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No-Fuss Guide · At the table

Wine with bacalhau (salt cod): red or white? In Portugal, plenty of people go for red

Both work, and in Portugal it's common to have bacalhau with red, according to ViniPortugal, which promotes the country's wines. The recipe decides: baked bacalhau and Gomes de Sá go well with a red whose tannin and oak are restrained (Alentejo, Dão, Douro); bacalhau com natas (baked in cream) and à Brás, which are creamier, tend to lean toward white.

Why red works

Bacalhau is salty, even after it's been soaked, and salt, according to the WSET, softens tannin and makes wine seem less acidic. In northern Portugal, says critic Joanna Simon, the red that went with bacalhau was red Vinho Verde: dark, but light and very acidic. And that slightly unpleasant fishy aftertaste that sometimes shows up when red meets fish? A 2009 Japanese study linked it to the iron in the wine: a red low in iron can go well with fish (the test was with scallops, not salt cod).

Recipe by recipe

• Gomes de Sá (potato, onion, egg and olives): a red with restrained fruit, discreet tannin and oak and moderate alcohol, from the Dão, the Douro or the Alentejo, with Aragonez and Trincadeira. If it's white, Alvarinho, Encruzado or a white from the Douro. All of it from Joanna Simon, in The World of Fine Wine.
• Baked: ViniPortugal lists oven-baked bacalhau among the pairings for Castelão, a Portuguese red grape, and also suggests Aragonez.
• À Brás (shoestring potatoes and egg): sommelier Rodolfo Tristão, in DECO PROteste, suggests a white with oak and a few years of age, or a young, acidic white from a coastal region.
• À lagareiro (roasted with plenty of olive oil): whites from Antão Vaz, Alvarinho or Fernão Pires with oak, or orange wine; if it's red, a lightly extracted one, like palhete (a pale, traditional Portuguese red).
• Com natas (with cream): the schools disagree. ViniPortugal says cream and melted cheese bring out the astringency of a tannic red and suggests white or rosé; winemaker Paulo Laureano thinks red gets better the more fat the dish has. Taste and choose.
• The Christmas Eve one (boiled, with cabbage): older Arinto, oaked whites from the Douro or Bairrada, or a sparkling wine more than five years old.

In a tasting by winemaker Paulo Laureano with eight recipes by chef Vítor Sobral, reported by Observador, the whites won by a majority once tasted with the food; the winner, an Antão Vaz from the Alentejo, became Laureano's own “Bacalhau” wine.

To start with: the house's Portuguese wines by price range

The price range the house saw at big stores in Brazil, in the month shown. The price changes; the range tends to stay.

Reds from Portugal

• Esporão Alandra TintoPortugal · red · Syrah/Shiraz, Touriga Nacionalup to R$ 60checked Sep 2026
• Porta 6 TintoPortugal · red · Touriga Nacional, AragonezR$ 60 to 100checked Sep 2026
• Cabriz Colheita Seleccionada TintoPortugal · red · Tinta RorizR$ 100 to 150checked Sep 2026
• Casa Ferreirinha Papa Figos DouroPortugal · red · Touriga NacionalR$ 150 to 200checked Sep 2026
• Quinta do Crasto Crasto Superior RedPortugal · red · Touriga Franca, Tinta RorizR$ 200 to 300checked Sep 2026

See the wines for bacalhau in the search →

Whites and rosés from Portugal

• Casal Garcia Vinho Verde SweetPortugal · white · Arinto, Loureiroup to R$ 60checked Sep 2026
• Portada Winemaker's Selection RoséPortugal · rosé · Syrah/Shiraz, Pinot NoirR$ 60 to 100checked Sep 2026
• Aveleda AlvarinhoPortugal · white · AlvarinhoR$ 100 to 150checked Sep 2026
• Cartuxa Évora Colheita BrancoPortugal · white · Antão VazR$ 150 to 200checked Sep 2026
• José Maria da Fonseca Domingos Soares Franco Colecção Privada Moscatel Roxo RoséPortugal · rosé · Muscat/Moscatel RoxoR$ 200 to 300checked Sep 2026

See the Portuguese whites in the search →

Everything here is a suggestion, not a law: pairing is a suggestion. Liked it another way? Then you can, and it's great that you found out what you like.