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Delightful! Brachetto d’Acqui is simply delightful.

 The first time I tried one was at a wine bar in LA many years ago, way before I got into studying or working in wine. It was part of a flight and it overcame me with its delightfulness. Lightly fizzy, sweet but not cloying, refreshing, and bursting with strawberry flavors. Charming. I asked about it and went out to buy myself a bottle a few days later.

I don’t drink it often enough, but I think we can all use a little delightfulness right about now. I opened a bottle the other night with dessert. The impetus for ordering this particular bottle was this month’s edition of #ItalianFWT, but I’m so glad I did. It put a much-needed smile on my face.

I’m going to do my best to keep this post short and sweet – brevity is not typically one of my gifts – but really I think you should all do yourselves a favor and order yourself a bottle to put a smile on your face.



A Little Bit About Brachetto


 Brachetto is a red grape from the Piedmont region of Italy, and it’s typically made in lightly fizzy style, although dry and passito versions also exist. Brachetto d’Acqui DOCG is the most famous appellation for this grape, although it is also made elsewhere in the region. Wines bearing the name of Brachetto d’Acqui DOCG must be made of 100% Brachetto.

The wines are light-bodied and very aromatic with pretty flavors and aromas of strawberries and roses. The wines are also low in alcohol, usually under 5-6%, making it a pretty perfect wine to enjoy when you just want another glass of something after dinner to go with a light dessert, as well as for afternoon sipping when you don’t want to be zonked out for the rest of you day.

 Brachetto wines (at least the fizzy ones) have this beautiful ruby, rose color with the intensity of a deep rosé, that’s achieved by leaving the grapes in contact with the skins for a few days. The fizzy versions are usually made through the Charmat method, which helps to highlight the pretty aromatic qualities of the grape.

You can see the pretty color in this shot. I took this pic, but Greg took all the other pairing pics.

This is a grape that has a sense of fun and romance, and its history and legends reflect this. The sense of fun starts with the town that gave the appellation its name, Acqui Terme, is a spa town with hot sulfur springs that have been famous since Roman times.
La Bollente spring.
Image borrowed from Wikipedia. Photo by Ian Spackman - Own work, CC BY 2.5, Link

 I also wasn’t all that surprised to discover that it’s often associated with love and is often featured around Valentine’s Day. That ruby color and the perfume kind of scream ❤️-Day wine! I think it would be wonderful with chocolate-covered strawberries.

 It was even thought to have potent aphrodisiac powers. Legend has it that both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony courted Cleopatra with vinum acquense (wine from Acqui), and the queen, in turn, used the wine to rekindle the passions of her lovers. Brachetto is the likely descendant of that wine.
"Gianduja e Giandujotto", Walther Jervolino, oil on canvas, 60x65 cm.jpg 
Borrowed from Wikipedia.  By Walther Jervolino - Own work, Apocalittico, 2010-06-23 15:34:51, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link . Gianduja also lent his name to the region's famous chocolate and hazelnut spread – Nutella would be best known brand, and a cake with the same flavor combo. Think I'm going to have try the combo of this and Brachetto.
Brachetto’s fun personality was also reflected in Italy’s commedia dell’arte. Ian d’Agata elaborates on this in Native Wine Grapes of Italy (pg 213):


According to popular tradition, brachetto was the preferred beverage of one of the most famous characters of the Italian commedia dell’arte, Gianduja da Gioan d’laduja, or Giovanni of the Jug. The figure drew inspiration for his bubbly high spirits from brachetto: unsurprisingly, the character had the reputation of being a heavy drinker and was just as bubbly as the wine. Having his priorities straight, Giovanni viewed brachetto the ideal wine with which to fill the jug he always carried. In that respect at least, I have a lot in common with Gianduja: there can never be too much good brachetto in my glass (or jug, or thermos, or . . . ). I’m not alone: in Piedmontese dialect, brachetto is known as brachet per cantè, brachetto to sing with, or a wine so good it makes you sing out of happiness. A glass of the good stuff, and I guarantee you’ll be singing too.

