Everyone has a tomato and wine moment - don’t they? Mine was sitting at the counter in Portuguese small plates restaurant Bar Douro in London’s Borough, savouring a simple salad of the sweetest heritage tomatoes dressed in a white port vinaigrette. Owner Max Graham poured a ‘Nat Cool’ – a natural wine from Douro winery Pormenor (which he sells from his wine shop wearefesta.co.uk) – a light-bodied red called ‘Ginga’ made with a ‘field blend’, its plummy notes working handsomely with the tomatoes, the acidity well-matched, while the wine’s savoury flavours dialled up the umami in the tomatoes. Wine nerdery, I know, but it really did hit the spot, and it blows a long-held myth that tomatoes are a tad tricky when it comes to pairing with wine.

Now that we are in the full throes of summer, tomatoes are on every menu, served every which way. But what to drink with them? Well, there is lots to choose from. Just work out how you will be preparing your tomatoes - raw or cooked, a sweet dressing, or with cheese, then take it from there. And pay attention to the intensity of the dish as your wine match should equal that level of intensity if you want to balance those flavours. Plus, some kitchen alchemy to note: acidic foods make wines taste less acidic, so tart wines will taste fruiter when paired with tomatoes, while richer wines will lean towards the flabby. Which leads to another consideration, there are many different varieties of tomatoes out there, boasting lots of different flavours - more than 10,000 in fact. Just saying. One more thing to think about - what else will be on the plate? If it’s grilled tomatoes with a big juicy steak, say, then it’s the meat you need to be matching.

Don’t want to spend too long thinking about it? Then how about following Isa Bal’s lead? The multi-award-winning Turkish ex-Fat Duck sommelier at London’s Trivet restaurant suggests, as a rule of thumb, looking at countries that eat a lot of tomatoes (Spain, Italy et al), then just choose a wine from there to match. Simples. 'Rioja always works well with tomato-based dishes, as do most Italian wines, however they’re cooked,' explains Bal. 'I swear by Sangiovese, which is the grape behind Chianti – I find that it works brilliantly with pretty much any cooked tomato dish.'

Consider umami. Yes, tomatoes boast lots of it (add Parmesan and you can double that). For the ultimate tomato umami hit consider pairing them with a wine similarly endowed. On that note, I’ve always loved fino sherry with tomatoes, however they come. The savoury, nutty, salty character of the sherry does a little dance when paired with tomatoes, roasted, or as a salad, dressed with olive oil and salt. For Bal, though, it’s sake. 'Though I’m talking premium sake here, a junmai or junmai daiginjo, served nice and chilled,' he advises.

Sandia Chang, the Californian sommelier and beverage director at the two Michelin-starred Kitchen Table restaurant in Marylebone, is also rather partial to pairing tomatoes with sake to up those umami levels. But she has found her quintessential tomato-friendly wine a little nearer to home, in Mosel Riesling. 'When it’s a cold salad preparation, I love Riesling. Or to be more specific, Rudolf and Rita Trossen’s Schieferblume Riesling – it goes with every single kind of tomato dish,' she reveals. 'I also love white wine from the Rhône Valley, such as Marsanne or Condrieu. And for both salads and cooked tomato dishes, look at light reds, such as Gamay from Beaujolais.'

Though the match closest to home of all is English sparkling wine, believes Spring sommelier, South Africa-born Monique Ziervogel, where chef-owner Skye Gyngell serves up a roster of punchy dishes bursting with fresh, zesty flavours at her restaurant in London’s iconic Somerset House. 'It’s just great with raw tomato dishes,' she says, citing Oxney sparkling rosé with gazpacho as a standout pairing. 'Another favourite is Greek wine Gaia’s wild ferment Assyrtiko, with Skye’s guinea fowl served with raw tomatoes and anchovy butter,' she adds.

It turns out Ziervogel is rather fond of curve balls. 'Skye uses a lot of tomatoes in her cooking, so I’ve had a lot of experience finding interesting wines to pair with those dishes,' she explains. On a recent visit, Ziervogel offered a clever pairing of Ezio Poggio’s fresh, minerally Timorasso from the Piedmont with a pork tonnato topped with intense yellow Southern Italian datterini tomatoes (the latter easily the dominant flavour), but it was the salmon-hued, pomegranate-scented skin contact Pinot Grigio Fuoripista from Trentino winemaker Elisabetta Foradori that won the day with a dish of monkfish and clams in a richly flavoured tomato-based stew, with fennel, rosemary and aioli. In fact, skin contact wines in general offer yet another rich source of pairing possibilities with tomato dishes, their famously savoury and gently tannic profile enhancing the match.