Wine tour of Italy
Our tour ran the gamut from Italy’s most popular sparkling wine, Prosecco, to artisanal wines.
Salute!
As part of the 2021 Princeton Reunions experience, I offered an introduction to Italian wines for graduate alumni, graduate students and their guests.
Winemaking began thousands of years ago in Italy, with influence from the Phoenicians, then the Greeks, followed by the Romans, who exported their winemaking finesse throughout their empire. The result, unsurprisingly, is an extraordinary variety of grapes, 2,000 according to wine expert Ian D‘Agata. Even with only about 400 employed regularly in wine production, there’s a lot to taste.
Our Princeton tour ran the gamut from Italy’s most popular sparkling wine, Prosecco, to smaller production artisanal wines. Starting in the Veneto, we tasted the best selling Prosecco in America, LaMarca. For an artisanal twist, we suggested creating a Limoncello cocktail, and included the recipe for Hilton Head Limoncello. Try this with popcorn, or Marcona almonds.
We then turned our attention to Pieropan Soave Classico (2019) , a benchmark wine from the founding family of Soave (pronounced “SWAV-ay”). This wine differs dramatically from classic international varieties, such as Chardonnay. Instead of strong fruit and oak flavors, it has a distinctive nutty, herbal flavor that blends well with many foods. The Italian cheese Robiola Bosina is a perfect match for this, as are Marcona almonds and pasta with pesto.
Finally, we travelled south to Europe’s largest volcano, Mt. Etna, in the north east corner of Sicily. Some of the most exciting wines in Italy come from this region, and our Tornatore Etna Rosso (2017) is no exception. This rich red blend of Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio is food friendly and ready to drink. You can try it with the same wonderful Robiola Bosina, risotto, or a hamburger.
I learned sabrage in France - I don’t think they expected success on the first try!
We had a great turn out and many questions. These ranged across topics far beyond Italian wine, despite the vastness of that subject!
For example, we discussed how to saber a bottle of sparkling wine (outside, carefully, with a very cold bottle!), and how to find good bang for your buck in the wine shop. Some of these questions are highlighted in the Learn with Lisa videos.
Alton Brown does a great job explaining how to saber a bottle of champagne in this video.