Wines of the week: Eight bottles to go with vegetable dishes

With the season’s bounty and plant-based diets in mind, Terry Kirby goes green with wines to complement wild garlic, asparagus and Mediterranean veg

It was the chance discovery of a patch of bright green, aromatic wild garlic in a copse during a walk last weekend – free food! – that led me to thinking again about the gorgeous abundance of vegetables such as asparagus, courgettes, watercress, green peas and beans that will be in our shops, or free for just a few weeks in our woodlands, during these spring and early summer months. And, of course, the wines we need to drink with them.

But also remembering that many of us are moving towards a more plant-based diet, perhaps not entirely vegan, but with a higher focus on vegetable dishes, with wines to match. Seasonality is important too, to get vegetables at their most natural times and to avoid air freight imports.

That wild garlic can be treated like young spinach and included in salads raw or turned into a pesto with pasta or, if you are not entirely green yet, used as a puree or sauce with scallops or sardines. Mine normally goes into a risotto with other spring vegetables and fresh green herbs, with or without shellfish.

For these kind of dishes, a crisp Loire white such as the Domaine de la Tourmaline Muscadet de Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, 2017 (£8.99 or £7.99 if bought as part of mixed six bottle purchase, majestic.co.uk), which get added complexity from being sur lie – lees contact after fermentation, giving depth to the clean and bright acidity of such whites. This would also work well as a counter to the peppery bite of English watercress, which also comes into season soon.

Staying with muscadet and for more complex green vegetable dishes, the robust, aromatic and slightly smoky flavours of the organic Chateau de la Bretonnerie, Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, 2016 (£14.00 redsquirrel.com) are something of a revelation of what can be done with a sometimes-bland grape. You could also seek out the House of Certain Views Pinot Grigio, Hunter Valley, Margan 2017 (£10.90 tanners-wines.co.uk), a fairly full-bodied, Aussie take on pinot grigio, which would be great with, say, grilled courgettes or peas braised with lettuce and spring onions.

Asparagus is of course one of those foods, like oranges or chocolate, famously difficult to pair with wine, however it is served, whether with a butter or lemony dressing or grilled on the barbecue. So we turn to sauvignon blanc and particularly the zesty, citrus notes of classic New Zealand SB, which complements the grassy flavours of asparagus. Try the Waipapa Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (£7.49 until 14 May, normally £9.99 ocado.com) for real Marlborough style at a very good price. But if you find Kiwi SB a bit too full on, try the Chateau Bel Air Perponcher Reserve 2017 (£9.95 thewinesociety.com) a Bordeaux blend of mainly sauvignon blanc with semillon and muscadelle, which manages to stay just the right side of crisp minerality to make it work with asparagus or indeed many other green vegetables.

There are many other vegetables out there apart from greens and which call for red wines. On holiday in Greece recently we had two gorgeous vegetable dishes: big butter beans – locals call them gigantes – cooked with tomatoes, thyme and garlic and a dip of pureed yellow split peas, topped with slow-cooked onions: medium-bodied red wines are great here, such as the Altos Las Hormigas, Tinto Mendoza, 2017 (£11.00, qwines.co.uk), a winning blend of Malbec and the more obscure bonarda from Argentina which has red-fruit flavours and a juicy, succulent appeal; or the Famille Perrin Les Cardinaux 2016 (£8.00 until 14 May, normally £10.00 Co-op stores), a typically soft, lush, peppery Rhone blend of grenache, syrah and mourvedre (GSM) made by one of the great names of the region and something of a bargain at this price.

The south of France is also home to one of the great vegetable dishes based around seasonal spring and summer vegetables which should not be neglected in our rush to spiralise everything: ratatouille. It also exists in various incarnations of aubergines, peppers, courgettes and red onions around the Mediterranean – whether it’s a Provencal tian, turlu-turlu in Turkey or Briam in Greece, all of which we can easily replicate in our own kitchens, particularly with home-grown tomatoes and courgettes. The Perrins wine and many similar southern French blends are excellent here, where there seems a natural affinity with tomato-based dishes, but for a more refined and intense GSM experience try the exceptional Calmel and Joseph Terrasses du Larzac Les Crus 2016 (£16.08 richardgrangerwines.co.uk); from a great producer in a prime spot of the Languedoc and packed with rich, black-fruit and herb flavours. And a sense of, hopefully, warm weather to come.