With Tomatoes, It's an Acid Test

We're purists when it comes to fresh tomatoes. After avoiding them for the better part of a year, we'll make up for lost time once they're finally in season, eating tomatoes every chance we get. Especially in light of our delayed gratification, we want to make sure the wines we pour with them only add to the experience, celebrating their flavor and rewarding our patience.

Ripe tomatoes' juicy sweetness reminds us that they are technically fruit, and our first instinct is to match them with equally fruity wines. But the driving factor is more often tomatoes' natural acidity, which can be quite high even before they're dressed. That's when we return to our pairing maxim that "acid loves acid."

Wine's acidity creates structure: too little, and a wine is perceived as "flat" on the palate; too much, and it's unpleasantly sour.

To gauge a wine's acidity, first check the label. Many include the wine's pH level, which typically falls between 2.9 and 3.9 for table wines. More commonly, white wines have a pH of 3.0 to 3.3 and red wines a pH of 3.3 to 3.8. The lower the number, the higher the acidity. Second, simply taste the wine. As a general rule, the more a wine makes your mouth water -- literally -- the higher its acidity.

Our foremost pairing maxim is to "think regionally." To accompany pasta tossed with crushed fresh tomatoes, we poured a delightfully zingy 2006 Lagaria Pinot Grigio ($11). "Italians, tomato specialists if ever there were any, often drink a white wine like gavi or pinot grigio, or a red like Chianti or Barbera -- all wines that are high in acidity -- with fresh tomato dishes as well as tomato-sauce-based dishes," noted Karen MacNeil, author of the acclaimed book "The Wine Bible" (Workman, 2001), in a recent e-mail to us.

The Spanish love their tomatoes, too. Chef-restaurateur José Andrés devotes an entire chapter to tomatoes in his passionate book "Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America" (Clarkson Potter, 2005). Andrés, whose holdings include the three area Jaleo tapas bars, prefers dry La Gitana manzanilla sherry to accompany chilled gazpacho. With raw tomato dishes, Jaleo executive chef Terri Cutrino is a fan of any cava or of an albariño, such as Nessa or Nora. Jaleo's beverage manager, Brian Cook, recommends a 2005 Pazo Señorans Albariño ($23 retail) with Jaleo's cherry tomatoes stuffed with crabmeat.

Chefs and sommeliers will explore the gamut of high-acid wines during tomato season. At the Blue Duck Tavern in the West End, chef Brian McBride matches a salad of heirloom tomatoes, Pipe Dreams goat cheese and Round Pond vinaigrette with Napa Valley's 2005 Mason Cellars Sauvignon Bla nc ($17.50 retail). At BLT Steak downtown, sommelier Dan Warrilow pairs executive chef Phet Schwader's heirloom tomato salad and grilled onion vinaigrette with a 2006 La Courtade "L'Alycastre" Rosé ($14 retail) from Provence.

We admire the spirit of Robert Weland, chef of Poste Moderne Brasserie, who grows heirloom tomatoes in gardens both at home and at the Penn Quarter restaurant. Turning them into a salad with purslane, purple shiso, burrata cheese and tomato ice cream, he accompanies the dish with a 2003 Chalk Hill Pinot Gris ($42 retail).

Bubbles pair nicely with tomato dishes, too. At the Majestic in Alexandria, wine director Sonnett Malan pours NV Scharffenberger Brut ($19 retail) sparkling wine with executive chef Shannon Overmiller's seared-scallop, tomato and avocado salad dressed with tomato water, lemon juice and scallions.

The highlight of our recent tomatoes-and-wine tasting was a triple whammy: the wines of B.R. Cohn paired with tomatoes dressed with the winery's own award-winning olive oils and vinegars ( http://www.brcohnoliveoil.com) and a sprinkle of kosher salt. We tasted the most extraordinary olive oil of our lives at Casa Pons in Spain, but Cohn's still managed to make us sit up and take notice.

The wines did, too. Two whites, the 2006 B.R. Cohn Napa Valley Grieve Family Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc ($20) and the 2006 B.R. Cohn Sonoma County Chardonnay ($24), were refreshingly bright on their own. But the latter, accompanied by sliced tomatoes dressed with B.R. Cohn olive oil and B.R. Cohn Pear Chardonnay Vinegar, was one of the best pairings we've had this year. Heaven.

The best bargain find of our tasting was the 2006 Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc ($10), which is bright and crisp with bracing lemony acidity (reflected in its pH of 3.17) that can stand up to all but the tartest of vinegars you might be tempted to sprinkle on your tomatoes.

The sight of overflowing market bins makes it easy to forget that tomato season, too, shall pass. When that time comes, we'll share some of our favorite high-acid reds to accompany the tomato sauces that inevitably follow.

Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, award-winning authors of "What to Drink With What You Eat," can be reached through their Web site,http://www.becomingachef.com,or atfood@washpost.com.