Anchovy butter and cafe de Paris, flavouring profile

Anchovy butter and cafe de Paris, flavouring profile

A melting butter of anchovy, herbs and spice turns a plain steak savoury and salty, and the wine has to be fresher and less oaky than steak alone would ask for.

The compounds that matter. Cured anchovy, rich in glutamate, which makes firm young tannin taste harder, and whose oils react badly with heavy oak. Salt, from the anchovy and the butter, which softens tannin again and asks for acidity. In cafe de Paris, herbs such as tarragon and parsley with mustard and a little curry spice, which suit a wine with a herbal or peppery edge.

What it demands of a wine. A red of medium body with bright acidity, savoury rather than sweetly fruity, with ripe tannin. Little or no new oak. A green herb, olive or pepper note meets the butter directly.

Seek. Xinomavro from Naoussa, whose olive, tomato leaf and dried herb match anchovy butter closely. Cabernet Franc from the Loire, Chinon or Bourgueil, fresh and leafy. Carignan from the Languedoc, peppery and bright. Northern Rhône Syrah, where the steak is a fatty ribeye.

Avoid

Heavily oaked, sweetly fruited reds, since cured anchovy and strong oak together taste metallic. Soft, low acid reds, which the salt and fat leave flat.

Three to reach for. Xinomavro, Naoussa, Greece. Cabernet Franc, Chinon, Loire, France. Carignan, Languedoc, France.