Microbe matching

Mid-afternoon cravings for sauerkraut are alarming enough but potentially disastrous when there is a raft of Touraine Sauvignon Blancs in front of you, waiting to be tasted. Sauerkraut is so wine-combative that it doesn't even get a mention in Victoria Moore's Wine Dine Dictionary. Add a hefty dose of raw garlic, dill, cumin and black pepper, and you've got a pile of pungency that will make the sturdiest wine glass bend (away) in terror.

But cravings are cravings. And despite what my mother thinks, I do have maternal instincts: I'm determined to...