Guest Wine Experts
We are starting a new thing here at Vine and asking our friends and cohorts to do their own wine reviews and wine pairings. Thus allowing all of us to expose our own internal Robert Parker, watch out you might be next.
So without further ado I present one 'experts' opinon on Heirloom tomatoes and the Morgadio Albarino:
This pairing was definitely influenced by the exciting final episode of Hell's Kitchen. We hate and we love. We try and try again.
I hate tomatoes but 10 percent of the year. I can't stand the mushy, cardboard-tasting sodden lumps that sit forlornly in the supermarket in, say, March. As a kid I looked forward to the few weeks of the summer when the miraculous Venn diagram of garden lettuce, cukes, and tomatoes would converge, allowing for a sandwich that, larded with mayo, proved to be the best lunch of the year.
Have you ever seen 40 pounds of tomatoes? It's a sight to behold. Talitha gave me a selection, and with those and the bottle of Morgadio Rias Baixas 2004, I trotted home to begin the pairing.
We were very organized. First, we tasted the wine (to make sure it wasn't poisonous, of course). Tart, crisp. Floral nose. Light but with a nice, long finish. Not bad. We decided to let it breathe. In the meantime, I lovingly examined our heirloom tomatoes. We had your standard red, a green with red highlights, and a gorgeous yellow shot through with red. Slicing them up, I tasted each on its own. Good heirloom tomatoes are like oysters. They don't really need an accompaniment.
So we set it up in stages. Tomatoes and wine. Tomatoes and basil and wine. And finally (and perhaps the most potentially calamitous), tomatoes and mozzarella (or, as my Brooklyn Eyetalian family says, muhtzarrelle).
A good tomato has more to offer than just acidity. It should be sweet and fulsome. The green variety was sharp and matched the acid and the texture of the wine. And it really brought out the minerality. The salt and pepper enhanced this. The yellow was sweet and soft and after the wine had a chance to breathe it paired nicely with the wine. Adding a bit of the basil brought out the wine's natural herbaceous notes. The red tomato was red. No less delicious, but compared to its more vibrant counterparts it seemed...mundane. But the tomatoes and the wine: a perfect zen pairing.
Now, scientists will tell you that cheese will alter your ability to truly taste wine. That's why I saved it for last. Because as much as I believe in chemistry and science and all that other gobbeldygook, let's be real: we don't eat meals in a vacuum. And basil, fresh mozzarella, and tomatoes are like my holy trinity. Tasting this combo with the wine, though, proved a bit disappointing. The wine doesn't stand up to the milky richness of the mozz. I went back to the kitchen to try a few more experiments.
I cut open a clove of garlic. And this is how I made my discovery of the perfect pairing for the Rias Baixas and the tomatoes. Take some slices of fresh Italian semolina bread (or baguette--we're not picky), drizzle them with oil, and them with garlic. Plop some slices of heirloom and basil a la chiffonade and really, there is nothing better. (If you're a die-hard cheese fan, though, my recommendation is this: Trader Joe's pizza crust, slices of heirlooms, some basil and thin slices of garlic, and a generous sprinkling of the pecorino romano, in the oven till it gets all warm and crispy.)
Something about the tomatoes, the hint of garlic and the Morgadio Rias Baixas 2004: really, so much more satisfying than the results of the Hell's Kitchen competition.
