(Note: I have discontinued the series of posts on choosing wine from a wine list as I have taken a job as Wine Director of a rival restaurant in Pittsburgh. But I will continue to write about matching food & wine, beginning right now.) If I take a peek at my garden, I have tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and corn. So I walked down to the grocery store and bought an onion and went to the fish market for some shrimp and - voila! - fresh gazpacho!
The problem is gazpacho isn't the easiest thing to find a wine for. Tomatoes have a good bit of acidity in them. + as a chef once taught me, the key to great gazpacho is a really good vinegar providing the balance.
If you search around the internet, you see a lot of people that aren't sure what will work. You also see a lot of people who give things a try and fail.
Here are my two suggestions. (1) Take a hint from the food. Where is gazpacho from? Spain. Try a crisp Spanish white. This was the solution I used. At my restaurant I'm currently pouring 2006 Albarino from the producer Vionta in Galicia. Crisp, fresh and lively, the albarino and gazpacho are perfect comlplements to each other, each as refreshing as the other. (2) One other choice is a rose with good acidity. I recommend either a Tavel Rose from France's Rhone Valley or an Italian Rosado.
In short, don't fret. You already know that you have the perfect ingredients for gazpacho in your garden. Follow my suggestios and you'll have no problems...
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