Wine and pickles? Don’t try this at home!
You might or might not want to know this, but I recently read that Sauvignon Blanc with iced pickles is now a thing. I tried it so you won’t have to.
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In case you’re wondering, I wasn’t ecstatic about the combination. But it was a worthwhile experience because the positive aspects – yes, there were some – underscored a point or two about the way food works (or doesn’t) with wine.
What’s more, trying this wacky stunt with Domaine Régis Minet 2023 Pouilly-Fumé Vieilles Vignes, this week’s featured wine from Kermit Lynch, reminded me that Sauvignon Blanc doesn’t have to make its case by blasting out either green pepper/jalapeño or juicy grapefruit flavors. It can find a happy medium as balanced and even elegant. No pickles needed.
How to try this at home: Slice a small kosher dill pickle into thick rounds and freeze them hard. Drop them into a small tumbler with your choice of Sauvignon Blanc. Enjoy … or don’t. What could possibly go wrong?
So how did this unlikely mix taste? Happily, a handful of hard-frozen pickle chunks chilled the wine to just above freezing at first. This may have been an advantage, as the deep chill muted the harsh bite that results from the mix of wine’s natural acidity with sour pickle brine. This is why you’ll rarely see the words “serve well chilled” on the label of any but the cheapest wines.
Indeed, as the pickle-flavored wine warmed in the glass, a tongue-curling jolt of over-the-top acidity became increasingly pronounced and considerably less pleasant.
On the other hand, the wine’s delicious herbal and citric/grapefruit flavors made a strangely appealing blend with the pickles, at least until the acidic jolt entered the room.
In short, it was an interesting learning experience, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a regular thing. Much less Food & Wine’s proposed option of adding a splash of pickle brine to kick up the mix another notch.
I can definitely recommend the wine without the pickle component, though. This Loire Valley delight from Kermit Lynch is a winner, even for those who don’t think they like Sauvignon Blanc. It’s not cheap at an average U.S. retail price of $32. But like many of its Loire cousins, it is balanced and elegant, perched right on the happy midpoint between the green pepper and citric extremes of this variety.
If you’d like to read more about the pickle-juice trend, click on over to People Are Adding Frozen Pickles to Sauvignon Blanc This Summer — So We Tried It, a June 4, 2026 article by Merlyn Miller, an editor at Food & Wine.
Are you open to trying wacky mix-ins and wine-cocktail experiments like today’s iced-pickle trial?
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