I use herbs a lot in cooking, thanks to rampant growth in my small kitchen garden. But when it comes to choosing wine with a dish made with lots of herbs, it’s usually always the herbs that I’m pairing it with. Poached chicken with salsa verde is my Sunday lunch go-to and a case in point. The punchy sauce, made with copious parsley, mint, basil, olive oil, anchovies, capers, and cornichons, dominates the dish, yet is very comfortable with the likes of Picpoul de Pinet, Albariño and Verdejo, also with dry, lean reds, such as Chianti Classico. But pair it with a fatter, riper style of wine and it throws the match off completely, making the wine taste too sweet when consumed with the sauce. In short, herbs have a huge impact on the flavour of a dish, and therefore also on the wines that will work with it, and all depends on which herb (or combination of herbs) and how it’s used - but never fear, there’s always a match out there.

Sommelier and restaurant manager Martin Waugh at Northumberland’s one Michelin-starred Restaurant Hjem, agrees: ‘There are so many herbs and obviously such a huge variety of wine styles that you can nearly always find something to pair,’ he says. ‘I’d always consider the profile of the herb, its aromatic properties and intensity of flavour when choosing wines. Delicate herbs can be overpowered by intensely flavoured wines and vice versa.’

Indeed, Waugh offers an easy rule of thumb, ‘Soft herbs generally work better with lighter, fresher whites,’ he explains. ‘Chervil, parsley and lovage all enjoy Riesling, Sauvignon, and brighter whites. More hardy herbs tend to pair better with reds. Wines from the Southern Rhône work nicely with thyme and rosemary, etc. Skin contact wines can also be superb with herb led dishes. Basil and mint are ideally suited to a lot of orange wines from Italy – especially those made from aromatic grapes like Zibibbo or Moscato.’

Craig Bancroft at Lancashire’s celebrated Northcote Hotel and Restaurant offers this even simpler rule of thumb when it comes to matching herbs and wine. ‘I always consider the herb's origins,’ says the sommelier-cum-managing director. If a herb is prolific in a country and its style of cuisine, you often find that its wines pair well. Take thyme. It grows everywhere and is used liberally in Greek cooking and wines from their ever-improving portfolio of reds have herbal notes that pick up well on the pairing. In the main though, herbs are a joy to work with as we often see traces of herbal notes within the wines’ profiles. I follow the traditional understanding that soft herbs are a good pairing with white wines and the harder herbs are better with light and varying styles of red.’

But what of those particularly tricky herbs – I’m looking at you, coriander. How do they cope with wine? While some see coriander as headily fragrant, others see it as soapy and metallic (it’s an olfactory receptor gene thing, apparently). When it’s the dominant flavour – and let’s be frank, coriander even used in small amounts mostly is – I lean toward a racy Grüner Veltliner or young, dry, Aussie Riesling, especially with Asian flavours.

Bancroft, meanwhile, prefers to look to Viognier and Roussanne when coriander is at play. 'Depending on the dish, I’m at home with aromatic wines when it comes to coriander. It’s not a herb we use much of at Northcote, but we do use it at home, such as in home-mixed meatballs with coriander and cumin, served with a spicy tomato sauce, which is terrific with Gaston Hochar’s Lebanese reds,’ he enthuses.