Top pairings | Which wine pairs best with salad?

Top pairings

Which wine pairs best with salad?

Asking which wine to pair with salad is a bit like asking about what wine to match with meat or fish. There's no single answer. It depends on the vegetables you use, what other ingredients it contains and what type of dressing you use.

That said, salad is normally a light dish so a full-bodied wine - white or red - is almost certainly going to overwhelm it. Unless you’re talking about steak and salad in which case it’s a question of matching the steak not the leaves. Or salads for a barbecue when the marinades used for the meat will probably have more of an impact than the dressings.

The problem ingredient in salads is vinegar which can throw wines off balance, accentuating the tannins in serious reds and making whites seem excessively sweet. You can get round this by including a bit of cream in the dressing or whisking in some meat juices, especially the juice from a roasted chicken. Rice and cider vinegar are also less harsh than wine vinegar

Other tricky ingredients are raw onion or garlic, best dealt with, I find, by pairing them with dry whites or rosés that have a high level of acidity.

Wines that have an overtly fruity character tend to match well with salad especially if it contains fruit such as peach or apricot (try a fruity Chardonnay, Colombard or Viognier) or cherries (good with a fruity red such as a Gamay or Pinot Noir)

If there’s more than one salad on the table good all-rounders are fruity whites such as Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc and fruity rosés

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Comments: 3 (Add)

Fiona Beckett on November 27 2012 at 07:47

Never thought of that @neckcreature. Good call! Will try it when I next get the opportunity

neckcreature on November 27 2012 at 03:20

Arneis from piedmont pairs very well with vinaigrettes.

Milly on August 13 2012 at 13:16

Just found this exclusive recipe from Wagamama for eVines...sounds nice! Kinda similar to the Thai beef salad.

http://www.evines.co.uk/recipes-pairings/wagamama-exclusive-hot-beef-salad-chilli-soy

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