Bruschetta

Bruschetta

Assuming grilled sourdough rubbed with garlic and topped with chopped raw tomato, basil and olive oil.

Raw tomato is sharper than cooked tomato and more savoury with it, and the two together make tannin taste metallic while flattening any wine short on acidity. The basil pulls the other way and asks for perfume. The grilled bread adds a smoky edge that a wine with no savoury character at all will simply ignore.

Pairs Perfectly. A pale Tuscan rosato, Italy. Made from Sangiovese, which means it arrives with sour cherry and dried herb and a faintly savoury, almost tomato like edge of its own, rather than the strawberry sweetness of most pink wine. High acid for the raw tomato, no tannin to turn metallic, and enough substance to notice the char.

Pairs Well. Sauvignon Blanc, Sancerre, France. Gooseberry and green herb with flinty grip and a high acid line. It meets the basil directly and clears the tomato.

Pairs Well. Malagousia, Imathia, Greece. Peach and orange blossom with a herbal lift, aromatic without being sweet. The perfume runs alongside the basil rather than over it.

Worth Seeking Out

Frappato from Sicily, Italy. A pale red of rose petal and strawberry with almost no tannin, served cool. Sicilians drink it with tomato, anchovy and everything off the grill, and it is one of the few reds that raw tomato cannot defeat.

Avoid

Tannic reds and oaked whites. Raw tomato turns tannin metallic, and a barrel sits heavily on a plate meant to taste of summer.

Failing That

A Verdicchio, Marche, Italy.

If All Else Fails

Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough.

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