Travel along with forkandcorkdivine on our latest armchair adventure as we experience the foods and wines throughout the northeastern Italian regions of The Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia. We recently featured ten great examples of wines from these two regions paired with foods selected for their authenticity to the area and how well they compliment the wine.

We love to explore wine from regions that are less familiar to us. It is challenging, educational and really enjoyable to delve into the history of a country or wine region, learn about the people, the grapes, the wines, the winemakers, the cuisine, and everything else that goes along with each new adventure. And what makes it even more challenging is the fact that it all happens right here with the help of the internet, wine books, local wine dinners and tastings and some very good friends in the local wine and food community.

The Veneto is a 7000 square mile Italian wine region just south of Austria and Trentino-Alto Adige and tucked in between Emilia-Romagna, Lombardia and Friuli. It is well known for Prosecco, Soave and Valpolicella but they are not like the old days of mass produced low quality jug-type wines. Now there are many excellent wines – both white and red – produced in the Veneto.

Just to the northeast of the Veneto is the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, 3000 square miles sandwiched in between Austria, Slovenia, the Adriatric Sea and the Veneto. Friuli is considered by many to be “white wine heaven”. The Collio and Colli Orientali DOCs make some of the best full bodied white wines you will ever taste; and we are about to discover some of these wines – 10 to be exact! – paired with foods from the region prepared and served “forkandcorkdivine style”. If you would like to learn more about the wine regions of the Veneto and Friuli and all of their many DOCs, DOCGs and IGPs, please read articles we recently posted about them. They provide information about the wineries and the wines featured at our dinner.

Now off to dinner! We have included some background on the menu items; i.e. why we selected them, some tips on where to get the ingredients and how to prepare them, and of course some wine information. Buon appetito!

Tre Venezie

The Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia Dinner Saturday, April 27, 2019

APERITIVO

Canape di Trota Affumicata on Crostini (Smoked Trout Paté)

Seafood is a staple in this part of the world served fresh, salted or smoked. What better way to start off our Tre Venezie dinner than a simple paté made from smoked trout fillets blended together with cream cheese, horseradish, lemon zest, lemon juice and fresh dill on some Italian crostini served with a bubbly glass of Zardetto Prosecco made from the Glera grapes of Zardetto’s first organic vineyard. Not being familiar with any other source for smoked trout, my faithful friend, the on-line store iGourmet, had the problem solved. Make it the day before and you have a classy little bite to serve with the Prosecco which was full of fresh citrus and floral notes.

Zardetto Prosecco Dry Z Brut Organic, Veneto (Glera)

INSALATA

Insalata di Borlotti e Pomodori (Borlotti Beans, Red Onion and Tomato Salad)

The Veneto grows some excellent borlotti beans particularly in the area of Lamon near Belluno. Borlottis are also known as cranberry beans and are tan in color with red, magenta or black streaks. They turn brown when you cook them, and if you can’t find either, navy beans could be substituted. Fresh shelled beans would be preferred, but since I couldn’t source any fresh, I opted to use dried borlottis. The cooked dried beans mixed with fresh tomatoes, red onion slices (soaked in water before adding to the salad) and a little olive oil and vinegar was a perfect dish with the crisp and refreshing bubbly Zenato sparkling made in the classical method from Lugana Turbiana grapes. It was loaded with aromas of white flowers, hints of white fruits and some citrus. I always try to include a colorful salad course as a lighter fare intro to the “main event” which also adds a little more good nutritive value!

Zenato Lugana Metodo Classico Brut Sparkling 2013, Lugano DOC, Veneto (Turbiana)

