CENTRE COUNTY — Just like how the perfect cup of coffee can start the day off right, the right glass of wine can end the day on a high note. But can your coffee order give clues as to what type of wine you might enjoy? Your go-to coffee drink may give some insight into what type of wine you might enjoy.
BLACK COFFEE OR STRAIGHT ESPRESSO — PINOTAGE
If you are a black coffee or straight espresso drinker, you appreciate bold, robust flavors with minimal sweetness. These preferences align well with pinotage, a South African red wine known for its distinctive, intense character.
Pinotage comes from a cross between the cinsaut and pinot noir grape varieties.
Like a strong cup of black coffee, pinotage offers rich, earthy flavors with a depth that includes smoky, roasted notes, along with dark fruits like blackberry and plum. The wine’s slightly bitter edge, often compared to dark chocolate or coffee grounds, can resonate with those who enjoy the strong, unadulterated flavors of black coffee or espresso.
COFFEE WITH CREAM AND SUGAR — TEMPRANILLO
If you enjoy coffee with cream and sugar, you will want a wine that is smooth and fruit-forward. The flavor profile of this coffee order typically involves a balance of richness, creaminess, sweetness and subtle bitterness covered by the cream or sugar.
Tempranillo, from Spain, with its unique characteristics, has a similar drinking experience with its smooth mouthfeel, particularly when it’s medium to full-bodied.
Tempranillo tends to have ripe red fruit flavors like cherry and plum. The fruit forward notes mirror the sweetness of sugar in a coffee. While coffee can have subtle earthy notes, especially in darker roasts, tempranillo introduces additional complexity with earthy undertones such as leather and tobacco. In some tempranillos, you may also find notes of vanilla from its aging in oak barrels as well.
LATTE OR MILK BASED DRINK — VIOGNIER
If you enjoy lattes or other milk-based coffee drinks, you will want a wine with creaminess, richness and a smooth balance of flavors. Viognier, a white wine, tends to have notes of stone fruits like peach and apricot, along with floral notes like honeysuckle and rose. Its softness and subtle complexity mirror the creamy, soothing experience of a milk-based coffee.
Oak aging introduces other flavors and aromas to wine that the grape variety itself does not, such as vanilla, spice and caramel. Oak aging in French barrels tends to impart more subtle notes like vanilla, honey, toasted almonds and dried herbs. American oak tends to impart bolder notes like coconut, vanilla and baking spices.
The Northern Rhône, a wine region in France, particularly the appellation of Condrieu, is the traditional home of viognier. When looking for a bottle in a wine shop, look for the appellation name, not the grape variety, as it is more standard for French wine to be labeled this way.
NITRO COFFEE — PÉT-NAT
If your go-to order is nitro coffee, you’ll likely enjoy a crisp pét-nat, short for pétillant-naturel. This natural wine is similarly smooth, refreshing and slightly effervescent. Just like nitro coffee, which offers a creamy texture and frothy finish due to nitrogen infusion, pét-nat has a light sparkle thanks to its natural carbonation, created by bottling the wine before fermentation is complete. This results in a lightly sparkling, unfiltered wine that is fresh and lively, much like the soft bubbles in nitro coffee.
Pét-nat is also known for its rustic, fruity and sometimes funky flavor profile, due to being a natural wine. Sulfites and filtering agents are not added during the winemaking process — a requirement to be a natural wine — and often have a slightly oxidized quality to it due to not using stabilizing agents during the fermentation.
Pét-nat is the style of wine, not a grape variety, and can be made by almost any type of grape to produce white, rosé and red wines. While different grape varieties will impart different types of flavors, the artisanal technique and natural traits will give a similar drinking experience to a nitro coffee.
CHAI LATTE — CHENIN BLANC
Chai latte lovers will likely enjoy chenin blanc, a versatile grape variety that can be made in different styles and sweetness levels. While it can be made as a dry white wine, it is also commonly oak-aged which imparts vanilla, baking spices and caramel notes.
Chenin blanc will taste of yellow apple, pear, lemon, honeydew, passion fruit and peach in addition to the toasted notes from the oak aging. Its natural acidity and rich mouthfeel give the wine a balance between brightness and warmth, which mirrors the satisfying richness of chai’s spiced and milky combination.
For those new to the wine world, a chenin blanc is a great wine to start your wine journey. Chenin blanc from Vouvray in France’s Loire Valley is known for its high acidity, minerality and versatility, producing wines that range from bone-dry to sweet, with flavors of green apple, pear and honey, often gaining complexity with age. In contrast, South African chenin blanc tends to be riper and fuller-bodied due to the warmer climate, with tropical fruit flavors like pineapple, guava and melon.
MATCHA — GRÜNER VELTLINER
If you enjoy matcha, you’re likely drawn to its earthy, green tea flavor and creamy texture, often enhanced by milk in matcha lattes.
Grüner veltliner is an Austrian white wine grape known for its crisp acidity and refreshing flavors, often featuring notes of green apple, white pepper and citrus. It is the most-grown white grape variety in Austria. Grüner veltliner’s freshness and herbal notes give a similar earthy, vegetal profile that a cup of matcha does.