 I’m in agreement!

The Wine and Pairing


 With shelter in place orders limiting access to and selection from the wonderful wine stores we have near us, I pretty quickly turned to Wine.com and ordered the Marenco Pineto Brachetto d'Acqui DOCG 2018 for $12.99. This was a half bottle and I would’ve been very happy for it to be a full bottle. 


 Marenco is a small family-run winery that spans several generations. Michele Marenco started with the dream of making wines from his vineyard in the heart of the Bagnario Valley. His son Giuseppe grew the business and expanded their vineyard holdings. Today, his three daughters Michela, Patrizia (who is also the winemaker), and Doretta run the company. Michela’s husband, Giovanni Costa, and their son, Andrea Costa, are also part of the team.

 The company is very committed to working sustainably and are laid out on their website here. Among other things, they use practices geared at preventing soil erosion, they try to minimize energy outputs, and use environmentally safe methods of pest management in their vineyards.

 Their Pineto Brachetto d'Acqui DOCG 2018 brought a smile to my face. I picked up notes of strawberries, flower petals, and grape candy on the nose. There were similar notes on the palate, where more red fruits notes of raspberries and candied cherries joined the party. Light hints of balsamic herbs and spice on the finish added a nice counterpoint. The wine’s sweetness was very balanced, expressing itself with a nice tangy quality. 

A light fruit dessert seemed like an ideal pairing for this wine. The rule of thumb for pairing desserts and wine is that you want the wine to be sweeter than the food. Sugar in food makes a wine seem less sweet, and wine that is too dry will seem sour or even bitter when sipper alongside something sweet.

Greg and I enjoyed this with a super simple, but always delicious dessert of strawberries in wine. I’ve been making this for a long time and shared the recipe a while back on Nibbling Gypsy, please find a recipe there as well as recommendations for how to use it a bunch of different ways. That said, this dessert really doesn’t require a recipe. Pour some inexpensive red wine (or remnants of bottles) into a pot, add a tablespoon or two of sugar (or another sweetener of your choice), and bring to a boil. Feel free to add spices or a little citrus juice or peel as well, both are lovely. Remove the pot from heat, then add the strawberries. Serve warm or cold. A bonus of this recipe is that it preserves the strawberries far past the point that they would last on their own.We topped our strawberries in wine with a little whipped cream and Girl Scout Lemon-Up’s cookie. 

Success! The sweetness of the dessert helped balance out the sweetness of the wine further so that the two matched each other nicely and the wine came across as tangy and refreshing. It was a seamless pairing that once again left me delighted.


More details on the wine here.

Quick aside, if you’re looking for things to distract you during this time and love Girl Scout cookies, check out of my Girl Scout Cookie Pairing Party Mash Up.

*****
  • Susannah at Avvinare explores Brachetto d’Acqui – A Treat from Piedmont.
  • Lynn at Savor the Harvest is ready to Brighten Up Lockdown with Brachetto d’Acqui Sparkling Wine.
  • Jennifer at Vino Travels is enjoying Brachetto: The Sweet Red Bubbly of Piedmont.
  • Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla pairs Stracotto di Manzo al Vino Rosso + Brachetto d’Acqui.
  • Gwendolyn at Wine Predator matches Brachetto d’Acqui and Grandma’s Biscotti with Cherries Poached in Red Wine and Marscapone.
  • Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm is Whiling Away the Time with Marenco Brachetto d’Acqui Pineto.
  • Jeff Burrows at Food Wine Click! finds Piemonte Brachetto: Sweet, Fizzy and Red!
  • Terri at Our Good Life spends An Afternoon of Wine Learning: Brachetto d’Acqui.
  • Linda at My Full Wine Glass is Bingeing on Brachetto, Biscotti, Berries and a Chocolate Bunny.
  • Marcia at Joy of Wine is exploring Brachetto: The Sweetie of Piemonte.
  • Cindy at Grape Experiences plans to Bring Joy to the Table with Brachetto d’Acqui and Budino al Cioccolato (Chocolate Pudding Italian Style).

