The Perfect Potato Chip & Wine Pairings, According To An Expert

Viva’s wine editor Jo Burzynska is tasked with selecting the ideal wines for pairing with your favourite potato chips. Turns out some are a match made in heaven.

Crunching on potato chips while quaffing wine is something most of us will have done without thinking about the finer points of this excellent pairing. However, with wine’s spectrum of flavours and textures, and a growing array of chips to choose from, some matches create exciting synergies between what’s in the bag and in your glass, and some combos are best avoided.

Given salty foods go well with wine, snacking on potato chips while you sip is a no-brainer. Salty fare makes wines taste fruitier, richer and fuller bodied, and in the case of reds can soften grippy tannins. Until I was commissioned to write this feature, however (ed’s note: we thought this was the ideal challenge for Jo, selecting wines to pair with the Viva team’s favourite chips, and a great guide for readers, and chip lovers, just in time for summer), I must admit that I’d not approached this area of wine and food matching with any rigour.

When drinking wine, I’ve personally tended to opt for ready salted, believing them a safe choice because of their simple flavour. But after sampling a spectrum of these crispy snacks with a wide range of wines, I can report that several pairings definitely elevate the combined experience. These were also tested on a group of friends for further feedback from a range of palates.

Pinot Noir with Truffle Chips

The chips: Torres Black Truffle Potato Chips

Torres chips hail from Premia de Mar, near Barcelona, Spain, where the Torres family have been making traditional, handcrafted chips since 1969. Its Black Truffle chips are intensely truffly and lightly salted, made with black summer truffles and Iberian, thin-cut potatoes. Find these at gourmet food stores and selected supermarkets.

Expert wine pairing: Coal Pit Tiwha Central Otago Pinot Noir 2021, $67

Pinot noir was one of the toughest varieties to find chips that enhanced it rather than detracted. Many flavours were just too sweet or overpowering for this lighter red style. However, just as truffle makes a great combination with the savoury and earthy flavours of pinot noir on the plate, it’s the same from the chip packet. Coal Pit’s cool-climate Gibbston Pinot was a winning combination with its tangy cool-climate cherry fruit infused with florals, thyme, and a truffle-friendly savoury richness and nuances of forest floor. From Caro’s, By the Bottle, First Glass Wines & Spirits, Cambridge Fine Wine and Coal Pit Wine.

Sparkling Wine with Ready Salted

The chips: Proper Crisps Big Cut Sea Salt

Handmade in Nelson, Proper Crisps’ big-cut variety is thicker and crunchier than its original range of hand-cooked chips, making them the ideal match with dips. Subtly yet liberally flavoured with Marlborough sea salt, these are golden, robust and perfectly crisp.

Expert wine pairing: Cloudy Bay Pelorus Marlborough NV, $40

The crispness of sparkling wine, with the savoury flavours delivered by the traditional method in particular, means it pairs with a wide range of chips. However, with a sophisticated sparkling, such as champagne or this Cloudy Bay Pelorus, it’s best to keep things simple. With the classic and versatile flavour of these thick and lightly salted sea salt chips, the focus remains roundly on this elegant and harmonious wine with its white fruit, creamy notes and praline richness cut by a lemony freshness. From Cloudy Bay.

Sauvignon Blanc with Lemon & Thyme Chips

The chips: Heartland Lemon & Thyme Potato Chips

From New Zealand’s own Heartland Potato Chips’ premium thin-cut range, these Lemon & Thyme chips were a bit of a wildcard inclusion but drew favour among the Viva team for their seriously lemony flavour and hints of thyme and parsley. A delicate chip and crunch compared to some of the others in this roundup.

Were these chips created to go with the country’s favourite variety, we asked? With their lemony tang and herbal hint, chip and wine become one when washed down with a sauvignon blanc. We enjoyed these with the beautifully textured new release from Te Pā, with its refined gooseberry fruit, savoury green herbs and bright lemony acidy. From Farro Fresh, New World and Te Pa Wines.

Albarino & Salt ‘n’ Vinegar Chips

The chips: Proper Crisps Cider Vinegar & Sea Salt

A household favourite with a gourmet touch, Proper Crisps’ version of salt and vinegar is golden crisps infused with zingy apple cider vinegar and a dousing of Marlborough sea salt. They’re slightly sweet, slightly sour, slightly salty.

Expert wine pairing: Yealands Estate Single Vineyard Awatere Valley Marlborough Albarino 2023, $28

Ultra-tangy vinegar can make a wine’s taste less crisp, so is best paired with a variety that has plenty of acidity — this also cuts through the fat of the fried potato. With its mouth-watering freshness and salty flavour, albarino is sensational with salt and vinegar. Yealands make a great local example, which is perhaps not surprising given its winemaker Natalie Christensen has experience making the variety back in Spain. It’s dry and driven by zingy lime, infused with honeysuckle and jasmine florals, lemongrass and alabarino’s classic briny character. From Yealands.

