Za'atar — flavouring profile

Za'atar is a Levantine blend, not a single spice — dried wild thyme and oregano, tart sumac and toasted sesame bound with salt — so it asks a wine to do three things at once: meet a herbal, savoury note, stand up to sumac's sourness, and flatter a nutty, olive-oil richness.

The compounds that matter. Three components set the pairing. The herbs carry thymol and carvacrol, the pungent, savoury, faintly medicinal phenols of thyme and oregano — a garrigue note that finds its match in green, herbal wines. The sumac brings malic and citric acidity, the tart edge that, as in sumac alone, makes high wine acid non-negotiable. And the toasted sesame adds a nutty, oily depth that rewards a wine with some texture or savour. There is no heat. Za'atar lives on flatbread and labneh with olive oil, on grilled meats and roast vegetables, so the table is savoury, herb-strewn and often a spread of small plates.

What it demands of a wine. High acid first, to ride the sumac, and a green or herbal character to mirror the thyme and oregano. A little texture or savoury depth flatters the sesame and the olive oil it is mixed with. Oak should stay light — heavy vanilla fights the fresh herb — and there is no heat to fear, so the balance is simply acid, herb and savour against the blend. Reds, where the dish is grilled meat, want moderate rather than hard tannin so the sumac astringency does not stack.

Seek. Green, herbal, high-acid whites lead — a fennel-and-anise-tinged white mirrors the thyme and matches the sour sumac at once. A saline, citrus-and-herb Eastern Mediterranean white does the same with a mineral cut for fish and mezze. For za'atar-crusted grilled meat, a savoury, dried-herb red of moderate tannin meets the char and the herb together. A skin-contact (orange) wine — a Ribolla Gialla from Friuli or a Rkatsiteli from Georgia — suits the labneh, olive oil and many-small-plates end of the table.

Avoid. Low-acid wines, which collapse against the sumac's tartness. Heavily oaked, full-bodied whites, whose vanilla buries the herbal lift. Big, high-tannin reds, whose grip compounds with sumac's astringency into something hard.

Three to reach for. Verdejo (Rueda); Assyrtiko (Santorini); Agiorgitiko (Nemea).