 *****

 Additional references used for this post:
Consorzio Tutela Brachetto d'Acqui
The Oxford Companion to Wine via JancisRobinson.com
Wine-Searcher.com




This post contains affiliate links, including these Amazon Associate links, from which I might receive a commission at no cost to you.

Persepolis stairs of the Apadana relief.jpg

 Detail of a relief on the eastern stairs of the Apadana Palace, Persepolis, depicting Armenian ambassadors, bringing wine to the Persian Emperor. Image borrowed from Wikipedia.

A couple of years ago I had the chance to visit Israel on a press trip. It was a fascinating trip on so many levels. I tasted some really beautiful wines and learned a ton about the history of the country through the lens of wine, which puts an interesting spin on things.

 While stopping into Ella Valley Vineyards, there was mention of the fact that they’re located near the spot where David fought Goliath. Something about that story put the age of the place in stark relief.


Wine people tend to talk about Old World wines (i.e. wines from Europe) and New World Wines (wines from basically everywhere else like the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and South America.) But then are there’s a set of places whose winemaking history goes WAAAAAAAAAYYYY back. Old World doesn’t really go far enough as a descriptor. Ancient seems much more appropriate.
Dionysos Louvre Ma87 n2.jpg
Statue of Dionysus at the Louvre. Borrowed from Wikipedia.


 Some of these places have claims for being the birthplace of wine, which makes sense since we’re broadly speaking about the birthplace of civilization. We humans have loved our wines for a very long time. We all know that wine was a key part of the cultures of the Greek and Roman empires, as shown by their respective worship of Dionysus and Bacchus, but you might not have really realized or considered that wine traditions existed in ancient cultures across the middle east and even China – that one was actually a surprise to me, but winemaking there dates back to sometime between 7000BCE and 9000BCE.
Ancient amphora. Image borrowed from Vine Pair. Check out this article by Joshua Malin for a look at a history of ancient wine vessels and transportation.

 There is archeological evidence of winemaking from grapes strewn around the ancient world. Some of the oldest include Georgia (c. 6000 BC), Lebanon (c. 5000 BC), Iran (c. 5000 BC), Greece (c. 4500 BC), and Sicily (c. 4000 BC). The earliest-extant evidence of wine production has been found in Armenia (c. 4100 BC). (Per Wikipedia)

 Wine was tied to religious rites from its beginning. We already mentioned Dionysus and Bacchus, but it also played important roles in the religious practices in the Jewish and Christian religions going back to Biblical times. I mean, Jesus' first miracle was to turn water into wine, and wine's also there on the table at the Last Supper.


Paolo Veronese 008.jpg
The Wedding Feast at Cana, 1563, Musée du Louvre, Paris by Paolo Veronese, More on the Marriage at Cana here. Borrowed from Wikipedia, Public Domain, Link.
The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci -  Borrowed from Wikipedia. Public Domain, Link

While it was generally forbidden in Islam, it does make appearances in that culture as well, as apparently certain key figures, such as Jabir ibn Hayyan (known in Latin as Geber), pioneered the distillation of wine for medicinal and industrial use, such as making perfume.

What I find so interesting, is that many of the places that had such an early start at winemaking are no longer places that we immediately associate with great wine traditions. There are lots of reasons for this –– the rise and fall of empires, religious restrictions, and governmental interventions and policies are just a few.

Georgia is making some of the most fascinating wines out there at the moment. This bottle of Phaesant's Tears Saperavi from Kakheti is very approachable as well and very reasonably priced at around $17. We had it with chicken thighs topped with roasted peppers and tomatoes and rice.

The cool thing is that many of these countries have been rediscovering and rebuilding their wine traditions and industries over the last few decades. They’re now making some of the most interesting wines out there.