Fun fact: Albarino is the best all-rounder for pairing with any chips

With its zippy acidity and salty character, albarino emerged as the ultimate potato chip wine. This Spanish white variety that’s now making some great examples from our vineyards, creates successful unions with most flavours. Red wines are harder to match, as many flavoured chips have more sugar than salt, which can make the reds taste a little lean and bitter. Truffle chips were the standouts here, with the gourmet variety we sampled possessing none of the sweetness and all of the savoury characters required for maximum enjoyment with red wines.

Grenache Blend with Barbecue Chips

The chips: Copper Kettle Wood Fired BBQ Potato Chips

Cooked in small batches with New Zealand-grown potatoes, Copper Kettle chips offer an elite crunchiness. No meats were woodfired in the making of this barbecue-flavoured chip but you wouldn’t guess it from its smoky, paprika and rosemary-infused notes.

Expert wine pairing: Dune The Empty Quarter Mclaren Vale 2021, $30

Smoky and meaty with a bit of sweetness, barbecue chips beg a wine that’s big enough to stand up to these feisty flavours. My thoughts turned to warmer climate Aussie reds, for the sweet and concentrated fruit required, and maybe a touch of oaky spice and smoke. Dune’s The Empty Quarter fits the bill with its soft and brightly-fruited palate of plum, raspberry and black fruits, hint of white pepper spice, and savoury edge. It’s a blend of shiraz, grenache, Mataro and a touch of Touriga Nacional. From Black Market, Cove 27, Farro Fresh, Hamilton Beer & Wine Co and Bellatinos.

Chardonnay with Chicken Chips

The chips: Bluebird Originals Chicken Potato Chips

A beloved classic, Bluebird’s Originals are a thin, large, crinkle-cut style with a sprinkling of real chicken flavour and flecks of herbs. A chip for the ages, Bluebird is celebrating 70 years this year.

Expert wine pairing: The Marlborist Marlborough Chardonnay 2022, $50

Although chicken was a divisive chip flavour — only one in our group admitted actively liking them — crunching on these with an umami-rich wine, such as this barrel-fermented chardonnay, created converts. The savoury character in both chip and wine got me reaching back into the bag. The Marlborist’s is an impressive contemporary style chardonnay, with lovely fruit purity to its stone fruit characters, supported by a fresh line of grapefruit acidity, hint of mineral and some nicely balanced savoury toasty oak. An honourable mention also goes to the Torres Fried Egg Potato Chips (Sabato) which were another successful chardonnay accompaniment. From Fine-O-Wine, The Wine Room at Smith & Caughey’s, Primo Vino and The Marlborist.

Syrah with Maple Bacon Chips

The chips: Heartland Maple Bacon Old Fashion Wave Cut Chips

Big, bold and wavy-cut, these Maple Bacon chips from family-owned Heartland are made with potatoes grown on the Bowan family’s own South Canterbury farm, Fallgate. They’re thick-cut, crunchy and full of smoky-sweet bacon flavour.

Expert wine pairing: Trinity Hill Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2021, $25

With their maple syrup flavour, these chips are quite sweet. Combined with their intense smoky character, they were another trickier chip to match. However, local Syrah with its concentrated and spicy characters came to the rescue. Trinity Hill’s stylish and great value example, with its ripe, plush and juicy plum and blackberry palate was a good pairing, adding a harmonious spicy note of clove and pepper. From Glengarry, Trinity Hill and fine wine stores nationwide.

Off-Dry Riesling with Sour Cream & Chives Chips

The chips: Snacka Changi Chips Sour Cream, Chive & Onion

From comedian Leigh Hart’s Snacka Changi range of crinkle-cut chips, the sour cream and chives iteration is liberally doused in intense flavour for a bold and brash chip with an impeccable crunch and mouthfeel. One of the most “flavourful flavours of the Snacka Changi range”.

Expert wine pairing: Rockburn Tigermoth Central Otago Riesling 2022, $36

Sweet with salty is a classic match; think sauternes and blue cheese. Riesling with some sweetness was another wine that went well with a lot of the chips, including these, with their tangy sour cream and robust oniony flavours. Rockburn’s Tigermoth has a lot of its own sweet, savoury, crisp and salty minerally things going on in its palate that blends notes of ripe apple, zesty lime, honey and toasted rye bread. From Glengarry and selected fine wine retailers nationwide.

Rose with Prawn Cocktail Chips

The chips: Delisio Prawn Cocktail Chips

You can see the flavour on these pink-hued New Zealand-made chips, inspired by the great British classic, the prawn cocktail. They’re light, tangy and a little bit tomatoey. Delish.

Expert wine pairing: Test Pots by 15 Minute Bottles North Canterbury Pinot Noir Rosé 2023, $35-37

With its subtle notes of seafood, lemon and a hint of sweetness, prawn cocktail crisps work well with ripe and fruit-forward whites and rosés. This delicious dry rosé proved a fine accompaniment, with its fresh and vibrant strawberry and crisp apple fruit, salty mineral and creamy characters. From By the Bottle, Tappo, 15 Minute Bottles.

Fun fact: Potato chips can taste even better with the right music

Research has found potato chips were perceived as tasting crisper and fresher when people listened to amplified sounds of people crunching on chips — so you might want to crank some crunchy beats when exploring these pairings!

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