Sourdough and butter, flavouring profile

Sourdough and butter, flavouring profile

Bread and butter asks little of a wine, but a good sourdough is sour and toasted, and the right glass picks up both.

The compounds that matter. Lactic and acetic acids from the slow ferment give sourdough its tang, and like any acid on the plate they make a wine taste softer and flatter than it is. The browned crust carries toasted, nutty notes from baking. Butter adds fat and the rich, creamy note of diacetyl, the same compound some white wines pick up in the cellar.

What it demands of a wine. Enough acidity to stay bright beside the sour crumb, and something bready, yeasty or toasted to meet the crust. A touch of creaminess suits the butter. Tannin and power are not needed, and a big, warm wine simply buries a plate this plain.

Seek. Sparkling wine made by the Champagne method, where months on the yeast leave a brioche note that answers the crust directly: English sparkling from Sussex, Champagne in its Blanc de Blancs style, or Crémant de Bourgogne. Fino Sherry from Jerez, aged under a layer of living yeast, which is as close as wine comes to the smell of a bakery. Chardonnay from the Maconnais with a light touch of oak, for the butter.

Avoid

Soft, low acid whites and anything off dry, which the sour bread leaves tasting flabby and sweet. Big, high alcohol reds, which swamp a plate this simple and make the butter feel heavy.

Three to reach for. Crémant de Bourgogne, France. Fino Sherry, Jerez, Spain. Mâcon-Villages, Burgundy, France.