Sumac — flavouring profile

Sumac is the tart, fruity-sour heart of Levantine cooking — a deep-red seasoning that is really an acidulant, all lemony astringency and no heat — so its first demand on a wine is simple: bring acid to meet acid.

The compounds that matter. Sumac's character is dominated not by aroma but by acidity — malic and citric acids give the sharp, lemony sourness, while tannins in the ground berry add a gentle astringency and its dark red colour. There is a fruity, faintly woody note beneath the tartness, but the souring is the headline. That changes the usual pairing logic: where most spices ask a wine to mirror an aroma, sumac asks it to match a sourness. A wine with lower acid than the dish tastes instantly flat and flabby beside it, so high acid is not a preference here but a requirement. Sumac lives on fattoush, grilled meats, fish and mezze, and is a backbone of za'atar, so the table around it is savoury, herbal and often spread with many small plates.

What it demands of a wine. High acid first, to stand level with the tartness rather than be flattened by it. A fresh, citrus or red-berry fruit character chimes with sumac's own fruitiness. For grilled and roasted meats, a savoury, moderate-tannin red works well — but not a hard, high-tannin one, whose astringency stacks on the berry's own. Light oak at most: heavy vanilla and toast dull the bright, sour lift. There is no heat to manage, so alcohol simply needs to stay in balance.

Seek. High-acid whites lead for fattoush, fish and mezze — a saline, citrus-driven white matches the tartness and the lemon note at once. For sumac-rubbed grilled lamb and kebabs, a savoury, herb-and-fig Eastern Mediterranean red of moderate tannin meets both the meat and the regional logic. A darker, Mediterranean rosé suits the mixed mezze table, and a skin-contact (orange) wine — a Ribolla Gialla from Friuli or a Rkatsiteli from Georgia — earns a place wherever the spread turns to many small, savoury plates.

Avoid. Low-acid wines of any colour — they fall flat the moment the sumac's sourness hits. Heavily oaked wines, whose vanilla and weight smother the bright tartness. Big, high-tannin reds, whose astringency compounds with sumac's own into something hard and drying.

Three to reach for. Assyrtiko (Santorini); Lebanese red blend (Bekaa Valley); Tavel rosé (southern Rhône).