Beetroot

Assuming beetroot as the centre of the plate, roasted or cured, most often with goat cheese, horseradish or dill alongside.

Beetroot is sweet and it is earthy, and the earthiness is the part that decides the wine. It comes from a single compound that the human nose detects at extraordinarily low concentrations, which is why beetroot tastes of soil to some people and of sugar to others. A wine can either meet that earth with its own or cut clean through it with acid; what it cannot do is ignore it. The sweetness of the root needs answering too, or a bone-dry wine reads sour beside it.

Pairs Perfectly

Sancerre, Loire, France. Pairs Perfectly. Sauvignon Blanc grown on flint and limestone, which gives it a smoky mineral edge that meets the earth of the root rather than fighting it, over acidity sharp enough to handle both the sweetness and any goat cheese on the plate. This is the pairing the Loire worked out for itself, growing the vegetable and the grape in the same fields.

Pairs Well

Gruner Veltliner, Austria, in a lighter and more mineral style. Pairs Well. A Federspiel from the Wachau or a Kamptal bottling: white pepper, radish and a green savoury note that reads as root vegetable in the glass.

Etna Rosso, Sicily, Italy. Pairs Well. Nerello Mascalese from volcanic soil, pale and high in acid, carrying tar and forest floor that mirror the beetroot directly. The answer for roasted beetroot served with meat.

Worth Seeking Out

Trousseau, Jura, France. Light, wild and faintly savoury, with cranberry and undergrowth. It has the earthiness of a much bigger red at a weight that leaves the vegetable standing.

Avoid

Oaked whites, whose vanilla turns cloying against the sugar in the root, and heavy tannic reds, which bury it entirely.

Failing That

An Albarino, Rias Baixas, Spain.

If All Else Fails

Gamay, Beaujolais.

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