I LOVE the sound of Gina’s healing salad, but there are elements in the dish that will present a few problems for the intrepid wine-matcher.
The worst offender will likely be the artichoke as it tends to make wine taste bitter or metallic. So you need a young, fresh wine with lots of character to stand a chance beside the grub.
I’d suggest going a bit left-field, and trying one of the wonderful white wines of Greece. The Greek wine industry has come on in leaps and bounds since Oddbins introduced a range of top-quality examples to an unsuspecting (and sceptical) public back in the year 2000. The wines were different and interesting with exotic sounding grape varieties and people (for the most part) struggled to leave behind their Retsina prejudices and embrace something new. But that was 18 years ago, and the wines have been steadily improving ever since. Also, as a wine-buying nation we are now more likely to move away from the more obvious styles and seek out something more challenging.
The two whites to find this weekend are Malagousia and Assyrtiko.
Malagousia is wonderfully aromatic and manages to combine a delicacy and a richness in the glass at the same time. In the mid-70s plantings were exceedingly rare and it was the work of one man, Evangelos Gerovassiliou, that saved the grape from extinction.
Domaine Gerovassiliou Malagousia 2016 (Inverarity One to One, £15.99). This is still my favourite Greek white of all time, and a large chilled glass would be the perfect foil to Gina’s salad. They also produce a wonderfully creamy Viognier if you’d prefer to start your Greek journey with something more familiar.
Assyrtiko is a different animal, producing very dry whites with a Burgundian feel to them. Think of the minerality of a premier cru Chablis combined with the rich earthiness of a Montrachet and you’re starting to get there. The volcanic island of Santorini is the grape’s spiritual home and this is a really top quality wine for adventurous wine lovers.
Gaia Wild Ferment Assyrtiko 2017 (Inverarity One to One, £21.99). You have to try this with scallops, or lobster or a good roast chicken stuffed with lemon and herbs … it will wow your friends and impress your family. Cheers.
Pete Stewart is Glasgow director of Inverarity One to One, 185a Bath Street www.inveraritymorton.com
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here