Whipped feta

Whipped feta

Assuming feta whipped smooth and finished with honey, chilli flakes and olive oil, eaten with bread.

Whipped feta is salty, tangy and creamy, so the wine needs high acidity for the salt, a little fruit for the honey and modest alcohol for the chilli. Fresh cheese makes red wine tannin taste metallic. A savoury pink or a crisp, aromatic white covers it all.

Pairs Perfectly. Darker Xinomavro rosé, Amyndeon, Greece. Bracing acidity with red fruit, tomato leaf and a savoury, salty finish, from the home of feta. It handles salt, honey and a little heat together, and it is never expensive.

Pairs Well. Darker rosado from Rioja, Spain, in its traditional style. Savoury, with red fruit and a hint of orange peel that meets honey and olive oil.

Pairs Well. Dry Muscat, Alsace, France. Grapey and floral but bone dry, which lifts the honey without adding sweetness.

Worth Seeking Out

An orange wine, preferably a firm, savoury skin contact Mtsvane from Kakheti in Georgia, for example a Pheasant's Tears Mtsvane or an Alaverdi Monastery. Its grip and dried herb notes meet salty cheese and chilli with ease.

Avoid

Tannic reds and heavily oaked whites. Fresh cheese turns tannin metallic, and oak dulls the tang of the feta.

Failing That

A Sauvignon Blanc from Touraine, France.

If All Else Fails

Albariño, Rías Baixas.

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