Drinks for pizza: the sauce and the sweetness decide

Pizza is really four or five different drink challenges disguised as one dish. The tomato sauce is sour, the cheese is salty and fatty, the filling can be spicy, smoky or sweetish. It's the interplay between these elements – not the pizza as such – that decides what ends up in the glass.

Margherita is in many ways pizza's basic test. Here it's the tomato sauce, not the cheese, that sets the agenda: tart, concentrated and often a little sweetish from the tomatoes themselves. Tomato-based dishes are among the most tart things we eat, and therefore need a drink with matching freshness – otherwise the wine can come across as flat and powerless against the sauce, as WSET points out in its review of tomato-based dishes.

That's why a drink with its own freshness works best with tomato-based pizzas. A wine switch from heavy and round to something with clear acidity makes all the difference. Papagiannakos Savatiano Vientzi 2021, with "green apples and lime" as the retailer's own description, is an example of a white wine built around exactly this kind of freshness.

For the non-alcoholic track, the logic is identical: a glass with good acidity – think homemade lemon water, or a bought mineral water with citrus – matches the tomato sauce's sourness better than anything sweet and flat.

Pepperoni and salami pizza add a new layer: salt. Mozzarella is already salty, and the cured sausage doubles it up. Salt can soften acidity and tannins in a wine, as several pairing guides describe, but it also requires something that can cut through the layer of fat the cheese leaves on the tongue.

Two strategies work here: either a drink with clear acidity that cuts through the fat, or something with bubbles that physically "shakes" the palate clean between bites.

A light, tart alternative like Santa Margherita Valdadige Pinot Grigio 2025, described by the retailer as "fresh and youthful with good body and a long finish," withstands both the salt and the fat without being overwhelmed. Non-alcoholic: a dry, sparkling non-alcoholic cider or plain sparkling water with a splash of lime gives the same palate-cleansing effect.

Without tomato sauce, the equation changes completely. White pizza with mushrooms, cream or crème fraîche, and often garlic, is more umami than tart – and umami is known to make wine taste sharper and more bitter than it really is, according to WSET's review of umami-rich dishes.

For this type of pizza it's often better to choose something with more body and mineral length than very high acidity. Samuel Billaud Chablis Premier Cru Montée de Tonnerre 2024, with a flavor described as "white fruit, mineral," is an example of a wine style with enough substance to meet mushrooms and cream without being dominated. A fuller-bodied Riesling, such as Knoll Riesling Loibner Smaragd 2024 – "full-bodied fruit flavor, high acidity, long mineral finish" according to the retailer – can also work well thanks to the high acidity combined with body.

Non-alcoholic: a cup of light herbal tea or a fuller-bodied non-alcoholic white "wine" mirrors the same principle – something with body, not just freshness.

BBQ pizza with caramelized onion, sweet BBQ sauce or even pineapple is the variant that differs most from the margherita logic. Sweetness in the food makes dry, tart drinks seem more tight and bitter than they are on their own – the same mechanism that makes a dry wine taste more sour after a bite of cake.

The solution isn't necessarily a sweet drink, but something with a bit of residual sweetness or fruity fullness that meets the food on an equal level instead of colliding with it. Martin Müllen Kröver Letterlay Riesling Spätlese 2005 is described by the retailer as "elegant with balanced acidity and sweetness" – a style built precisely to meet sweetish or spiced dishes without the acidity becoming too sharp.

For rosé lovers, a light, fruity style like Dom. de Cantarelle Triplette Côtes de Provence, with "notes of red berries, a little apple and citrus," can also work with BBQ pizza – the fruitiness mirrors the sweetness in the sauce without becoming cloying itself.

Non-alcoholic: a lightly sweetish non-alcoholic cider or a homemade iced tea with a little honey gives the same balance between fruit and sweetness.

Beer is often underestimated with pizza, but many styles handle salt, fat and spice better than wine does. A farmhouse ale/Saison, such as Great Divide Colette Farmhouse Ale – described with "lemon, apricot, banana, balanced with clove, black pepper" – has enough spice and citrus character to stand up to both pepperoni and spicy toppings, while the carbonation cleans the palate between bites, just like bubbles in wine.

Think of pizza as an interplay, not a category. A tart sauce calls for acidity in the glass. Salt and fat call for contrast or bubbles. Umami without acidity calls for more body and minerality. Sweetness calls for a drink that meets it rather than fighting against it. This applies whether the glass contains wine, beer or something entirely non-alcoholic – the principle of acidity, salt, fat and sweetness is the same.