The top wines to pair with succulent summer melon
The fragrance of charentais melons, seeds scooped out and the empty dip filled with golden Pineau des Charentes is one of the key flavour memories that says ‘holiday’ to me. It is a blissful combination: the aromatic orange flesh of the melon with the sweet, strong taste of the vin de liqueur, which is made by mixing unfermented grape juice with local Cognac. If your interest has been piqued, yapp.co.uk is the king of Pineau des Charentes so look there.
Melon and wine together are particularly decadent, which feels a good way to celebrate the last weeks of summer. It does matter to pick the right wine. A tannic red is never going to cut it – you need to find a wine that will meet the nectar-like taste and aromatics of the melon.
This means you want some sweetness in the wine. You don’t need to go as gloopy as a dessert wine, but you should match the sweetness of the melon or of the dish that it’s in.
If you’re just eating melon slices with a glass of wine as a pre-barbecue late-afternoon snack or as a pudding, then a Moscato d’Asti is a great pick with perfumed melons such as galia or cantaloupe. This Italian sparkling white wine is low in alcohol and sweet without being cloying. The grape variety is, as the name suggests, moscato, which is pretty much the only grape whose wine actually tastes, well, grapey. Tesco Asti Spumante 2021 Italy (7%, £5.75) is good, but a favourite is the peachy, herbal GD Vajra Moscato d’Asti (5.5%, Lea & Sandeman, £16.95).
If the melon is part of a dish that, overall, is more savoury, then you don’t need such a sweet wine. For instance, if you’re going old-school and eating prosciutto with a perfumed melon it’s enough to pick a wine that is off-dry, say the floral Morrisons The Best Pinot Gris 2021 Alsace, France (£8.75).
For Diana Henry’s pork chops with ginger-pickled melon and chicory, I would go for an off-dry or medium-dry riesling from Germany or New Zealand. The acidity and orchard fruit flavours in riesling go with pork chops like apple sauce goes with a pork roast. A great favourite is Dr L Grey Slate Riesling 2020 Mosel, Germany (Waitrose, £9.99), which has a spritzy taste of apple snow blitzed with nectarines. Aldi has another off-dry riesling option, this time from Canada: The Falls Canadian Riesling NV Canada (Aldi, £8.99) is smooth and clean, like a sweetened lime- and green-apple lollipop.
Diana also has a gorgeous recipe for melon, lime and Thai basil sorbet. I wouldn’t mess up those refreshing aromatics by adding wine but it gave me an idea. Have you ever made wine sorbet? I mean on purpose, not by accidentally freezing a bottle that you had put in the freezer to chill. The floral torrontés grape, which grows in Argentina, makes delicious sorbet that you could serve with chilled slices of melon. A good wine to use is Finest Torrontés 2021, Argentina (Tesco, £7.50), which smells of jasmine, rose petals, freesia and lemon zest.
Watermelon with creamy burrata and rocket is great with the red-berry scent and creamy texture of a deep-coloured rosé, such as Arbousset Tavel rosé, 2021 France (Tesco, £12), which is dry and tastes of ripe raspberries with strawberries. Finally, if you have watermelons to hand, the other drink option is to blitz the flesh to a juice in a blender, chill it and mix with vodka.
Try these...
Langham Estate Rosé NV
England 12%; langhamwine.co.uk, £32.25
A gorgeous sparkling English wine that smells of raspberries. I poured it for friends and everyone got out their phones to order some.
Stellenrust Stellenbosch Manor Cinsault 2020
South Africa 13.5%; Waitrose, £7.49 down from £9.99 till 30 August
An oak-aged cinsault that is medium-bodied with lovely dried cranberry notes. A red for late summer.
Domaine des Oullières Harmonie 2021 Coteaux d’Aix en Provence
France 12.5%; yapp.co.uk, £13.25
Superb pale rosé from a family domaine, from grenache, cinsault and syrah grapes.
Read last week's column: Why you need to be talking about the ‘shape’ of your wine
