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The Wine-With-Vegetables Challenge

The taste of fall for me is a sun-warmed tomato or roasted root vegetables. But what some of my friends call "rabbit food" can be challenging to pair with wine. So, as many of us change our diets to include more greens and less meat, finding veggie-friendly wines is an increasingly frequent quest.

Let's start with wines to avoid: the robust reds such as cabernet sauvignon and shiraz that go so well with hearty meat dishes. Such full-bodied wines overwhelm vegetables, and their tannins clash horribly with them. Proteins in steak bind with tannins in wine so that they both taste richer and smoother in combination. Protein-free veggies, though, just taste bitter and metallic with red wine.

My favorite reds for greens are soft, smooth, fruity wines such as pinot noir and gamay. Also good is Tuscan chianti, made from the sangiovese grape, which can stand up to tomatoes and tomato-based dishes such as pasta sauces and pizzas. With tart flavors and high acidity, tomatoes are one of the biggest challenges for wine. But chianti's own notes of dried fruit and sun-dried tomatoes are complementary.

White wines generally pair better with vegetables than reds, as they often have complementary herbal, grassy aromas. My favorite white for veggies is sauvignon blanc, especially from New Zealand. Its aromas of asparagus, canned peas and citrus dance with greens.

Rich dishes such as vegetarian casserole, eggplant parmigiana, scalloped potatoes or spinach lasagna pair best with full-flavored whites or medium-bodied reds, such as chardonnay and merlot, which tend to be more supple and less tannic than cabernet and shiraz.

With strong-flavored foods such as onions, leeks, scallions and green peppers, choose bone-dry whites with vibrant acidity: pinot grigio, pinot blanc, muscadet, dry rose or sparkling wine.

For salads, match the wine to the dressing. Creamy mayonnaise-based dressings highlight the fruitiness of wine, but their high fat begs for wines with acidity, such as riesling from Washington, New York or Alsace, Germany.

Roasting vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, turnip or potatoes intensifies their flavors just as it does with meat. Their smoky taste needs either a lemon-bright wine such as riesling, or a smoky red like Spanish tempranillo. Italian brunello di Montalcino also works; like chianti, the wine is made from the sangiovese grape, but it tends to be more full-bodied.

Whether you saute broccoli or green beans in olive oil, or smother them in butter, they pair nicely with Californian or Chilean sauvignon blanc, both lightly oaked.

While most vegetables can work with wine, asparagus and artichokes are particularly challenging. Both contain the organic acid cynarin, which makes everything taste sweeter than it is. With these veggies, choose bone-dry whites such as chablis and aligote from Burgundy, and chenin blanc from the Loire Valley and South Africa.

It may be challenging to find wines to pair with vegetables, but it's not impossible. It's especially worth the effort at this time of year. Plates laden with the harvest's abundance will only be enhanced by the right glass of wine.

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Natalie MacLean