Pairings

Vine and leaves
«Gastronom» №6(41) June 2005

Fresh green and vegetable salads in summers mean more than a light appetizer.

In hot days they can replace a lunch. Then we have to think about suitable wine accompaniment.

It is not difficult to choose wine for simple salads. If you decided to have a cucumber and lettuce salad, prepare a bottle of light, fresh dry or off-dry white wine.

The other thing is to deal with salads that have a pronounced taste (these are mainly out comers from France and Italy): bitter endive, radicchio and chicory, nutty lollo-rosso, spicy rocket. Leaves also go hand in hand with some herbs, like tarragon, parsley, basil. A handful of nuts can be part of a recipe. With such variety of flavours you do need to think about appropriate wine. Forget about red and New World oaked white. A good idea is to have Italian Pinot Grigio, Pinot Bianco and Verdicchio, also Chablis and dry Loire wines, Alsace Pinot Blanc and Sylvaner, German Riesling.

The most challenging matches are for salads with strong dressings. The exception is, perhaps, extra virgin olive oil with a few drops of lemon juice. It doesn’t affect the wine — unlike garlic, mustard, vinegar and spices which can distort and even ‘kill’ wine flavours. A universal option for difficult dressings are generous pink wines, like Provencal rose and Navarra Rosado. Take light lager or sweet cider as an alternative. If you insist on white wine, neutralize sour taste of dressing by using balsamic or rice vinegar instead of the wine one.

There will always be some spicy characters in Asian and Mexican salads. Mexican chili dressing in green and vegetable salads will be highlighted by Gewurztraminer, an Alsace variety with flavours of roses and litchis. It will also go well with cress salad and Thai ginger sauce.

Supporters of traditional Russian dressing, sour cream, can experiment with Chardonnay aged in oak barrels and featuring creamy taste.

Salads with seafood and meat are matched with wines that compliment dominating flavours of the dish. Prawn or crab meat salad served on the bed of ice salad with egg and tomatoes and ‘Thousand islands’ dressing is especially good with fruity Sauvignon Blanc from Australia, New Zealand, Chile and South Africa.

Classical Cesar — with romaine, buttery garlic croutons and freshly grated Parmesan cheese in a distinctive dressing of egg yolks, olive oil and more garlic — is served with strong white wines like Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Roussanne, Pinot Blanc.

Warm salad with lightly grilled beef served with vegetables and salad leaves shows better with red wine. The wine options are Merlot and Chianti.

In end, a couple of worlds about two delicatessen — artichokes and asparagus. Although enjoying a premium gastronomic status, they belong to the category of foods which do not particularly favour wine companions. Artichoke salad is best served with light Italian wines — Pinot Grigio, Pinot Bianco, Soave. Asparagus goes with dry Sauvignon Blanc or Muscat based wines.