There's an odd term sometimes used in the trade about bottles that aren't particularly showy, and that is "food wine". But surely most wines are designed to go with food, you might reasonably ask?
Well, yes and no. A lot of wines seem to be designed to win awards or Parker points or stand out in a tasting line-up, rather than to act as a foil for food. Others need food to show at their best. Food wines tend to be underestimated, but they can be the most enjoyable kind of bottle to have on the table.
Typically, they tend to have more moderate levels of alcohol and more pronounced levels of acidity than many contemporary wines. Italy is a master of the style: neutral whites such as orvieto, verdicchio, vermentino and even pinot grigio will breeze along with antipasti, light pasta sauces, creamy risottos, fish, shellfish, fresh cheese and even lighter meat dishes such as veal. (If you care to experiment, there's a good deal on the La Vis Storie di Vite Pinot Grigio 2010, which is currently on offer at £5.24 at Waitrose; 12.5% abv.)
Crisp French whites such as muscadet, picpoul de pinet, chablis and aligoté, Burgundy's less well-known white grape variety, do a similar job. One of the best bottles I drank in Paris the other week was Alice and Olivier de Moor's organic Bourgogne Aligoté Jeunes Vignes 2008 (£9.50, Festival Wines of Chichester; 12% abv) whose stunning purity was accentuated by a complex dish of hake with crushed artichokes, lettuce, olives and mint. An oaky chardonnay just wouldn't have hacked it.
Reds that have a touch of sharpness can also be welcome with lighter, unsauced meat and fish dishes – Loire reds, lighter burgundies or bright Italian reds such as valpolicella or the refreshing Tesco Finest Teroldego 2009 (£7.99, 12.5% abv), a beaujolais-like red with a bitter cherry twist that would be delicious with smoked meats and charcuterie.
The other type of wine you could describe as a food wine is one that's tough to drink on its own because of its tannic structure – high-alcohol young reds such as cabernet sauvignon that need red meat or a similarly full-flavoured vegetarian equivalent to soften them. An example is Castillo de Jumilla Monastrell 2009, a muscular Spanish red from Jumilla (£7.49, Laithwaites; 14% abv), a region whose wines always weigh in around the 14-15% mark. A bit of a monster on its own, but fantastic with a roast shoulder of lamb or Spanish-style pork stew with beans.