Watercress soup

Watercress soup

Assuming watercress blended with potato and stock, finished with a little cream and served hot.

Watercress soup is peppery, green and faintly bitter, and it is served hot, which makes any alcohol taste stronger than it is. The wine needs to be light, low in alcohol and sharp, with no tannin to catch on the bitterness and no oak to smother the pepper. The cream and potato ask for acidity to keep the bowl lively.

Pairs Perfectly. Dry Riesling, Clare Valley, South Australia. Clare Riesling is lime sharp, bone dry and light in alcohol, so it stays fresh beside a hot bowl instead of turning heady, and its acidity lifts the cream and potato. There is no oak or tannin to fight the peppery leaves, and it costs little.

Pairs Well. Bacchus, England, in its off dry style. Hedgerow and elderflower over sharp acidity, which picks up the green, peppery notes of the soup.

Pairs Well. Jacquère, Savoie, France. An alpine white, very light, bone dry and low in alcohol, with a faint peppery edge that mirrors the leaves.

Worth Seeking Out

Solaris from England. A grape bred for cool climates and now grown across the south of England, dry and fresh with green apple and elderflower. It has a little more body than most English whites, which suits a soup with cream in it.

Avoid

Oaked whites and red wine of any kind. Oak smothers the peppery green of the leaves, tannin makes their bitterness harsh, and a big wine turns hot and heavy beside a hot bowl.

Failing That

A Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, Italy.

If All Else Fails

Colombard, Gascony.

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