Seasonal greens, flavouring profile

Seasonal greens, flavouring profile

Buttered greens are fresh, green and faintly bitter, and they suit a crisp white with its own green edge rather than anything oaked or tannic.

The compounds that matter. The grassy, green notes of freshly cooked leaves, which a white with a herbal or green apple register mirrors. Mild sulphur and bitterness in the cabbage family, from spring greens to savoy, which make tannin harsh and clash with a wine that smells of struck matches. Butter, and sometimes garlic, which want acidity to lift them.

What it demands of a wine. High acidity, a green or citrus register and light to medium body. No tannin, and little or no oak. Where the greens are rich with butter or cream, a little more texture.

Seek. An Austrian Grüner Veltliner in its fuller, textured style, a Smaragd from the Wachau, whose white pepper and green bean notes suit buttered greens. Arinto from Bucelas, sharp and lemony with a salty finish. Solaris from England, dry, fresh and quietly green. Dry Riesling from the Finger Lakes in New York, lean and citrus bright.

Avoid

Tannic reds, whose grip turns bitter against the cabbage family. Heavily oaked wines of either colour, which smother the green freshness. Reductive, smoky whites, which compound the sulphur.

Three to reach for. Dry Grüner Veltliner Smaragd, Wachau, Austria. Arinto, Bucelas, Portugal. Solaris, England.