Black caviar is a protein-rich product derived from sturgeon fish found in northern waters. For several centuries, this product has been an exquisite gourmet snack on the festive table. Caviar can go with almost any alcoholic beverage, be it vodka, wine, champagne, vermouth, or whiskey. The question is in the correct combination — expensive refined caviar will reveal its entire bouquet of taste only with a drink of the same importance. So, what drinks to pair with caviar?

What drink goes with caviar? Champagne goes best with caviar. The silky and salty taste of caviar is organically combined with the acidity of the champagne and the bubbles. Caviar is best combined with the most refined and expensive brands of champagne, like Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot Brut, and Louis Roederer Cristal. 

Caviar will be an excellent gastronomic pair only for brut and dry champagne. But it is definitely not worth combining it with sweet and semi-sweet drinks, they can destroy the whole impression of each other’s taste.

What Is The Best Way to Enjoy Caviar?

The best way to enjoy caviar is to put it on warm white bread toast, lightly buttered. Unsweetened crackers, biscuits, or thin crispbread are great for caviar. Caviar is also often served in tartlets or oxen. Fresh cucumber, cut into slices or halves of hard-boiled quail eggs with a spoonful of black caviar on top, is a wonderful snack. Another interesting way to enjoy caviar is to put it on top of oysters, which are served open with fresh lemon slices.

There are two approaches to drinks that go well with caviar — Russian and European.

What Drink Goes Best With Caviar? Russian Traditions

Black caviar and vodka are primordially Russian products. Russians have been pairing caviar with vodka for a long time. The United States of America, Canada, Great Britain, and other countries have adopted this tradition and are actively using it.

Russian vodka is a high-quality, popular, and expensive product. Due to the high strength of vodka, it is customary to have a snack after each glass of salty food with high-fat content. It is this combination that allows you to reveal the entire taste of the bitter drink. By the way, with this use, it will be minimal. Vodka and black caviar work in unison — the salty, greasy taste is only emphasized by a sip of scalding pure Russian vodka.

Initially, vodka was considered an expensive product and demanded a decent snack. It was customary to serve pickles, fish, and caviar. Black Caviar and vodka is still a wonderful duet that has a lot of advantages.

How do you serve vodka with caviar? Take hot pancakes with rich caviar filling, crackers, and small toasts with butter and a slice of lemon, half a boiled egg (chicken, quail), and put a spoonful of caviar. Vodka should be cold. Chill the vodka for at least four hours, preferably in the evening. It can be stored in the freezer as long as you want: it will not harden but will become thick, like syrup.

What Drink Goes Best With Caviar? European Traditions

The acquaintance of Europeans with black caviar happened at the beginning of the century before last, thanks to the Petrosyan brothers, who began to transport this product to France. At the time of balls and carnivals at the imperial court, it became a tradition to pair champagne with caviar. Expensive sparkling wine is ideally combined with a Russian appetizer, working in contrast: the fresh sour taste of the drink exploding in the mouth reveals the taste of salty caviar. It creates an amazing aftertaste, it is as if champagne and caviar dissolve in one another.

In the century before last, a traditional Russian snack began its triumphal march across Europe. This was facilitated by the expansion of trade ties, and the victorious end of the war with Napoleon for the Russians, and several waves of emigration.

The Russian traditions of using black caviar were introduced to other countries. But, they could not remain unchanged. It was in France that the second classic combination was born: champagne and black caviar. It turned out that good French wine is ideally combined with a Russian appetizer, working in contrast: the salty taste of caviar perfectly sets off the fresh and sour taste of the wine. It seems that these two products are simply dissolving into each other. Drinking a small spoonful of black caviar with a sip of a wonderful sparkling drink, gourmets get an unforgettable pleasure, which, moreover, can be stretched indefinitely.

What champagne goes with caviar? Only the best varieties of classic French champagne will go with such an exquisite and expensive snack as black caviar. The salty taste of caviar can be extinguished only by elite wines belonging to the luxury cuvée class like Cuvee Dom Perignon, La Grande Dame, Krug Grande Cuvee, Cristal, Sir Winston Churchill, Grand Siecle, Clos des Goisses, and others.

In any version — traditional Russian or classic French, black caviar in combination with elite alcohol will bring real pleasure to gourmets.

Caviar contains acetylcholine which increases the level of tolerance to alcoholic beverages. If you combine alcoholic drinks with black caviar, you can stay energetic until the very end of the party. The main thing is to know when to stop because the use of this delicacy in large quantities can cause sleep disturbance and loss of appetite.

Wine and Caviar

What type of wine goes well with caviar?  Champagne wines with fresh ginger, apple, or yeast tones are ideal for the taste of sturgeon caviar and go well with it. The light minerality of sparkling wine softens the fishy notes of caviar, which makes this union even more harmonious. Blanc de Blancs wine, Chenin, and Riesling wines go well with caviar. 

• Spanish dry white wine made from Viura grapes goes well with sevruga caviar. The notes of grapefruit and lime present in it perfectly set off the tones of cashew nuts and the bitterness of citrus fruits that are well felt in such caviar.
• Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand with fresh herbal and citrus notes perfectly smooths out the pronounced salinity of Siberian sturgeon caviar.
• French dry white wine from Chenin Blanc grapes with bright mineral and citrus notes will be an excellent gastronomic pair with red caviar of North Atlantic salmon with a spicy, salty taste.
• Pure, elegant Chablis with rich, fruity notes and bright minerality is ideal for Beluga caviar.