This month I’m hosting the Wine Pairing Weekend (#WinePW) blogging group and I invite you to join us in exploring the wines of the Ancient World. Join us on April 11th at 8 am PT/ 11 am ET on twitter. We’ll be chatting there under the hashtag #WinePW.

Now I realize some of these wines might not be the easiest to find under regular circumstances, and even more difficult at the moment. As I write this, many people across the US (myself included) are under shelter-in-place or stay at home orders due to coronavirus. Given these difficulties, we’re leaving the wine selection for this topic pretty broad. Explore a bottle of wine from a place with an ancient winemaking tradition while staying at home, look into an ancient winemaking technique, or share a memory of trying one of these wines. There are so many geeky-cool aspects to this topic. Just jump right in!
A relief showing ancient Roman patrons drinking diluted wine in a tavern in Isola Sacra, Italy. Borrowed from EarlyChurchHistory.org.

HOW TO JOIN US


 If you are a wine writer or blogger, this is your invitation to us.
  • Contact me to tell me you’re in: Include blog url, Twitter handle, and any other social media details. If you know your blog post title, include that…but you can also send that a bit closer to the event. We’d just like to get a sense of who’s participating and give some shout-outs and links as we go. Contact me here.
  • Send your post title to me by Tuesday, April 7th to be included in the preview post. I will prepare a preview post shortly after getting the titles, linking to your blogs. Your title should include “#WinePW.”
  • Publish your post between Friday, April 10th and 8:00 a.m. ET on Saturday, April 11th. You can always schedule your post in advance if you will be tied up that morning.
  • Include links to the other #WinePW participants in your post, and a description of what the event is about. I’ll provide the HTML code that you can easily put in your initial post — which will link to people’s general blog url — then the updated code for the permanent links to everyone’s #WinePW posts.
  • Get social! After the posts go live, please visit your fellow bloggers posts’ to comment and share. We have a Facebook group for participating bloggers to connect and share, too. If you need an invitation please let me know.
  • Sponsored posts are OK if clearly disclosed. Please be sure to disclose if your post is sponsored or if you are describing wine or other products for which you have received a free sample.

Here are a few articles for more inspiration:
  • Was Stone Age Wine a Drink of the People? from National Geographic
  • From Georgia to Lebanon: exploring the best wines of the ancient world from The Guardian
  • Wine throughout history: What were ancient wines really like? from Cult Wines


Just a little bit of beauty to close things out. Sunset at Bat Shlomo Vineyards in Israel.

 This post contains Amazon Affiliate links, from which I might earn a commission at no cost to you.

Back in May of 2018, I had the chance to visit Gamble Family Wines in Oakville, Napa Valley. My friend Laura accompanied me, and we had the chance to tour the winery and chat with Tom Gamble about his winery, the history of Napa Valley, and the role his family has played in the unfolding of that history. My friend Laura accompanied me on the visit, which then turned into two, because we were so engrossed in the conversation and their story. 
The Gamble family has been involved in agriculture in Napa since 1916, first in cattle ranching and farming other crops. Tom Gamble shifted his focus to commercial grape-growing, purchasing his first vineyards with partners in 1981 at the age of 20. He grew and sold grapes for twenty years after that point. Over this time he also increased his vineyard holdings. Then in 2005, he finally established Gamble Family Vineyards and began building his winery a few years later in 2012. The land which it’s built includes an ancestral farmhouse, barns, and water tower, which Tom and his wife, Colette, are devoted to maintaining. Incidentally, Colette’s family has also been in the valley since the 1870’s.
 
Tome with his dog Koa
During our visit and conversation, we got a sense of his sincere respect for the land and desire to care for it to the best of his abilities. He farms sustainably and conscientiously, and his winery and vineyards are certified Napa Green and certified by Fish Friendly Farming. I got the sense that he’s always looking for ways to improve his practices at all levels from methods of farming, to ways of reusing and prolonging the life of barrels, and ways of reducing energy usage across all aspects of the operation.


