Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on June 30 2015 at 06:21 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.best way to ship wine across country 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)food and wine best pizza If there’s more than one salad on the table good all-rounders are fruity whites such as Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc and fruity rosésbuy low beer and wine Wine matches for 10 popular saladsbuy wine online mexico

Chicken caesar saladReasonably easy so long as it doesn’t have too much of an anchovy kick. A lightly oaked Chardonnay is a good match, a slightly fuller-bodied one if the chicken is chargrilled. buy wine online mexicoOaked Sauvignon Blanc and dry rosé also work wellbuying wedding wine france Greek saladHere the dominant ingredients are feta and olives which tend to work best with a citrussy white. Sauvignon Blanc - or Rueda - is fine but why not try a Greek Assyrtiko? Salade NiçoiseThe locals would drink dry Provençal rosé and I can’t think of a better match. Although Cotes du Rhône rosés are quite a bit cheaper. Spinach and bacon salad with blue cheese dressingAh. I’d personally go for a soft red like a medium-bodied Merlot but you could equally well drink a white. What’s needed I think is a slight touch of sweetness - a German Kabinett Riesling should fit the bill.

Or an off-dry one from New Zealand or Washington State Goats cheese salad with asparagus or beetrootGoats cheese overrides all other ingredients when it comes to salads, even powerfully flavoured ones like asparagus and beetroot. Sauvignon Blanc is the classic match and hard to better, I find. Warm pigeon, duck or chicken liver saladOnce you introduce meat into a salad I reckon you’re better off to think in terms of reds than whites. Pinot Noir is the obvious pairing but Loire reds and other light-bodied reds from e.g. south-west France work well too. Thai beef salad and other Asian saladsGreat with Australian riesling as you can see from these matches of the week here and here. Gruner Veltliner is another good pairing Seafood, prawn or shrimp salad, crab saladPerhaps depend more than any other salad on the dressing. If the salad is built round some super-fresh shellfish like crab or prawns (shrimp) I’d go for a crisp minerally white like a Sancerre, Albarino, Picpoul de Pinet or Italian whites such as Pecorino and good quality Pinot Grigio.

If you’re using a 1000 island dressing off-dry riesling should see you through. For tomato-based dressings see below. Tomato-based saladsRaw tomatoes are supposed to pose problems for wine, tomato salad even more so though I’ve never found it much of a problem. Dry rosé, crisp whites and Sauvignon Blanc generally hit the spot though I generally go for an Italian white like a Verdicchio with a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad or pappa al pomodoro Pasta saladsMore often than not these are dressed with mayonnaise and are therefore quite mild in taste. I’d go for a smooth dry white like a Soave, Gavi, unoaked Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc And here are five more: Crisp duck salad with Fielding estate riesling Layered tomato and egg salad with Verdejo Pork, chilli, coconut and gapi salad with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc Rocket and parmesan salad with dry amontillado sherry Smoked duck and blood orange salad with Chilean gewurztraminer And don't forget, beer and cider pair well with salad too, sometimes better than wine!

If you'd like to subscribe to our free monthly newsletter and be eligible to enter our fabulous prize draws click here or to get notice of posts as they're published click here. Enter the code shown in the image below:When it comes to wine pairing, salads can be tricky: a salad that's dressed with something tart can knock out the flavor of the wine you're trying to enjoy. We asked a few sommeliers from around the country for their tips on the best wines to serve with salads, and all the factors to consider when pairing. Here's what they had to say. "Wines with an herbaceous or vegetal component work nicely with salad, whether it be a Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley (all that fresh parsley and cut bell pepper) or a Gruner Veltliner from Austria (pea shoots and parsnips, anyone?). The main concern here is making sure that the acid in the wine meets or exceeds the acidity in the salad dressing; you might think that a tart wine with a tart vinaigrette would be overwhelmingly, well, tart, but together those two high acid components will wash each other out, and you'll be left with a clean palate, ready to experience the more immediate flavors in the salad.

You also want to match the weight in your dressing to the weight of the wine: a salad with a creamier dressing might want a wine with the creaminess of oak treatment. And finally, don't be afraid of a little residual sugar if there are sweeter elements in the salad (whether it be a honey vinaigrette, candied nuts, or fresh fruit). To my mind, one of the greatest salad pairings of all time is a classic Waldorf salad with François Cazin Cour-Cheverny Cuvée Renaissance (the off-dry bottling he makes in exceptional years—if that wine is out of reach, then a good Vouvray Sec or Demi-Sec from a producer like Domaine Huet, Philippe Foreau, or François Chidaine will do just fine!)."—Mia Van De Water (North End Grill)This is my go-to salad wine if we're talking greens, vinaigrette, and veggie-heavy salads. The savory, green tones with celeriac and white pepper notes of a classic gruner are a perfect match for a salad. It enhances all farm-fresh flavors of the a great salad and brings brightness to the finish.

