Wine Advocate Weekend Pairings: Summer Tomatoes & Peaches
-
RP Digital
- 31 Aug 2018 | News & Views
As Labor Day weekend approaches, we’re making the most of what the season has to offer—namely, juicy tomatoes and peaches, bursting with flavor.
At Andrew Carmellini’s buzzy New York City institution, The Dutch, executive chef Jason Hua serves a popular salad during the summertime featuring both tomatoes and peaches during the peak of their season. His heirloom tomato salad is served with cucumbers and basil in a peach vinaigrette, making it a great appetizer for all of your end-of-summer dining needs.
“As someone who spends a lot of time in Southern Italy, I eat my share of raw tomatoes,” says Monica Larner. “My favorite wines to pair with the fleshy sweetness of tomatoes, especially during the hot summer months, have a salty or pronounced mineral component. Vietti’s 2017 Roero Arneis is a crisp, luminous and absolutely refreshing white wine from Northern Italy to pair with those vibrant, raw and sweet flavors you find in the South.”
At one-Michelin-starred Aster in San Francisco’s lively Mission District, chef Brett Cooper and team are best known for working closely with farmers in the Bay Area to source vibrant product to be featured in Aster’s dishes. The team has a frozen peach dessert with coconut and flaxseed crisp currently as the final course on the restaurant's new seven-course tasting menu.
“A dish with both sweet and pickled flavors can be a bit tough on most wines, easily overpowering the vino,” says Erin Brooks. “For this dish, with its array of flavors ranging from peach and coconut to flax and vinegar, it's best to go with a classic sweet Riesling. The 2016 Selbach-Oster Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spatlese has plenty of sweetness to match the sweet flavors of this peachy dessert, with enough laser-y acidity to accent the pickled flavors in the dish.”