Veggie Burgers and Fizz

We wanted to take a quick look at Vegetarian burgers and pairing with Champagne and sparkling wines – There is a big choice these days for vegetarians (and vegans too) for burgers, not only can you accomplish fine tasting homemade options you can also pop to your local grocery store / supermarket and in most occasions you will have a wide selection to choose from.

Myself, as a carnivore, will many times be tempted to opt for a vegetarian burger over a meat burger both for flavours experienced and with a healthy diet in mind also.

For this article I chose three examples of vegetarian burgers that will frequently be on our shopping list and easily accessible for most to purchase here in the UK:

Linda McCartney’s Vegetarian Mozzarella 1/4lb Burger (Vegetarian Society Approved)

No Bull 1/4lb Burger (Vegan)

Iceland Spicy Nacho Bean Burger (Vegetarian Society Approved)

So why not also indulge in some fizz to pair with these tasty vegetarian burgers! A quick run through our library of samples bottles to taste and pair we stumbled across some varied flavours to see how they performed with our three burger samples.

Champagne Pierre Callot Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs: “Fruity nose with red apples, light citrus, brioche. Fruity flavours, soft and smooth over crisp, touch of citrus, peach and dry minerals in the length.”

Schlumberger Klassik Brut 2016: “Fainter fruity aromas on the nose. Taste is mostly light fruits, apricots, peach skin with a touch of dryness in the length. Easy to drink and enjoy.”

Slovenia Medot Cuvée Brut 2012: “Golden fruits, oak, yellow blossom aromas. Great flavours full of yellow stone and orchard fruits, citrus in the background and caramel hints. A gastronomic sparkling wine from an up and coming sparkling wine name in Slovenia.”

We tried each of the burgers at the office with either a mustard sauce garnish or a redhot pepper sauce:

The overall winner of the pairing with veggie burgers was the Champagne Pierre Callot which expressed itself well on each sample with either the mustard or hotter pepper sauce.

* Star Pairing – Champagne Pierre Callot & No Bull veggie burger with mustard: “Neutralises the mustard sauce and leaves a pleasing fruity savoury flavour of the length being delicate yellow fruits. Cleanses the palate well. The Champagne seems to work well with cancelling out any greasy flavours yet still expresses itself with wonderful fruity flavours”

The Schlumberger (Austrian sparkling wine) was somewhat that bit too fruity for the dishes and seemed to clash with an overload of citrus flavours.

The Medot performed well, though all three reviewers on the day agreed that the quality of the wine probably required finer cuisine and flavours.