Wine With…Salad Niçoise

Wine With . . . Salade Niçoise

by Paul Lukacs and Marguerite Thomas

Is there a better mid-summer dish than Salade Niçoise?  Perfect for a light supper or weekend lunch when temperatures soar, this Provençale salad is relatively inexpensive and simple to put together.  Loaded with seasonal produce, it’s both nutritious and delicious. 

Ingredients in a true Salade Niçoise include tuna, tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, and potatoes.  Hard boiled egg, anchovies and a sprinkling of capers are also standard components, as are green beans (preferably tiny haricots verts).  Raw onion is optional, as are bell peppers and lettuce.  While it is fashionable these days to use grilled fresh tuna, we prefer the traditional canned variety in our Salade Niçoise.  (We always look for tuna canned in olive oil; but when we can’t find that we settle for water-packed, squeezing off as much of the briny water as possible, then marinating the tuna in a little olive oil and a sprinkling of salt for at least 15 minutes).  We simmer the potatoes and beans separately until tender, and toss them individually (while still warm) with garlic-spiked olive oil and wine vinegar.  Just before serving, all the ingredients may be carefully stirred together with a classic vinaigrette in a capacious salad bowl, but we usually prefer to arrange each component separately on a large serving platter, drizzling the dressing over everything. 

One of the most attractive attributes of Salade Niçoise is that, unlike most salads, this summery repast can be a perfect partner for wine-the right wine, that is.  In a recent tasting, we learned that with all of its disparate components, Salade Niçoise can actually be a challenging dish to pair with wine.  We sat outside on a lovely balmy evening-not quite as magical as Provence perhaps, but pretty nice anyway here in the mid-Atlantic region–and tasted twelve different wines along with a sizeable Salade Niçoise.  What we learned was that one of our assumptions about the possible partnership was correct, but a couple of other theories did not hold up to the actual taste-test.  It came as no surprise that the traditional match, rosé from southern France, was superb, for the wine’s fresh fruitiness, as well as its good body and crisp finish tied together the cacophony of flavors and textures in the salad.  (We discarded a couple of other rosés, however, that proved too sweet and fruity).  One surprise, though, was that both the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and the Entre-Deux-Mers in our lineup seemed thin and bitter with the Niçoise; the crisp acidity and delicate texture that makes these wines so good with other dishes worked against them here.  We also learned that overt oakiness and superfluous fruit overwhelmed the salad, so rejected an otherwise tasty California Chardonnay.  Since tannins turned abrasive with this dish, we discarded two of the three red wines we tried.  A slightly chilled, soft Côtes du Rhône, however, worked satisfactorily, with one of us preferring it over almost everything else.  In the final analysis, we agreed that when Salade Niçoise is served with a cool, crisp, medium-bodied (usually white or pink) wine, with a hint of fruit and perhaps a streak of earthy minerality-this is a combination that just seems to shout out SUMMER!

Selection

Approx. Price

Comments

Burgáns, Rias Baixas (Spain) Albarino 2004

(Imported by European Cellars)

  $13

The soft, supple feel of this wine made for an almost texturally perfect match, while its gentle fruit flavors complemented the salad well.  Though it was perhaps a bit too delicate for the black olives and tomatoes, the wine proved just right with the tuna.

Louis Bernard, Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages (France) 2003

(Imported by Boisset America)

 $10

We were divided over this red, with one of us thinking its tannins too astringent and the other finding the match surprisingly attractive.  The wine’s fan judged it especially good with the earthier components in the salad, especially the olives and the potatoes. 

Michele Chiarlo, Gavi (Italy) 2004

(Imported by Kobrand Corporation)

 $17

The bright, almost bouncy flavors in this Piedmontese gem married seamlessly with the salad, particularly the cucumbers and tomatoes.  It is a touch light in body to be a perfect partner for this dish, but tasted so good that we simply had to recommend it.

Perrin & Fils, Côtes-du-Rhône (France) Réserve Blanc 2005

(Imported by Vineyard Brands)

 $12

Like many white Côtes-du-Rhône wines, this one is fairly neutral tasting.  We found that to be a mark in its favor, in large measure because this salad contains many different ingredients and many different flavors.  The suggestion  of citrus in this wine, coupled with its almost waxy texture, made it a very appealing partner.  It’s very much, though, a food as opposed to an aperitif white.

Red Bicyclette, Vin de Pays d’Oc (France) Rosé 2005

(Imported by Red Bicyclette USA)

  $11

This isn’t the fanciest southern French rosé, but it sure tasted great with our Salade Niçoise.  Full of fresh strawberry flavors, with just a hint of earth, it was simultaneously refreshing and substantial-just like this summer dish itself.