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Pairing

Apple + Red wine

A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 148 recipes, and they share 167 flavor molecules: the top 9% of all ingredient pairs.

Smell alikemoderate
Cooked together148 recipes
Ranktop 9% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Apple Red wine
355apple only 167shared 116red wine only Apple · 522 Red wine · 283
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do apple and red wine go together?

Yes. 148 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 167 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 9% of every ingredient pair we score.

Why they work

More than half of red wine's flavor molecules (167 of 283) also occur in apple. Among the shared key aromas are isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity) and beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

What each one brings

apple

The tartness. Sour notes make up 14% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 10% for red wine. It carries 355 molecules red wine doesn't have.

red wine

The fruit. Fruity notes make up 34% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 27% for apple. It carries 116 molecules apple doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Pear: the best fit for both, top 1% of pairs with apple, top 6% with red wine.
  • Plum: top 2% of pairs with apple, top 5% with red wine.
  • Grape: top 1% of pairs with apple, top 9% with red wine.
  • Quince: top 1% of pairs with apple, top 14% with red wine.

Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.

Recipes with apple and red wine

We have no browsable recipe that lists both apple and red wine.

Can you swap one for the other?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: apple has 355 molecules red wine doesn't, and red wine has 116 that apple doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 167 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 355 only in apple and the 116 only in red wine.

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Apple and red wine questions

Do apple and red wine go together?

A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 148 recipes, and they share 167 flavor molecules: the top 9% of all ingredient pairs.

Why do apple and red wine taste good together?

More than half of red wine's flavor molecules (167 of 283) also occur in apple. Among the shared key aromas are isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity) and beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

What goes with apple and red wine?

Pear is the best third ingredient: top 1% of pairs with apple and top 6% with red wine. Plum and grape also fit both.

Can I use red wine instead of apple?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: apple has 355 molecules red wine doesn't, and red wine has 116 that apple doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

1
2

Two ingredients gives the full side-by-side breakdown; add a third to see a similarity matrix across all of them (up to 6).

Ranks compare this pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. Molecule counts are what the studies and databases we aggregate have reported for each ingredient: a measure of coverage, not a full census. How we score pairs

Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Apple vs Red Wine. https://compkitchen.com/compare/apple-vs-red-wine. Accessed 2026-11-04.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_apple_vs_red_wine_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Apple vs Red Wine},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/apple-vs-red-wine},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.