Earthy mushroom, flavouring profile

Earthy mushroom, flavouring profile

Mushrooms want a wine with some earth of its own, and what they are cooked with, cream, chicken or red meat, decides its colour and weight.

The compounds that matter. 1-octen-3-ol is the smell of mushroom and damp forest floor, and wines that have developed earthy, savoury notes echo it directly. Mushrooms are also rich in guanylate, which multiplies the savoury effect of glutamate, and that savoury depth makes tannin taste harder and more bitter. Dried and wild mushrooms carry the most of both.

What it demands of a wine. An earthy or savoury character rather than bright, young fruit, which the mushroom makes taste hollow. Soft or moderate tannin, since the savoury depth hardens it. Acid to lift cream or butter where the mushrooms are cooked in them. Body scaled to what else is on the plate.

Seek

With mushrooms on their own, on toast or in vegetarian dishes, Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley, Oregon, echoes the plate with red cherry, forest floor and mushroom notes and little tannin, and a skin contact Ribolla Gialla in the orange wine style from Oslavia, Friuli, brings savoury grip and walnut notes that suit wild mushrooms. With cream, chicken, pasta or risotto, a white Burgundy brings hazelnut and butter to meet the cream and the earth, with enough acid to lift the sauce. With steak or beef in a mushroom sauce, Rioja Reserva brings leather, tobacco and softened tannin that sit well with the savoury depth, and Xinomavro from Naoussa, Greece, adds dried herbs and a tomato leaf note for a wilder dish.

Avoid

Young, fruity reds such as simple Merlot, Beaujolais Nouveau or New World Shiraz, whose sweet fruit makes the mushroom taste hollow. Firm, young tannin, which the savoury depth turns bitter. Crisp, aromatic whites such as Sauvignon Blanc, whose green notes clash with the earth.

Three to reach for. For mushrooms on their own, Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA. For mushrooms with cream or chicken, Chardonnay, Burgundy, France. For mushrooms with red meat, Rioja Reserva, Spain.