Exquisite August 16

DRINKWINE
Pair wine with egg for a
light meal with sublime flavours
BY SUSANNA PING
Wine with Egg
Sometimes you just do not want to eat meat. A nice salad
or light meal based on eggs is perfect for a filling yet
delicious lunch or dinner. Add a glass of wine to the
repertoire and you have a perfect menu. There are many
egg dishes and recipes out there from easy salads to complex
souffles. When serving wine with these egg dishes you have to
think of how the eggs will be cooked and what ingredients will
be included. Is it an omelette with mushrooms? Or a croque
madame with grilled bread topped with gruyere cheese, ham
and fried egg?
Light whites work well with egg dishes but avoid oaky, fruity
whites. As for reds tannins clash with eggs so only a soft, light
one will do like a beaujolais or a dry rose.
Champagne - The reason champagne is so popular at brunch
is because it goes well with practically anything eggy from
savoury to sweet. Scrambled eggs on toast, cheese scones, and
even French toast would work nicely with champagne.
Pinot gris - Also known as pinot grigio, Italy’s popular white
wine is produced from the pinot grigio grape varietal. This wine
hails from the northeast region of Veneto and Friuli and is a
light, crisp white wine that is intended to be consumed early in
age. It matches well with creamy egg dishes such as scambled
eggs, frittatas and quiche.
Semillon - One of Bordeaux’s big white wine grapes. With
its lower levels of acidity, almost oily textures, more subtle
aromatics and rounder profile, it is an ideal complement to
eggs cooked in any way.
Burgundy whites or non-oaky chardonnay - French chablis is
one of the world’s best known chardonnay wines which should
be steely and dry with flavours of lemon and minerals, and so
match eggy delights in many ways. Traditionally chablis is unoaked,
setting it apart from most other top chardonnays from
Burgundy and elsewhere.
Beaujolais - A French Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC)
wine generally made of the gamay grape which has a thin skin
and is low in tannins. Wine experts describe beaujolais as “the
only white wine that happens to be red”. Similarly, Beaujolais is
often treated like a white wine and served slightly chilled. With
the subtle flavour of red berries this soft red wine would go
well with an omelette fried with ham, a quiche and pancetta,
and frittata with bacon. In other words the smoked meat would
work very well with the wine with the smooth egg rounding
things up.
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Wine with Egg.indd 72
27/7/2016 11:15:01 AM