An activist spirit runs through the family. Tom’s mom, Mary Ann McGuire, had a big role to play in the way the valley developed. Mary Anne was a key participant in establishing the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve, an ordinance that protects vineyards from commercial development and ensures that the land is used strictly for agricultural purposes. We’ll dive further into this in my next post, but Laura and I had the chance to speak with her at length and were really inspired by her story. 


After our visit, Tom sent us home with a few bottles of his wine.  Later in the fall, I hosted a Friendsgiving dinner for a few friends during which we opened the wines and enjoyed them with a potluck dinner. I made a Lamb Roast with Roasted Sweet Peppers and my friends all brought various sides.

 
  
On the menu:
Crostini with kale and goat cheese as an app.
Caprese Salad
Squash with cheese, hazelnuts, and pomegranate syrup
Turnips braised in apple cider vinegar.
Mushrooms suatéed with onions and sesame.
Roasted potatoes
Lemon tart for dessert
The lamb dish was inspired by a recipe in Perfect Pairings by another son-mother duo, Evan Goldstein and Joyce Goldstein. Evan Goldstein is a Master Sommelier and his mother, Joyce, is a noted chef and cookbook author. Perfect Pairings is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to better understand food and wine pairings. The book walks you through different grape varieties, their different expressions, and recommendations for how to pair them along with suggested pairings. This book focuses on relatively familiar grape varieties, while the follow-up, Daring Pairings, moves beyond these to explore lesser-known grape varieties. I highly recommend both books. 

Perfect Pairings recommends a recipe for Spanish Lamb Ragout with Roasted Sweet Peppers as a match for rich, fruit-forward, New World-style Cabernet Sauvignons. I decided to give it a try alongside several of Gamble’s wines. Rather than cutting up the meat in advance and cooking it in batches, as is called for in the recipe, I decided to adapt the recipe for a roast preparation. I thought this worked out really well and the dish did pair well with all of the Cabernets.
Good times with friends.
My friend, Laura, and partner in crimefor these tastings.

 Some time has passed since this dinner. Things got busy, as they tend to do, and then 2019 in general just flew by and got away from me. I’m now writing this as the COVID-19 is sweeping through our country, and I’m thankful for memories like this of times spent with friends. At present we’re in the midst of social distancing and under a shelter in place order in the Bay Area, but I will look forward to hosting gatherings like these once again on the other side of this pandemic. In the meantime, let’s be grateful for the wonderful people in our lives and find new ways to connect as we wait out this difficult period. For example, friends and I have been having online happy hours. We can still enjoy a glass of wine together, even while apart. For those at home with loved ones, let’s make the most of this time by coming together at the table with those that are near us. Some of these wines are also on the pricier side, but I say now is the time to open those baller bottles. If not now, when?!

Stay well friends!


THE WINES

Winemaking details are taken from the tech sheets. 

Sauvignon Blanc Gamble Vineyard Yountville 2017


 

There were notes of fresh lime, kiwi, green apple and green melon, along with a light grassy, herbal note. A nice streak of minerality ran throughout, with a touch of cream on the mid-palate. Overall, it was an elegant Sauv Blanc with an attractive, aromatic nose and a crisp finish.

Winemaking: 13% new French and Hungarian oak. The wine was cellared 76% in barrel on the lees for six months, with the remaining 24% in stainless steel on the lees for six months.
Alcohol: 13.1%
Avg Price: $25

Pairings: Not surprisingly, this wine went very well with our Caprese salad. It also paired with our squash dish topped with hazelnuts and pomegranate seeds, which was not expected. It was excellent with turnips that had been braised in apple cider vinegar. The winery also recommends this “with crispy fish tacos or a fresh, green summer salad.”


Paramount Napa Valley 2014


A Bordeaux blend with notes of smoke and chocolate-dipped cherries on the nose, along with plum and raspberries, and hints of herbs and violets. Notes of black pepper, green peppercorn, cedar, cigar, and vanilla joining the mix. It was elegant on the palate, but still rich and velvety, with dusty tannins on the finish.

