Food Pairing- Zeppoli's (Italy)

Last Sunday I went to Zeppoli’s for the twice monthly wine food pairings with a few friends.  I was excited to learn the region being tasted this tasting was Italy, as I have little experience with Old World Italian Wines (and if truth be known, just about every other region too), especially with food.  And I know from class that Old World wine are especially expressive when paired with food.

We loaded up our plates and were ready to go.  The food was a nice mix of light Italian (light pasta salad, house salad and crackers) and heavy Italian foods (pizza bread, ravioli, cheeses).  They, as expected, recommended focusing more on the light foods with the white wines and the heavier foods with the reds.

The first wine to be tasted was their Fossi Bianco White Table Wine.  This wine runs at $6.99 and has only 11.5% alcohol content.  It was good to start out with.  The description from the winery is that it is ‘light, refreshing and easy to enjoy.’  Nothing could be closer to the truth.  It was not too fruity or sweet and was refreshing, but the main thought that came ot my mind is that it was very easy and not complex at all.  I tried it with some house salad and Miditeranean pasta salad and it definitely paired better with the latter.

The second wine was Nals Margried 2010 Pinot Grigio Alto Adige prices at $13.99, with a 14% alcohol content.  30% of it is oaked, but I can never pull out an oaky flavor in any wine that I taste, I think I do not know what I am supposed to be looking for.  This was a thicker and drier wine than the first and food actually made a big difference in taste.  My favorite pairing, unexpectedly, was with the ravioli.  Unfortunately I got too excited to taste the wine and forgot to take a picture of the wine itself.

The third wine is the La Fiera 2010 Pinot Gregio Veneto which is extremely friendly to the wallat at $7.99 with a 12% alcohol content.  Pear tastes came through strong, making it sweeter.  There was not much of a difference in taste when paired with food though.  It is interesting to note, although I’m not sure whether it is a fair generalization, but so far the cheaper wines have not been as complex and are no more expressive when paired with food.

The last white wine of the group was Lodali 2011 Moscato D’Asti.  It is $12.99 and has only a 5.5% alcohol content.  D’Asti means sparkling, so I became extremely excited for the wine and it lived up to my expectations.  I love sweet wines and this almost tasted like soda.  It had very ‘grapy’ flavors.  Definitely a delicious dessert wine, but it is not as good to pair with food for me.  The sweetness took over my entire palate, even when eating heavy, flavorful foods.

Now onto the reds.  The first red tasted was Luca Primitivo del Salento Puglia at $8.99 with a 13% alcohol content.  The main thing I noticed from this wine is that food makes such a difference.  The wine becomes much more complex and enjoyable.

SUD 2010 Primitivo Pugia is the sixth wine, running at $11.99 with a 13.5% alcohol content.  The initial taste is sweet and fruity followed by a spicy, herby mid palate and finally finishing with a hotter and even spicier finish.  I enjoyed the wine more when tasted with food as it brought out the sweetness and toned down the hotness.  I do not like to be able to sense the alcohol in the wine.

Seventh was Morli Neri 2009 Chianti DOCG at $12.99 and 12.5% alcohol.  The winemakers describe it as traditional and having a great compatibility with food, especially red sauce based foods.  I took their advice and tasted it with ravioli and pizza bread, which it paired well with, as they had suggested.  This, like the first wine, was sweet at the beginning and became more spicy on the midpalate.  The food tamed the unpleasant spiciness down.  It was not as hot as the previous wine.

It was interesting to me that both the previous two wines were chianti wines but tasted so different.  I preferred the second as it was less hot and ‘alcoholy’ and longer lasting.

The eighth wine tasted was Bibi Graetz 2010 Casamata Toscana.  It costs $12.99 with 12% alcohol.  This wine, like the last two, were hot on the finish.  But this one was too hot.  I did not want to drink more of it at all until I paired it with some food and then it became bearable.  However, I would never purchase this wine because it was too hot to me.

The grand finale was the Lodali 2009 Nebbiolo D’Alba Sant Ambrogrio running at $17.99 (the most expensive of the day) with a 13.5% alcohol content.  The expense was worth it.  It spends 12 months in an oak barrel, but like I said previously, it is hard for me to identify that taste.  It was a dry wine, which I usually don’t appreciate but it worked for this particular bottle.  The main part I liked was the not too hot finish.  Very refreshing after the last three tastings.  I took the advice of the winemakers who recommend pairing with pasta and cheese and it truly did bring out character of the wine when I tried it with ravioli and cheese.

All in all I would consider my food wine pairing a success.  I learned a lot about different flavors of wine and how important it is to pair food with wine when tasting to bring out the best character of the wine.  I was not a fan of most of the Italian reds, so perhaps I should look into different regions.