Green salad

Green salad

Assuming a bowl of dressed leaves with a mustard vinaigrette, served alongside the meal.

A vinaigrette is more acidic than most wine, and that is the whole problem: a wine with less acidity than the dressing tastes flat, soft and slightly sweet next to it. The mustard adds a pungency that flattens anything gentle, and the leaves carry a bitterness that any tannin will sharpen. The wine has to out acid the dressing.

Pairs Perfectly. A dry Riesling from the Mosel, Germany. The dry Mosel style is all lime, green apple and wet slate with very little alcohol behind it, so it clears the vinegar without adding weight to a plate that is meant to be light. Nothing about it is sweet or soft, which is what defeats most whites here, and the mineral line reads cleanly against the mustard.

Pairs Well. Chablis, France. Unoaked Chardonnay from cold limestone, chalky and taut rather than fruity. It has the acidity for the dressing and none of the barrel that would make this awkward.

Pairs Well. Gavi, Piedmont, Italy. The Cortese grape gives lemon, green apple and a stony bite. Quiet, dry and sharp, which is exactly the job.

Worth Seeking Out

Jacquère from Savoie, France. An alpine white grown in the shadow of the mountains and drunk locally with almost everything. Featherweight, bone dry and startlingly fresh, and it handles a sharp dressing better than wines twice its price.

Avoid

Oaked whites and any red. Oak turns clumsy against vinegar, and tannin and leaf bitterness compound into harshness. If the salad matters more than usual, a dressing built on lemon rather than vinegar gives any wine a far easier time.

Failing That

A Picpoul, Languedoc, France.

If All Else Fails

Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough.

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