Turbot

Turbot

Assuming turbot roasted on the bone and served with a butter sauce such as beurre blanc or hollandaise.

Turbot is firm, rich and delicate at once, and the butter sauce adds more fat. The wine needs weight to stand beside it, acidity to cut the butter, and little or no new oak, which turns metallic against fish.

Pairs Perfectly. Chablis Premier Cru, Burgundy, France. Chardonnay with lemon, green apple and a stony, saline finish, fuller than village Chablis but still unoaked in character. Village Chablis gives the same logic at a more accessible price and is an everyday bottle.

Pairs Well. Riesling Smaragd, Wachau, Austria, dry. Full in body with white peach and a firm line of acidity, enough weight for turbot in butter.

Pairs Well. Godello from Valdeorras, Spain. Pear, citrus and a slate edge with a rounder texture, a Galician white made to sit beside rich fish.

Worth Seeking Out

Timorasso from the Colli Tortonesi, Piedmont, Italy. Dense and mineral with honeyed depth, a white with real weight for a grand fish.

Avoid

Heavily oaked whites and tannic reds. New oak and tannin turn metallic against fish and bury its delicate flavour.

Failing That

A Fiano, Campania, Italy.

If All Else Fails

Colombard, Côtes de Gascogne.

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