. We enjoyed the Castelluccio "Le More" Sangiovese which comes from Romagna and generally has more red fruit flavors than a Tuscan Sangiovese.

NERO D'AVOLA
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If you like Cabernet Sauvignon, we'd suggest you try a Nero d'Avola with your pizza instead of reaching for that Cab. Nero d'Avola has a similar full body, but instead of dry black fruit flavors that don't work with the pizza, this wine has red fruit flavors. It's a great way to have a full bodied wine that works with your pizza. We enjoyed the Morgante Nero d'Avola on this episode.

We hope you enjoyed this episode and use what we learned to find a great bottle to keep at home to enjoy with your next pizza. We know it seems like a small thing, but we believe if you can make your life a little more delicious, it's well worth it!

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