Grüner veltliner – a wine for many dishes
An excerpt from Daring pairings by Evan Goldstein
daring pairings by Evan Goldstein
Even more appealing than grüner’s distinctive flavor profile is its versatility at the table. There’s little that grüner doesn’t go with, and a whole assortment of foods with which it can pair where many other grapes can’t.
Want a wine to go with asparagus? Artichokes? Strong-flavored fish and shellfish? This is it. For a wine to go with bitter greens like escarole or collard greens, look no further. But grüner is not simply a wine for taming belligerent food: it can pair with many other dishes.
Just about every Asian restaurant with some ambition in its wine list carries at least one GV. It’s as happy with the correctly chosen Chinese dishes as with Indian, Vietnamese, or Indonesian food. The core herb and spice profiles of these countries – from Thai basil to tamarind, cardamom to coriander – pair well with the inherently spicy and aromatic nature of the wine. So many sommeliers pair Vietnamese spring rolls with a young GV that it’s becoming almost as established a match as French chablis and oysters – and equally wonderful!
Grüner is just as enjoyable with rich white meats, fowl, and charcuterie. If you’ve had a plate of schnitzel and potatoes served with a balanced grüner, you’ll believe in the old saying about wines and foods growing up together. But GV can also be sublime with a sweet, spiced boudin blanc or similar white sausage (say, bratwurst) and is lovely with a simple chicken breast grilled with a North African seasoning based on caraway and cumin.
Finally, grüner is great with legumes, with which it shares personality traits. Lentil stew with pork and sausage, a southwestern chili made with white beans and green chile, and a bowl of lima beans and ham are all superb when matched with a balanced GV.
Pairing Pointers
Grüner veltliner goes well:
- With aromatic and distinctive marinades or sauces. Off-dry grüner plays especially well with sweet and sour (yes, here’s a good wine for sweet-and-sour pork!), sweet and salt, and sweet and spicy aromatics (chiles).
- With most styles of Asian food. From Indian to Indonesian, this wine is almost always able to connect the dots. In addition to the pairing with Vietnamese spring rolls, try GV with noodle stir-fries, wok-charred vegetables, and even tofu.
- With salads and vegetables. These dishes, often posing challenges in matching with wine, are easy for grüner. This wine will stand up to asparagus (both green and white) as well as artichokes. Also, most composed green salads, Asian or European inspired, fare quite nicely. And GV is a wine that can handle shiso and other pungent leafy greens as well.
- With beans and lentils. Lentils of all colors (green, brown, pink, or red), are great with grüner, so if you feel like drinking white wine with your sausage and lentils, you’re golden. The same is true for a loin of rabbit served with fava beans with bacon.
- As a counterbalance to rich, salty meats and meat treatments – ham, sausage, charcuterie, and the like. Grüner is quite content alongside a plate of Italian salumi, French charcuterie, or German Wurst. And is there truly a better match than the classic local pairing of grüner veltliner and schnitzel?
- With many exotic and flavorful spices. Try GV with foods seasoned with curry, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, mace, star anise, cumin, and turmeric.
Grüner Veltliner isn’t good:
- By itself. Many will disagree with this statement, but, with a few exceptions, grüner simply craves food. Even pairing it with a little sushi or a dish of olives is more interesting than having it solo.
- When you pick the wrong one. A sharp, dry, and puckery GV is great with a plate of briny oysters, but an off-dry and luscious interpretation will be much less successful.
- With traditional red-meat dishes. While a sauce or a long braise could steer the dish the right way, grüner is not at its best with simply sautéed or roasted lamb, beef, or venison.
- With dishes that are too rich and dominant. Most grüners are penetrating but still subtle, and asking this wine to hang in there with a thick, cream-based sauce is simply not fair.
- With overtly sweet dishes. I am happy to have a cumin-studded poppadum dipped in a little apricot chutney and served with a grüner veltliner if the chutney isn’t drowning the poppadum and the wine style is apropos. If the dish is too sweet, dry GV or even off-dry GV, unlike riesling, will struggle. And if you match the sweetness of the food with a sweet wine, the entire match may be too cloying. Experiment by all means, but be forewarned.
The Cheese Plate
SOFT-RIPENED – Chaource (France), pavé d’affinois (France), robiola (Italy) – dry, off-dry
SEMI-HARD – Garrotxa (Spain), Gruyère (Switzerland) – dry, off-dry
HARD – Aged Cheddar (U.K.), mimolette (France) – dry, off-dry, sweet
BLUE – Cabrales (Spain), Cambozola (Germany) – off-dry, sweet
WASHED-RIND – Époisses, Munster (France) – dry, off-dry, sweet
Reproduced with permission of University of California Press © Evan Goldstein 2010
Read our full review of Daring Pairings here »
Daring Pairings by Evan Goldstein is published by University of California Press (Berkeley and LA; 2010; hb 353 pp) and retails for RRP US$34.95 or RRP A$55.95 in Australia.
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