Winemaking: 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Cabernet Franc, 28% Merlot, and 8% Petit Verdot. After gently destemming and cold soaking, each variety is fermented, pressed and transferred to French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation. A 20-month aging process follows, and ultimately, the separate lots become one, as Paramount is blended and bottled. 46% new French oak.
Alcohol: 14.2%
Avg price: $87



Family Home Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville 2014  



Velvety, red fruits showed on the nose, along with notes of cedar, tobacco, dried herbs, lavender, and a light hit on menthol. A mix of fruits notes joined on the palate, including notes of currants, red berries, cherries, and plums, along with savory notes of cigar box, olives, and a hint of iron.  It was well-structured with dusty tannins and a full body.

Winemaking:  As the name suggests, Family Home rests on the land where Tom Gamble spent his childhood.  It’s a rocky volcanic plot perched on a knoll top in Oakville, with free-draining soils. The vineyard is divided between north-west and south-east facing slopes. This wine spends 20 months in barrel, but I could not find the additional oak percentage details.  
Avg price: $119
 

Both the Paramount and the Family Home paired well with the lamb, but Paramount was more ready to drink now, while Family Home could use more time in the cellar.

In my last post, I shared an interview with Cristiana Tiberio, the badass winemaker of Azienda Agricola Tiberio. Today we’re going to take a closer look at one of her wines –the Tiberio Pecorino Colline Pescaresi 2016 – and we’re bringing it home to the table.

Pecorino is one of those white wine grapes that I realize most people don’t know, but it’s very much in line with what many people are looking for in a bottle of white wine. It’s crisp, it’s minerally, it’s refreshing. It also has the ability to be really interesting. . . and it has a great comeback story.

It’s not surprising that it’s not that well known. Let’s be honest, I know a lot of you are thinking ‘Pecorino? I thought that was a cheese.’ I’m pretty sure I had that same thought the first time I heard of it. You’d also be right, there is a cheese called Pecorino – and I couldn’t resist including it in today’s recipe. However, it is also a wine grape that is grown predominantly in Italy’s Marche and Abruzzo regions. According to Ian D’Agata in Native Wine Grapes of Italy, the grape got its name from sheepherders who ate them off the vines as snacks while accompanying their flocks around the countryside. Other sources suggest that the sheep themselves ate the grapes. Either way, it seems there is at least a thin thread linking the wine with the cheese. (Sorry guys, it’s hard for me to resist a cheesy tangent.)

The grape’s obscurity has largely to do with the fact that it nearly went extinct. It’s an ancient grape that had been grown for hundreds of years. However, it’s not a very productive grape and many growers replaced it with far crappier varieties that gave higher yields. However, Pecorino’s weakness is also its strength. The fact that its vines don’t produce that many grapes also means that the grapes that are produced tend to have higher flavor concentration.

All the same, growers ripped up most of these vines and Pecorino was commonly thought to be completely gone by the middle of the 20th century. Then a few remaining vines were discovered in the 1980s and the grape made a pretty remarkable comeback. The grape can largely thank two producers as its heroes for bringing it back from the brink of death – Guido Cocci Grifoni of Cocci Griffoni in the Marche and Luigi Cataldi Madonna of Cataldi Madonna in Abruzzo.

The Tiberio family happened to be good friends with Cataldi Madonna. In 1999, Cristiana and Antonio Tiberio discovered a few rogue vines mixed in with others on their property. Once they figured out what they actually had on their hands, Cristiana went to Cataldi Madonna and learned everything she could from him about the grape. The Tiberios began cultivating the grape and Cristiana eventually developed her own style with the wine.
Cristiana with her Abruzzese Shepherds Quarmari and Frida in the vineyards. Photo courtesy of Cristiana.


