You’ll often read that asparagus is a very tricky food to match with wine. That’s a shame as my wife and I love it, particularly at this time of year when the English asparagus crop is at its best. Somehow, the spears that supermarkets import all year round from South America don’t have the same flavour and the white asparagus, so popular on the continent of Europe, just doesn’t appeal to us in the same way.
But, back to my first sentence: is asparagus really a big problem for wine-matching? I don’t think so. Serve it with a vinaigrette and the vinaigrette may not be wine-friendly, but dress it with a Hollandaise or another creamy or buttery sauce and many crisp, unoaked whites will work perfectly.
And remember the old saying about the wine of a country or region going with the local food. The lightness and freshness of many modern English dry whites would be an ideal match. Try Camel Valley’s Bacchus (Waitrose, £16.99), for example, or, if you want something special, the same producer’s Brut reserve is a delightful English fizz: clean, mouth-wateringly dry and appley (also Waitrose, usually £32.99, but a bargain if you can get one of their occasional 25% reductions).
Asparagus can also be a delicious ingredient in a main course. A favourite recipe of ours combines some slivered asparagus with chicken pieces in a creamy sauce all served over fresh tagliatelle. Here, the wine needs to be a little fuller to cope with the rich sauce, but, again, definitely not oaky. We opened Aubert’s Vouvray Sec (£15.25), a wine that I first sampled a few weeks ago at a Yapp Brothers tasting for the Bristol Tasting Circle. (See my blog ‘The Diverse Loire’ for more details). I thought it was the wine of the evening then and this lovely, peachy Chenin Blanc was as good here enjoyed with a supposedly tricky food match as it was on its own under tasting conditions.
As I said, perhaps asparagus isn’t so difficult to match after all.
Wine talks and tastings 