Sesame — flavouring profile

Sesame, toasted, is one of the most intensely nutty flavours in cooking — the warm, roasted note of toasted seeds and toasted sesame oil, and the rich paste of tahini — so it pairs best with wines that carry their own nutty, yeasty or nutty-sweet character, the match shifting with how sesame is used.

The compounds that matter. Raw sesame is mild, but toasting transforms it: Maillard browning throws off roasted, nutty pyrazines and furans, and sulphur compounds give toasted sesame oil its unmistakable depth. There is an oily richness throughout and, in tahini, a slight bitterness. Sesame works three quite different ways, and each points to a different wine: toasted oil and seeds over East Asian dishes with soy and umami; tahini in Levantine mezze such as hummus and baba ganoush; and sweet sesame in halva and brittle. The constant is the toasted-nutty mirror; the variable is sweet against savoury.

What it demands of a wine. For savoury sesame, a nutty, yeasty or lightly oxidative wine to mirror the toast, with high acid to cut the oil. Where soy and umami come in, low tannin matters, since they make firm tannin metallic. For sweet sesame, a nutty-sweet wine at least as sweet as the dish. Across the board, keep oak vanilla in check, since it muddles the clean toasted note.

Seek. For tahini, hummus and savoury sesame, a Fino sherry from Jerez is the near-exact mirror — its nutty, fuller, yeasty character meets the toasted paste, where the lighter, more marine Manzanilla would thin out against it. For toasted sesame oil over noodles, rice and soy-dressed dishes, an off-dry, high-acid aromatic white meets the umami and the richness with no tannin to turn metallic. For halva and sweet sesame, a nutty-sweet fortified, all walnut and caramel, matches the dish in both nuttiness and sweetness.

Avoid. Firm, tannic reds, which the soy and oil turn hard and metallic. Dry wines with sweet sesame desserts, which they leave hollow. Heavily oaked, vanilla-driven wines, whose sweetness clouds the toasted-nut character.

Three to reach for. Fino sherry (Jerez); off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett); Tawny Port (Douro).