old world, same me
One thing you should know about me, I’m an avid listener.
Which I’ll admit sounds kind of weird, but I like to listen. It’s my default mode in any setting (social or professional).
This also manifests itself in the way I consume a lot of content.
I love podcasts.
Love em’.
Audiobooks, I have 50+.
If I ever get back to the other side of this site, the “thought leadership” portion, I have a whole blog sketched out on podcasts and the audio medium’s place in entertainment, its past, and its future.
Which, makes sense on how we got onto this next blog. I was listening to a podcast.
If you read our previous “how it’s made” post, you’ll know that I am all about some SommTV. The head of that outfit, Jason Wise, in addition to producing stellar movies also hosts a semi-regular podcast on all things wine. The stories in wine, the business surrounding wine, his experiences making the movies, you name it. This past June, he sat down with noted winemaker Steve Matthiasson to talk about BS in wine, a fantastic topic.
One of the things they spent some time bantering about was food and wine pairings.
Bullshit, they claimed.
Which, I have a problem with.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, one of the key things they teach you in wine school (I can say that now) is that the guest’s preference should, in essence, override any rule about food and wine pairing. If your guest really wants to drink pinot grigio with fish and chips, or tempranillo with chicken tika masala, let them.
But to say it’s bullshit, or that there isn’t actual science behind it is a touch dramatic.
Food and wine pairing is one of the primary components in the first two levels of the WSET curriculum.
Exhibit A. the following grid:
Source - Hungry for More
This helpful little chart paints the picture of the effect a wine will have on food, and vice-versa. (or is it affect, I can never remember)
If you don’t believe me, I ask you to try two things.
Try a dry, ripe, white wine after having something sweet, like a New Zealand sauv blanc after having a bite of funfetti birthday cake, the wine will taste super bitter because all you’re experiencing are the “dry” aspects of the wine.
Try a tiny pinch of salt with a napa cab. When you do, the tannins will softly fade and you’ll be left with more of the sweet, luscious blue/black fruits alongside an oak (vanilla) bomb.
The shit works, I don’t know how else to say it. Food and wine go together.
Naturally, I wanted to take all of this a step further. Besides beef and red wine, what other combinations were out there that work?
Enter Big Macs & Burgundy: Wine Pairings for the Real World by Adam Laukhuf and Vanessa Price. This book was reviewed by Master Sommelier Jill Zimorski on her... podcast (see what I mean!) “Reading & Drinking.”
Anything wine-related recommended by a Master Somm has my attention, so a few weeks later, I was at Barnes and Noble dropping $16 on a fantastic paperback.
Wine pro Vanessa Price proves you don’t need Haute cuisine to unlock the joys of wine. Pairing more than 300 popular foods from healthy staples to everyday meals to dinner—party bites and your favorite guilty pleasures—with wine picks for every budget, Price serves up memorable takeaways that will help you navigate any wine list or bottle shop, alongside colorful tales from her own journey to the top of the wine business.
This book was right up my alley from the jump. The first pairing they talk about was Sancerre (a.k.a. sauv blanc, sense a pattern?) and Cheetos. P.S., it works.
It’s a fun read, especially for wine nerds, but I need to get back to the point. One of the first pairings she suggested was $0.99 pizza (slice) and Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. And that’s where we get to this month’s wine. Zaccagnini Montepulciano D'Abruzzo.
One Cool Thing
Montepulciano is a town in Tuscany and this specific grape variety is actually called Montepulciano, but, the grape is most notably grown east of Rome in Abruzzo.
(Not in Montepulciano)
old world, new… me?
This wine threw me a bit.
In a lot of old-world wines, particularly from prestigious regions, the wine is often named after the place it comes from (an oversimplification, but easy to grasp at a high level). Chablis is always Chardonnay from Chablis in France (Burgundy). Barolo is always Nebiolo, from Barolo in Italy, and Brunello Di Montelcino, aka Sangeovese, is from Montelcino in Italy.
I’ve been to Montepulciano, it’s a quaint place in Tuscany with beautiful rolling hills, ancient Tuscan buildings, amazing wine, and incredible food. But, Montepulciano (the grape), isn’t the star of Tuscany. Sangiovese is.
Montepulciano, the grape, actually grows best east of Rome in the area of Abruzzo pictured here: (hence Montepulciano D’Abruzzo).
Source - CNN
There are undoubtedly a few reasons for this, and I think you’ll mostly taste it if you were to ever compare them side by side.
According to our friends over at James Suckling, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wines often come from the cooler sites of Abruzzo and Marche, where the calcareous, limestone soil offers another boost for quality.
you had me at pizza
One of the reasons why this was paired with a $0.99 slice is the quality. Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is not known for producing high-caliber wines, unfortunately. Meaning you have to pick and chose this wine carefully.
But, when you do, and particularly if you pair it alongside the right kind of food… ehem, I mean pizza, the two play well together for a few reasons:
Tomato sauce and high acid. The acidity cancels each other out (in essence) and you get more of the fruit from the wine, which I like.
Mozzarella is fatty and glorious. The acid from the wine, in this case, counteracts that appropriately, also softening some of the tannin.
It’s pizza and Italian wine. There’s something cosmic going on there that I don’t think any of us can fully comprehend.
Since I don’t live in NYC where $0.99 slices are a real thing, I went with a frozen cheese pizza (Freschetta specifically), as I thought the quality of both would be about on par, and the results were what I hoped. Fantastic.
what about the wine?
Again, this wine isn’t what you might expect if you’re thinking Tuscany. Which I was.
It didn’t have the bright red cherry and the super high acid that a Sangiovese would. The color was much richer, more of a purple than ruby, and for the price point, had a nuanced structure than I wasn’t expecting.
It was bolder, had stronger tannins, still had some elevated acid, but it was more downplayed.
The fruit was there, but it was purple-y (that’s a scientific term), some plum and blackberry. It still had some red fruits, but they were more on the raspberry side, and of course, the herbaceousness that you’d expect from an Italian wine, plus a touch of oak. This wine isn’t meant to age, so open it when you get home and enjoy!
-Dustin