Green beans, flavouring profile

Green beans, flavouring profile

Green beans taste green, and the neatest match is a wine that carries the same green note in the glass.

The compounds that matter. Grassy, green bean notes, close cousins of the compounds that give Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc their leafy, green pepper edge, a direct mirror. Very little sugar, fat or acid of their own, so the butter, shallot, almond or garlic they are cooked with sets the weight.

What it demands of a wine. Freshness and a green, herbal register. Light to medium body. No heavy oak, which smothers the vegetable. A red only where the beans sit beside meat, and then one with its own leafy note.

Seek. Sauvignon Blanc from California, a little rounder than its Loire cousin, with the green edge that meets the beans. Pale Sancerre rosé, made from Pinot Noir, delicate and sharp, for beans in a summer salad. Welschriesling from Styria, dry and green appled, for beans with toasted almonds. Carmenère from Colchagua, whose green pepper note suits green beans beside roast lamb or beef.

Avoid

Heavily oaked wines of either colour, which bury the green freshness. Very ripe, jammy reds, whose sweet fruit clashes with the vegetable's leafy note.

Three to reach for. Sauvignon Blanc, California, USA. Pale Sancerre rosé, Loire, France. Carmenère, Colchagua, Chile.