Piemonte Wine Food Pairings

Video Transcript

Hi! I am Mark Middlebrook. I am here in the Paul Marcus Wines Cantina. And, in this segment I am going to talk about paring Piemonteze wines with food. And, I have four wines to talk about that with. I drink a lot of Ruero Arneis, this white wine from Piemonte. There are others like Gavi that are equally, equally good. But, and I found this is a great aperitif. It goes well with all kinds of antipasti. First course type things. Pretty well with anchovies. There is a, Piemonteze cuisine uses a lot of anchovy and it is a pretty tricky thing to pare with most wines. But, Arneis does the job quick handily. It is also a wonderful wine with all kinds of fish, including raw fish. I ate at a restaurant in the Ruero once and they served several course of raw fish and the Arneis combination with that was brilliant. So, this would be a fun wine to take to the sushi bar and see how it goes with those sorts of things. Now moving to the reds. We have got Barbera, Dolcetto, and Nebbiolo. The three most important red grape varieties in Piemonte. Barbera, what distinguishes Barbera is high tangy acidity and very low tannin. So, it makes your mouth water, stands up to tomatoes and anything that has a lot of acid in it. But, it does not have a lot of tannins so it is relatively mild, easy to drink. And, on the other hand, maybe not the best thing for big hearty meat where you like to have that tannin. So, this is really the wine par excellence for all the stereotypical Italian foods. Pizza, pasta, lasagna, anything with tomato sauce. But, also a great chicken wine. You know, whatever you are having on a weekday meal. Barbera will do the trick and refresh your palate. Dolcetto is another wonderful everyday wine from Piemonte. And, what distinguishes it, besides the flavor, from Barbera is that it is got moderate acidity but a little bit of tannin. Little bit of grip. Little bit of that bitey character. Not too much though. It is not really intensely tannic. But, because of that tannin which binds well with protein, I like to have it with foods that have a little bit of protein in them. Cheese, certainly but also things like salami. Anything that is a little bit meaty Dolcetto makes a really fine accompaniment for. And finally, Nebbiolo. Whether it is a Nebbiolo d'Alba, such as this one, or a Barolo or Barbaresco, Ruero, any of the great Nebbiolos. Nebbiolo, unlike Barbera and Dolcetto, really has pretty pronounced tannins. They can be tamed a little bit in the wine making process, but the grape naturally lends a lot of tannin to the wine. So, generally they are aged a little bit longer and I often like to drink them with foods that can stand up to tannin. And, that generally means meat. In Piemonte, they like to take meat and braise the hell out of it in red wine for a long time and that is a wonderful combination for Nebbiolo. But, if you do not eat meat or just do not want to have meat that particular time you are having the wine, cheese is another wonderful combination with a tannic wine. Whether it is a hunk of parmigiana reggiano or any of the more aged cheeses. So, get yourself some Piemonteze wines and have some great meals.

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