In my conversation with Cristiana for my last post, I asked her what customers could expect from a bottle of  Pecorino.  She noted it’s often likened to a fuller-bodied Sauvignon Blanc, but it’s also very much its own grape and very evocative of the Mediterranean. She shared, “I love its energy, with beautiful depth balanced by the minerality. An authentic Pecorino has herbal flavours of sage, thyme, rosemary, and always a little zest of lemon.” You might also find apple and pear flavor, as well as light floral notes, and lots of minerality. Pecorino will also tend to be high in alcohol, and it is also high in glycerol, both of which add to the body of the wines, but all of this is balanced by high acidity as well.


Tiberio vineyards. Photo courtesy of Cristiana Tiberio.



THE WINE & PAIRING


Cristiana noted the Pecorino is generally a very food-friendly wine, but when I asked for her pairing recommendations to go with the 2016 bottling of her wine, she had a great recommendation: “My favorite food pairing for my Pecorino, especially for an aged vintage is a chickpea soup with saffron. Pecorino has a long creamy texture able to support and to match the flavour of saffron and the legumes expanding the length of these flavours and at the same time to add lift with its minerality.”

On the day we opened the wine, Greg and I picked up notes of pears, apples, and lemon. There were savory herbal notes, as well as tasty hints of cheese rind. The same notes continued on the palate along with some fleshier stone fruit notes, and even some faint tropical fruit notes of pineapple as it warmed in the glass. The wine gave a savory impression overall, with lots of herbs (Greg likened it to sourgrass), that hint of salty cheese, little white flowers that are just starting to dry, and hints of toasted almond skin.

Cristiana had mentioned that Pecorino tends to not be super aromatic, but will be more complex and full-bodied on the palate. Pretty much echoing this sentiment, Greg commented that the “depth of flavor is bigger than you’d expect on the nose.”

I suspect that several of these flavors, like the cheese rind and toasted almond skin, were coming from the fact that this wine was now a few years old, but I found them to be very attractive and added to the complexity. I’d be curious to age a bottle further to see where it goes.

Since Cristiana’s pairing recommendations sounded so delicious, we kept them in mind as we tasted the wine and built our pairing around it. The complexity of flavors and the body and texture of the wine also suggested it could handle quite a mix of flavors. What we ended up with was a kind of deconstructed seafood stew. Rather, it was a stew with seafood served on top. I opted for a simply prepared combo of cod and shrimp.

The breadth of flavors was really concentrated in the stew coming from first from saffron and herbs. I also happened to have some bits of ham and salami hanging around that I thought would work, so I tossed them in. This is totally optional, so to my pescatarian friends, feel free to leave it out. For my vegetarian friends, go ahead leave off the seafood – the stew is plenty flavorful on its own. 


That salty cheese note made it so that I really couldn’t resist the temptation to incorporate some Pecorino cheese into the pairing as well. Moreover, it is a pairing recommendation I saw more than once for Pecorino wines in general. As you might guess, the region does have a tradition of making this class of these cheeses known as Pecorino Abruzzese. Hey, “what grows together, goes together.”

It was a delicious combo, with flavors in the food and wine mirroring and rounding each other out. The wine was a really refreshing counterpoint to the food, while simultaneously matching the richness of the stew. I think this would be a great option for a dinner party because you could easily make the stew in advance (it’d probably taste even better), and just make the seafood right as you’re about to serve. Feel free to swap in other seafood options as well –– pretty sure this wine would easily match whatever you decide to swap in.


OTHER POSSIBILITIES


The importer’s website also recommends pasta, legumes, white meats, cheeses. Other recommendations I found include steamed white fish with ginger and chicken thighs with roasted red pepper and onion. This article I found about Pecorino cheese includes recipes for cacio e pepe and fava con pecorino – I think they’d all work beautifully together.

If you’re looking for other wines to pair with this dish, look for full-bodied white and rosé wines with savory notes. Options such Soave Classico, Pinot Bianco, or Lugana could work nicely. If you’re making the stew on its own or a less delicate fish like salmon or trout, savory light-bodied reds should work as well.

