Learn
Melted cheese in a griddled tortilla. Simpler than it looks, and bubbles win.
Cava, a dry rosado, or a light Garnacha. Cheese and griddled tortilla, so carbonation does most of the work.
A quesadilla is cheese melted inside a tortilla and griddled until the outside crisps. Stripped down, it is fat and starch with a toasted edge — and whatever has been added, the melted cheese is what your palate registers first and longest.
Melted cheese coats the tongue thoroughly, and the tortilla adds starch that dulls it further. There is nothing acidic in the base dish to cut through either, which is why a soft, round wine simply merges into it.
Carbonation is the most effective tool: bubbles physically lift a cheese coating off the palate in a way still acidity cannot. That is why sparkling wine outperforms its price here, exactly as with nachos and fried chicken.
The salt helps too — a well-made quesadilla is salty, and salt makes wine taste rounder and fruitier, so an inexpensive bottle shows well.
Cava. Bottle-fermented with at least nine months on the lees, which gives it a bready savouriness that suits toasted tortilla. Cheap enough to open casually, which suits the food.
A dry rosado. Fruit for the salsa and any chorizo, no tannin for the chilli to sharpen, and served cold.
Garnacha if the filling is substantial — beef, chorizo, mushrooms. Keep it light and cool; a 15% bottle will fight any chilli on the plate.
Chicken tinga, chorizo or beef make it a meat dish and open the door to a light red. Mushroom and huitlacoche make it earthy, which suits a Mencía or a light Pinot Noir.
Pickled jalapeños bring vinegar as well as heat, and vinegar resets the palate to a high acidity — another argument for something sharp rather than soft.
Served with guacamole and sour cream, as they usually are, the dish gets fattier still and the case for bubbles only gets stronger. What to avoid: oaked Chardonnay, which combines with melted cheese into something heavy and cloying with nothing to refresh it.
Melted cheese coats the tongue and the tortilla adds starch, with nothing acidic in the dish to cut through. Bubbles physically lift that coating in a way still wine cannot.
If the filling is meaty — beef, chorizo, chicken tinga. Keep it light, low in tannin and cool; a big warm red will fight any chilli on the plate.
Oaked Chardonnay. It is the instinctive choice for something cheesy and it combines with melted cheese into something heavy and cloying, with nothing left to refresh the palate.
Scan any label to identify a wine, learn why it tastes the way it does, and build your palate. Free to download, with Premium for unlimited scans.
