Meze Spread

A composite plate of small Turkish dishes eaten together — typically including hummus, haydari (strained yogurt with garlic and dill), patlıcan ezmesi (smoked aubergine purée, the Turkish baba ganoush), ezme (chopped tomato-onion-pepper-parsley salad with pul biber), cacık (Turkish tzatziki), dolma (stuffed vine leaves), feta or beyaz peynir, olives, and warm flatbread, often with raki on the table alongside. The challenge is breadth — no single dominant flavour, but a layered composition of yogurt-tang, smoked aubergine, fresh tomato-and-pepper, herbal lift, brine, and bread.

Pairs Perfectly

Assyrtiko from Santorini, Greece. The volcanic mineral salinity meets the brine of olives and feta, the bone-dry electric acid handles yogurt-tang and tomato simultaneously, and the unoaked profile sits cleanly across the whole spread without favouring any single element — the rare wine that genuinely handles a multi-component plate. A Moschofilero from Mantinia offers the same Greek logic with floral lift at a more accessible price point.

Pairs Well

Bandol rosé from Provence, France. The Mourvèdre-led Provençal rosé brings structural weight, savoury depth, and the textural grip that handles a multi-component meze plate with rare precision — savoury enough to meet smoked aubergine and brine, structured enough to handle warm flatbread, with the cooler aromatic register that sits beautifully alongside dill and sumac.

Riesling sec from Alsace, France. Dry Alsace Riesling brings high-acid mineral structure that cuts through the fat of yogurt and aubergine purée cleanly, and the gentle aromatic lift meets dill, parsley, and sumac in a single sweep — the still white answer where one is preferred to Assyrtiko.

Worth Seeking Out

Narince from Tokat, Turkey. The native Turkish white grape with mineral lift, citrus precision, and savoury-herbal character handles meze on its own terms with regional fidelity, and the discovery of indigenous Turkish whites is genuinely undervalued.

Avoid

Oaked whites — vanilla fights the herb-and-yogurt profile; tannic reds — clash with the yogurt and the fresh elements; sweet wines — wrong against the savoury-tart spread; aromatic whites with rose or lychee — fight the herb and brine register.

Failing That

A Picpoul de Pinet, Languedoc.

If All Else Fails

Pinot Grigio, northern Italy.

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