I love love fresh summer tomatoes, and here in the Northeast US, we are just getting into high season. This year seems to be a good one, with farmers markets packed to the gills with delicious tomatoes of all colors and sizes. But I don’t know what to drink with them. Sauvignon Blanc? That works ok sometimes. Riesling? ditto. Champagne? Not as good as I’d expect. I suspect the answer is some Italian white, but I haven’t found a reliable match. So what do you all like with fresh tomatoes?
And again for other fresh summer veggies? What do you like with cucumbers, carrots, summer squashes, sugar peas etc? Wine pairing with big hunks of meat seems much easier than fresh light vegetables.
Innocuous summer quaffers will always work, but I’m looking for something on the more serious side, if possible. After all, there are few foods as profound as a peak ripe tomato right off the vine.
To me, wines that have fruit sweetness balanced by mineral umami are the best thing with high summer produce. Ligurian whites, south of France Roses, dry/feinherb German Riesling, Gruner Veltliner. For reds, either Austrian reds (St. Laurent and Blaufrankisch especially) or offbeat northern Italian/Savoiard things like Mondeuse, Refosco, Freisa or Lagrein.
The most perfect use of the tomato is the BLT and with the BLT sherry works amazingly well.
Not exactly what you asked but important nonetheless.
Honestly, when it comes to matching with fresh vegetables, I don’t think too hard about it. I generally just drink whatever hits my mood that day. It’s generally going to be something with a bit more acidity and if red lower alcohol and less tannin.
With the reemergence of “heirloom verities” good market tomatoes have become almost as diverse as wine is. Some are meaty, earthy and low acid, some are bright, zesty and citrus like, others are sweet peachy almost like candy and on and on. So sad to say I don’t think a single wine is the answer.
For meaty, I like light, low tannin, low alcohol, dry reds with a chill think gamay, German, Austrian and north eastern Italian reds, and all the glou glou stuff.
For citrusy, meet acid with acid but also a mineral, herby edge, so first among sort of equals I love vermentino but also dry chenin, gruner veltliner, melon and albarino just to name a few.
And the candy, I think bubbly with some sweetness and an herby edge like lambrusco, Loire demi-secs, and a bunch of pet-nats.