Problems in Wine-Pairing Land: Conflicting Advice About Tomatoes


It's been a tough tomato season. Blight.Bad weather.Overfarming. Here's one more headache for tomato lovers: wine pairings.

No one seems to agree on what to serve with the tricky love apples. Some experts, like Katie Workman at Hungry Beast, suggest that we avoid acidic wines. "Tomatoes are acidic...the first step in pairing is often to eliminate things you don't want: in this case, overly acidic wines."

Others, like Todd Thrasher at Slashfood, say, no no no, you DO want acidic wines. "Tomatoes are super high in acid... so you usually have to pair tomatoes with wines that are super high in acid."

Natalie MacLean agrees with Thrasher. As she noted not too long ago in our Epi-Log: "[You need] a wine with enough acidity and tangy fruit flavors to match the tomatoes, such as the white wine pinot grigio or reds like barbera and barbaresco."

She goes on to say that it depends on whether or not the tomatoes are cooked. Raw tomatoes have more acid. Cooked ones get sweet and pair better with "valpolicella or even pinot noir from cool climates." That made sense to me. Unfortunately, it contradicts what Thrasher said when asked if there were any absolute no-nos with raw tomatoes. "Personally I wouldn't drink a Pinot Noir. I think the acid in the tomatoes would really eat up the wine."

No wonder people don't understand wine pairings. What's your take on matching tomatoes with wine?


by James Oliver Cury

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