Truffle, flavouring profile

Truffle, flavouring profile

Truffle is mostly smell, carried by fat, so the wine should follow what the truffle is shaved over and echo its earthy note rather than bury it under fruit.

The compounds that matter. Black truffle gives earthy, malty and faintly sulphurous notes from dimethyl sulphide and related compounds, and 1-octen-3-ol, the smell of mushroom and forest floor. White truffle is louder, with a garlicky, gassy compound called bis(methylthio)methane. Most truffle oil is that same compound made in a laboratory, strong and one note. Truffle is almost always served with butter, egg, cream or cheese, which carry the smell and bring savoury depth that makes tannin taste harder.

What it demands of a wine. An earthy, savoury or bready character to meet the truffle, and fruit kept in the background, since bright, young fruit clashes with it. Acid or bubbles to cut the butter and egg. Tannin only where there is red meat to soften it. Bottle age helps more than usual here, because the forest floor and mushroom notes that come with age echo the truffle directly.

Seek

With eggs, pasta, risotto and potato, white Burgundy brings hazelnut and butter notes to meet the richness, and Champagne Blanc de Noirs brings bready depth and bubbles that cut through butter and yolk. With beef or veal in a truffle sauce, a village Barolo or Barbaresco, Piedmont, Italy, brings roses, tar and earth, Barolo more powerful and Barbaresco more elegant and earlier drinking. Langhe Nebbiolo gives the same flavours younger and for much less. With truffle oil on chips, pizza or arancini, Franciacorta from Lombardy has the acid and bubbles to cut the fat and the bready notes to meet the oil.

Avoid

Young, fruity reds such as simple Merlot, New World Shiraz or young Rioja, whose bright fruit clashes with the earthy smell. Heavily oaked whites, whose vanilla and toast bury the truffle. Aromatic whites such as Sauvignon Blanc or Gewürztraminer, whose perfume competes with it.

Three to reach for. For eggs, pasta and risotto, Chardonnay, Burgundy, France. For red meat, Nebbiolo, Barbaresco, Piedmont, Italy. For truffle oil and fried food, Franciacorta, Lombardy, Italy.