Wild Mushroom Season

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The test of a porcino is in the hand. A young one is heavy for its size, cold, its cap the colour of a baked crust and its pores pale and tight. Cut it lengthwise and the flesh should be white and unmarked. That is the mushroom to buy, the one to cook least, and the place any wild mushroom wine pairing begins.

October is the peak of the European wild mushroom season, when market stalls from Turin to Lyon to Borough Market carry porcini, chanterelles and the first trompettes. The wines that suit them are among the most rewarding in any cellar.

The Mushrooms

• Porcini (Boletus edulis), cèpes in France. Meaty, nutty and dense. Young specimens can be sliced raw, paper-thin, with olive oil and lemon. Larger ones want a hot pan.
• Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius), girolles. Apricot-scented, peppery, with a firm chew. Late summer into autumn.
• Hen-of-the-woods (Grifola frondosa), maitake. Grows in frilled clusters at the base of oaks. Deeply savoury, and the one that roasts best.
• Black trumpets (Craterellus cornucopioides), trompettes de la mort. Thin, dark and smoky. Superb in sauces and with fish.
• Morels (Morchella). A spring mushroom, but in autumn the kitchen turns to the dried kind, which keep their honeycombed shape and gain intensity.

How to Cook Them

The enemy is water. Wild mushrooms are mostly water, and stewed mushrooms taste of little.

• Clean dry. Brush and trim; wipe with a damp cloth. Rinse only if gritty, and quickly.
• Use a hot, wide pan and do not crowd it. Cook in batches. Let them colour before you move them.
• Season late. Salt draws out moisture; add it once the mushrooms have browned.
• Chanterelles first, butter second. Sauté them dry until they release and reabsorb their liquid, then add butter, shallot and parsley.
• Roast hen-of-the-woods in large pieces with olive oil at high heat until the edges crisp, and finish with thyme and brown butter.
• Dried morels need twenty to thirty minutes in warm water. Strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter to remove grit, and reduce it into the sauce. The Jura classic, morilles à la crème with a splash of vin jaune, served with poulet de Bresse, is the reason to buy them.
• Always cook morels thoroughly. They are toxic raw.

Simple dishes show them best: porcini on toast rubbed with garlic, tagliatelle with chanterelles and butter, a risotto of mixed mushrooms finished with Parmigiano, an omelette of trompettes.

The Logic of Wild Mushroom Wine Pairing

Mushrooms carry glutamates, which give that savoury depth, and the same earthy, forest-floor aromas that develop in red wines with bottle age. Match like with like, the same principle that governs truffle wine pairing. A wine with savoury, secondary character and moderate tannin will meet the mushroom on its own terms; a fruit-driven wine with heavy oak will taste sweet and clumsy beside it. Acidity matters too, because mushrooms are so often cooked in butter or cream.

The Bottles

Pinot Noir: the natural partner

The forest-floor note of mature red Burgundy is the classic echo of porcini and hen-of-the-woods.

• Domaine de Montille Volnay. Taut, savoury Côte de Beaune red with a long record for ageing. Shop it at Wine.com
• Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Dundee Hills. Burgundian in temperament, with the red fruit to carry a mushroom ragù. Shop it at Wine.com

Nebbiolo from the mountains

Valtellina, in Lombardy, makes Nebbiolo (called Chiavennasca locally) lighter and more alpine than Barolo, ideal for porcini risotto.

• Ar.Pe.Pe. Rosso di Valtellina. Fine-boned, mineral, with dried-flower notes. Shop it at Wine.com

Etna Rosso: volcanic and savoury

Nerello Mascalese from the slopes of Etna combines Pinot-like transparency with smoky, volcanic character, a natural match for grilled porcini and black trumpets.

• Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso. The benchmark entry to the appellation. Shop it at Wine.com
• Benanti Etna Rosso. From a family that helped build Etna’s modern reputation. Shop it at Wine.com

Aged Rioja: for roasted and braised mushrooms

Traditional Rioja, long-aged in old American oak, turns to leather, dried cherry and mushroom. With hen-of-the-woods or a mushroom and lamb dish, it is hard to better.

• López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Reserva. Released with years of age, still taut with acidity. Shop it at Wine.com

Jura: for morels and cream

Savagnin aged under a veil of yeast, as for vin jaune, gives walnut, curry spice and salinity: the regional pairing for morels in cream.

• Jean Macle Château-Chalon. The reference vin jaune of its appellation. Serve cool, not cold, and decant. Shop it at Wine.com

Chardonnay: for chanterelles and butter

A Chardonnay with modest oak and good acidity frames buttery chanterelles and cream sauces.

• Domaine du Pélican Arbois Chardonnay. Topped-up, unoxidised Jura Chardonnay from the Marquis d’Angerville’s Jura estate, precise and saline. Shop it at Wine.com

A Word on Foraging

Buy wild mushrooms from a specialist greengrocer, a trusted market stall or a supplier who names the source. Do not eat anything you have picked unless an expert has identified it in hand. The death cap, Amanita phalloides, accounts for most fatal mushroom poisonings in Europe and can be mistaken for edible species; false morels (Gyromitra) resemble true ones. In Italy, local health authorities run mycological inspection services where foragers can have a basket checked. Use them, and never rely on an app or a photograph.

For wild mushroom wine pairing at its purest, roast a single porcino, slice it, salt it and pour a glass of mature Pinot Noir. Nothing else is needed.