Roast potatoes, flavouring profile

Roast potatoes, flavouring profile

Roast potatoes follow the roast they come with, but their crisp, fatty, browned edges push any wine towards freshness and a little savoury depth.

The compounds that matter. Browned, toasty notes from the crust, which a wine with its own savoury or lightly toasted register picks up. Fat, often goose fat, duck fat or dripping, which coats the palate and asks for acidity. Rosemary and garlic where they are used, which suit a peppery or herbal wine.

What it demands of a wine. Acidity to cut the fat, and enough body not to be lost against a crisp, rich crust. Tannin is not a problem, since salt and fat soften it. Sweet, jammy fruit sits oddly beside something so savoury.

Seek. Cinsault from the Languedoc, light, perfumed and gentle, for roast chicken and its potatoes. Blaufränkisch from Burgenland, peppery and fresh, where rosemary is in the tray. Antão Vaz from the Alentejo, a full white with a light touch of oak, for roast pork. Mondeuse from Savoie, dark and peppery, for potatoes roasted in beef dripping.

Avoid

Very light, delicate whites, which the fat and crust overwhelm. Sweet, jammy reds high in alcohol, whose fruit clashes with the savoury, salty edge of the potatoes.

Three to reach for. Cinsault, Languedoc, France. Blaufränkisch, Burgenland, Austria. Antão Vaz, Alentejo, Portugal.