Maybe grab one from each category from Tiberio’s line-up and report back!


THE GEEKY DETAILS


Tiberio farms sustainably and all of their wines are made with free-run juice and native yeasts.

The Sorting Table’s website (importer) has a very detailed tech sheet for this wine. Here are just a  few of the basics:

Grape Variety:  100% massal selection Pecorino
Total area under vine:  3 hectares
Altitude:  350 meters a.s.l
Soil composition:  Limestone with marly-gravel subsoil
Average vine age: 16
Vinification:  No press, just free run juice
Alcoholic fermentation:  In stainless steel tanks
Malolactic fermentation:  None
Aging:  Six to eight months in tanks and another three to four months in bottle. (Per Vinous.com)
Technical Information
Alcohol:  13.5%

If you really want to geek out and take a closer look at Pecorino, and its progression in Tiberio’s vineyards, I highly recommend checking out this article by Ian D’Agata for Vinous.com. By total coincidence, I happened to attend a seminar he was giving in SF over the weekend (so in between these two posts). It struck me that he mentioned Tiberio’s wines several times throughout the day even though the day’s topic didn’t have anything to do with Abruzzo. More specifically related to this article, in Native Wine Grapes of Italy he notes her as an expert on the Pecorino grape and highlights the Tiberio, Cataldi Madonna, and Cocci Griffoni as the three best examples of the wine in Italy.


MONEY TALK


I believe I got my bottle from Wine.com. They currently have the 2018 available for $24. (The average price across all vintages on WineSearcher.com is $21.) I think that’s a great price for such a thoughtfully made bottle that also happens to be a benchmark for the variety, making this wine an absolutely Solid Value and probably an Overachiever as well. 


 

I can’t recall when I first tried one of Tiberio’s wines, but last year they seemed to keep crossing my path. I then had the chance to meet winemaker Cristiana Tiberio when she came to pour at Bâtonnage Forum last year, and where I took the picture above. It also gave me the chance to taste through the full line up of her wines, which impressed me with their elegance and freshness.

My friend Maura, with whom I collaborate on Della Donna, had the chance to visit and taste with Cristiana at her winery in Abruzzo and spoke glowingly about the experience. All of this inspired me to want to get to know the wines and the woman behind them better.

The Tiberio line-up, photo by Maura Passanisi.
The Tiberio landscape, photo taken by Maura.

 In that spirit, I recently reached out to Cristiana and she kindly answered questions regarding the family estate, her background, winemaking style and more. I’m so excited to share our conversation with you today. I also asked for her recommendations for pairing her delicious Pecorino, which I used in creating a Saffron Chickpea Stew with Cod and Shrimp. I’ll be sharing that recipe in my next post. 

We’ll get to the interview in just one moment, but here’s just a little bit of background first. Azienda Agricola Tiberio is located in Abruzzo in central Italy, a mountainous region along the Adriatic Sea. If you drive east from Rome, you hit Abruzzo.
Map courtesy of WineFolly.com

Tiberio is located near the medieval town of Cugnoli, not far as the crow flies from the seaside city Pescara.  (I invite you to check out this post for more background on Abruzzo.)

Riccardo Tiberio, Cristiana’s father, had been an export manager for a cantina in the region. He eventually found a plot of 60-year old Trebbiano Abruzzese vines and purchased it in 2000. He released his first wine in 2004, then turned over the reins to his kids in 2008 with Cristiana as the winemaker. 

Cristiana trained all over the world with a seriously impressive list of winemakers including Jacques Selosse in Champagne, Nicolas Joly at Coulee de Serrant, Egon Muller in the Mosel, with various producers in Chablis, and in Australia’s Clare Valley. 

Without further ado let’s get into our conversation. I can’t think of a better way of kicking off Women’s History Month! 

Cristiana with her Abruzzese Shepherds Quarmari. Photo courtesy of Cristiana.Photo courtesy of Crisitiana Tiberio.
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Somm's Table 2017