Hake

Hake

Assuming a hake fillet pan roasted with a crisp skin, served with butter, lemon or a light sauce.

Hake is soft, flaky and mild, and like all white fish it turns metallic against oak, so a barrel aged white is ruled out first. The flesh is delicate enough for a big wine to bury it, but a pan roasted fillet with butter wants a white with some texture and real acidity. Lemon and capers push the acidity higher still.

Pairs Perfectly. Verdicchio, Marche, Italy. Lemon, green apple and a bitter almond finish on a firm acid line, with the body to meet a buttery sauce and no oak at all. It flatters mild white fish without covering it, and it is inexpensive.

Pairs Well. Dry Austrian Riesling in its Federspiel style, Wachau. Lime and stone fruit over bright acidity, with a little more weight than most dry Rieslings, which suits a crisp skinned fillet.

Pairs Well. Arinto, Bucelas, Portugal. Sharp and lemony with a salty finish, from a coast where hake is an everyday fish.

Worth Seeking Out

Carricante from Etna, Italy. Grown on volcanic slopes, flinty and lemony with a salty finish, and a precise match for white fish in butter.

Avoid

Oaked whites and red wine. Oak and white fish together taste metallic, and tannin does the same while flattening the flesh.

Failing That

A Muscadet sur lie, Loire, France.

If All Else Fails

Pinot Grigio, northern Italy.

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