Among the ingredients generally held to create problems for wine, salads – or, more particularly, salad dressings – rank high on the list. However, that prejudice stems from a time when “salad” was a green one with a sharp, French vinaigrette, and the wine more often than not an oak-aged bordeaux.
These days, though, salads come in all shapes and sizes, and are often the main point of a meal. There may also be more than one on the table, so there’s no point in being too precious about what you serve with them. It’s more useful, perhaps, to think mainly in terms of wines that won’t work so well with them, among which I’d probably put full-bodied reds such as cabernet sauvignon or shiraz, though even those work just fine in the context of salads that include lentils or other pulses. Charred vegetable salads are also game-changers. For instance, you might not usually think of drinking an oaky chardonnay with a salad, but if it includes grilled or roast corn or butternut squash, it’s going to be a winner.