Gruner also generally has enough weight on the palate to go with salad that have proteins. There's enough ripeness to balance out a grilled chicken or egg preparation, as well as acidity if you like salmon or blue cheese with your salad. Other great wines that have lovely, fresh green tones that work well with salads: Sancerre, Chablis, Arneis, and even a Blanc de Blancs Champagne." "Salads can be real wine killers: a wine with medium acidity suddenly becomes flabby in the face of zippy salad dressing because vinegar is infinitely more tart than any of the acids that turn up naturally in wine. There are two ways to deal with this issue. The first is to select wines that bite back. Brighter styles of wine (read: higher acidity) will hold their own next to the sourness of, for instance, lemon juice or vinegar. Some wines to consider in this category include: Txakolina (traditionally lean white wine from northern Spain), Muscadet (based on the snappy Melon de Bourgogne grape of the western Loire Valley in France), and Picpoul de Pinet (a white from the Languedoc region of Southern France).

Picpoul translates roughly to 'lip stinger,' a nickname referring to its naturally high acidity. Red wines with suitable acidity are harder to come by, but a rose or sparkling rose could do the trick. The other way to address the issue of pairing salads with wine is to make a salad dressing with slightly lower acidity by substituting something like a lower acid citrus (tangerine or Valencia orange, perhaps) or verjus (the juice of underripe grapes). Grapes like grapes, so the verjus is a fun alternative for your next vinaigrette." "The variety that always comes to the rescue is Riesling. Riesling has high acid to match dressings but a few grams of sugar can go a long way to making the dish more complete. The last few months I have been drinking a lot of Riesling from Karthauserhof, Weiser-Kunstler and Peter Lauer."—Eric Railsback (Les Marchands) "When it comes to challenging pairings like kale or asparagus or artichokes, a simple way to think about wines is to think: if I were cooking these vegetables, what would I add?

I use lemon and salt, so for asparagus, artichokes, kale, I tend to lean to wines that have that citrus and salinity: briney seaside wines like Pigatos from Liguria, or Sardinian Vermentinos, Muscadet or a sharp, acidic, and dry riesling (and yes, of course...gruner veltliner). It's fun, also, to play with smoke (not fire): smokey volcanic wines like a great Fiano or Greco di Tufo can add a lot of texture and depth to a salad, especially with a peppery green like arugula, or a salad with a blue cheese or citrus. That same citrus salad is also fun to pair with a light red like a Freisa from Piemonte: the acidity is already there from the oranges, and then you add the fresh earthier berry that you find in the wine, reminds me almost of a great sangria."—Ceri Smith (Biondivino and Tosca) "Tart wines are best with salads, since you're often dealing with vinegar and mustard in dressing. You can pretty much pop any white or rosé from the Loire Valley: it's called Le Jardin du France for good reason.

Pépière's Muscadet or Trotereau's Quincy are perfect salad wines. Many Italian whites have a subtle neutrality that endears them to vegetables. Pigato (Vermentino) from Liguria has a tight white pepper kick to it that makes it pop with salad. I especially love Punta Crena's Vermentino. Rosé is the other great salad wine, since it mutes the pungency of garlic-forward dressings and finishes clean. One of my favorite combos is Commanderie de Peyrassol rosé and spinach salad with olives, egg and a dijon vinaigrette." "White wines are an easy go-to with salad, but I think that is only half of the story. I think higher acid red wines make tremendous salad pairings and for this I look to Italy. Start with kale and balsamic. Throw in some pepper, cranberries, walnuts, and maybe a Pecorino cheese and that sounds like a meal worthy of a Piemontese Barbera d'Alba by E. Pira e Figili. These wines have a tremendous freshness to them, yet with the heartiness of the cheese and the walnuts, the tannic properties of Barbera will have met their foil.

Given the old adage 'acid loves acid,' the balsamic dressing will marry perfectly with this higher acid red grape. If the kale were to be swapped out for a less hearty green, such as romaine or mache, one might be tempted to seek out a white wine, but something with high mineral and high acid. I would stay in a Mediterranean country and head to Roussillon, France to enjoy Thomas Tiebert's Domaine de l'Horizon "Patriot" 2011. This German living in Catalunya makes this cuvee from Macabeu and Muscat to satisfy his yearning for the super-crisp mineral, yet floral whites he misses from the Mosel. For this pairing I would swap out a classic dark balsamic vinegar for a white balsamic, which brings the same sweet/sour combo we all love, but with a slightly more neutral flavor profile more befitting a white wine pairing."—Caleb Ganzer (Eleven Madison Park) "With a super acidic dressing, I would choose a fuller white; perhaps a Chardonnay with some oak aging. If it's a super creamy dressing, I would choose a leaner white with more acid like a dry Riesling or a white from Northern Italy.