Caviar and roe, flavouring profile

Caviar and roe, flavouring profile

Fish eggs are salt, sea and fat in tiny quantities, and they want the cleanest, sharpest glass on the list, most often with bubbles.

The compounds that matter. Salt, in quantity, which asks for acidity. Fish oils and the compounds of the sea, the same ones that react with oak to leave a metallic, fishy taste. A delicate savoury depth, easily buried by a strong or high alcohol wine.

What it demands of a wine. High acidity, no oak and modest alcohol. A saline, chalky or yeasty register mirrors the sea without competing with it. Bubbles scrub the oil from the palate between mouthfuls. Where roe sits on blinis with soured cream, a little more body helps.

Seek. Champagne in its Blanc de Blancs style, made only from Chardonnay, chalky and fine, the long standing partner. English sparkling Blanc de Blancs from Sussex, grown on the same chalk. Manzanilla from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, bone dry and salty, for salmon or trout roe. Unoaked Chablis, flinty and taut, for cod roe and smoked roe.

Avoid

Oaked whites of every kind, since fish oils and oak together taste metallic. Red wine, for the same reason. Sweet or strongly perfumed wines, which smother something this delicate.

Three to reach for. Champagne Blanc de Blancs, France. English sparkling Blanc de Blancs, Sussex, England. Manzanilla, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain.