What wine should be served with French Salad Nicoise?

Answer 1

Salad Nicoise can tend to be rich due to the egg, olive, tuna, olive oil and at times an aoli. A good choice would be to serve this salad with a glass or bottle of Tavel. Tavel is a dry, crisp, refreshing rose from the Rhone region of France. The wine can be made from all or some of the following grape varietals: Cinsault, Mouvedre, Syrah and Grenache. The reason the Tavel works well is that the higher acidity of this wine cuts through the richness of the oilier items that are used to make the salad (from above, olives, tuna, olive oil etc.). In addition this wine is served cold which works well with salad. Can you imagine drinking a room temperature red wine with salad greens and warmer red wine? Ick.