Burrata

Burrata

Assuming burrata served simply, with tomato, olive oil and basil.

Fresh milky cheese and young red wine produce a genuinely metallic taste, because the tannin reacts with the milk protein: this is the one rule that matters here and it rules out every red on the list. Past that the cheese is delicate and the tomato is sharp, so the wine needs enough acidity for the tomato without enough weight to bury the burrata.

Pairs Perfectly. Crémant d'Alsace, France. Made by the Champagne method from Pinot Blanc, so it is rounder and softer than the leaner Cremants, and that roundness sits with the cream in the middle of the burrata instead of cutting across it. The bubbles and the acidity lift the olive oil, the lees give a faint biscuit note that flatters fresh milk, and there is no tannin to react with.

Pairs Well. Soave Classico, Italy. The Garganega grape gives almond, acacia and a saline finish, and almond beside fresh milky cheese is one of the oldest good ideas in Italian eating.

Pairs Well. Albariño, Rías Baixas, Spain. Saline and peachy with a firm citrus line, light on its feet and unoaked. It clears the tomato acidity where a softer white would not.

Worth Seeking Out

Pošip from Korčula, Croatia. Grown on a Dalmatian island where the food is fish, oil and fresh cheese. White peach and almond over a saline base, with just enough texture to meet the cream.

Avoid

Young reds of any kind. The reaction between tannin and fresh milk protein is chemical rather than a matter of taste, and it turns the mouthful metallic.

Failing That

A Vermentino, Sardinia, Italy.

If All Else Fails

Dry rosé from Provence.

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