Evan Elliot

If there’s one dish that makes wines tremble, it’s a simple summer salad. The acid in the dressing makes many wines taste flat or sour. But if you insist on having wine with your leafy greens— and why not?—then listen to people who make pairings their business.

Paul Birman, the buyer at Plumpjack Wines on Fillmore Street, recommends that you pair like with like. The Högl Grüner Veltliner 2006 from Austria’s Wachau region, for example, brings deep minerality and bright apple and honeydew flavors to a classic garden salad. “An oaky or buttery Chardonnay wouldn’t work as well,” says Birman. Another good bet is the 2006 Taburno Falanghina, a Campania white whose volcanic-soils origin adds subtle spice and complexity to another crisp and mineral-rich wine.

At Greens, general manager Mike Hale favors white wines with good acidity and reds with soft tannins. When the restaurant serves field-fresh lettuces and mizuna with satsumas, Page mandarins, grapefruit, and pumpkin seeds dressed with a Page mandarin vinaigrette, Hale recommends Elizabeth Spencer Sauvignon Blanc from Mendocino for its “crisp citrus and fresh green style.” He also likes Francois Chidaine’s biodynamic Vouvrays: “They’re delicious and the mineral elements are a good match for the citrus in the salad.”

For a wilted spinach salad with apples, almonds, goat cheese, shallots, sherry vinegar, and hot olive oil, Hale suggests Grenache-based wines such as Unti Dry Creek Valley Grenache or El Chaparral from Vega Sindoa in the Navarra region of Spain. These wines are earthy, like the spinach, says Hale, and their lighter weight won’t overpower a salad.

Andrew Swallow, executive chef of Mixt Greens, the gourmet organic salad spots in San Francisco, makes matches based on shared flavors. A salad of butter lettuce, seared ahi tuna, avocado, and mango-citrus dressing, he suggests, would work well with a Pride Mountain 2006 Viognier, because its pineapple and key lime flavors match the tropical citrus in the salad. For a salad topped with grilled flatiron steak and blue cheese, try August West Graham Family Vineyard 2006 Pinot Noir. Its bright fruit, medium body, and herbaceous notes complement the earthy, almost gamy steak.

“Whatever you do, don’t serve a high-acid wine with a high-acid dressing,” says Swallow. “That’s just heartburn waiting to happen.”

The consensus? Meat or cheese can buffer acid, making dressed greens almost wine-friendly. Salty extras such as olives or nuts can help, too. But before you get too sanguine about wine with your salad, please note: Asparagus and artichokes are fatal to wine. Asparagus contains methyl mercaptan, a sulfur compound that makes it taste weedy. Artichokes contain a compound called cynarin that renders wine either metallic or strangely sweet. So, when eating either food, skip the wine until you’re finished. And before you tipple, clear your palate with water and a few bites of bread.

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