PRIMO

Minestrone Primavera

green beans, fava or broad beans, peas, asparagus and ditalini

Chiaretto is the classic Italian rosé from the shores of Lake Garda in the Bardolino DOC. This one by Zenato is an intense coral pink in color made the local blend of grapes – Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara. The grapes are put in the fermentation tank after crushing and the color of the grapes quickly diffuses through the juice. It has “notes of raspberry and black currants with grassy undertones” and is excellent with hors d’oeuvres, first courses and white meat – all according to notes from Zenato. Since we were going to be serving it in the springtime, a spring soup of vegetables (minestrone primavera) seemed like a perfect choice to me. The recipe from my Veneto cookbook called for fresh green beans, peas, fava beans and asparagus with some ditalini added for body. I cheated by using frozen green peas and frozen shelled ready-to-cook fava beans but all else was fresh. I have never ever had fava beans (also known as broad beans) in the shell but couldn’t find any – although I didn’t look very hard! – however my foodie friends who have gone that route said I was very lucky to have missed that opportunity! Frozen ones were just fine, and our local Mario’s Italian Market always has them. Let me warn you that a tiny little bit of ditalini goes a very long way, so whatever amount your recipe calls for, I would start out with a far smaller amount unless you want to serve vegetable stew. The flavors of the primavera were a great choice with the rosé and I’ll be searching for more bottles of Zenato Chiaretto.

Zenato Bardolino Chiaretto 2017, Bardolino DOC, Veneto 

(Rosé  blend –  65% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, 10% Molinara)

Capesante Gratinate con Mandorle e Arancia

(Scallop with an Almond Orange Gratin)

Collio Gorizia borders on Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea which makes for especially great food and wine pairings, and makes you glad you are not one of “those people” who say they only drink red wine! I would so hate to miss out on these wonderful wines. Seafood is a requirement and the wines made here are similar to the wines right across the border in Slovenia. The borders have changed so often between Slovenia and Italy, you can imagine it is quite multi-cultural. This Doro Prinčič Pinot Bianco from the Collio became one of my new favorites! Sandro Prinčič tried the orange winemaking method along with his neighbors in Collio and Slovenia but decided it was not for him. He makes whites (and a few reds) with lots of concentrated fruit that have been aged in stainless steel with resulting crispness, and aromas of pear, lime and orange. This one was 100% Pinot Bianco, and I can’t wait to try some of his others. The tasting notes suggested pairing with almond crusted seafood, so between that and anticipated aromas of oranges, this scallop marinated in a fresh orange juice, EVOO and garlic then baked with a sprinkling of fresh bread crumbs, ground almonds and orange zest would be hard to beat! Invest in a few inexpensive reusable scallop shells, serve one U-15 scallop each, pop them in the oven for 10 minutes then crisp up quickly under the broil and you have a really beautiful delicious appetizer that will have your guests requesting the recipe – mine did!

A number of my recipes came from “VENETO – Recipes from an Italian Country Kitchen” by Valeria Necchio and “Classic Food of Northern Italy” by Anna Del Conte.
Both books have excellent recipes, beautiful pictures and give additional information about the foods, ingredients and styles of  cooking in each region.

Doro Prinčič Pinot Bianco 2017 Collio DOC, Friuli (100% Pinot Bianco)

Frico Friulano with Arugula (Friulian Cheese Tart)

As soon as I mentioned to my fabulous cook and foodie friend, Anita Jenkins, that I was planning a menu to include foods of the Veneto and Friuli, she immediately told me what she wanted to contribute, and the rest of us are so happy that she prepared it! Frico Friulano, or Friulian Montasio Cheese Tart, is a classic dish from Friuli that incorporates Montasio cheese, rice, potatoes and onions into a fried up ooey gooey brown tart that you will absolutely love! And don’t leave out the surprise ingredient – peperoncinis. If at all possible, be authentic and get the Montasio cheese. Both Anita and I sourced ours from iGourmet.com.   Anita added a bit of arugula tossed in olive oil  and a bit of lemon juice which gave a bright peppery taste on the side.

Anita’s recipe came from another book that we both find really helpful if you want to learn about the grapes and wines of Italy along with some recipes and food pairing tips. “VINO ITALIANO The Regional Wines of Italy” was written by Joe Bastianich and David Lynch and includes recipes by Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali. It was published by Clarkson Potter.

It was no surprise that Lidia suggested serving the Frico Friulano with a rich Friulian “super white” wine such as Bastianich “Vespa” or Jermann’s “Capo Martino” or a spicy, peppery Refosco wine. Since I had tasted the Vespa before, I decided to go the whole way with Bastianich and got a great bottle of Vespa 2015 from the Venezia Giula IGT. The grapes are grown in Colli Orientali vineyards but the wine must be labeled as an IGT. This wine is definitely super and did not disappoint me the second time around. It’s a blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc grapes with a tiny bit of Picolit that have been fermented 50% in stainless steel and 50% in oak casks. The 2015 gave us layers of fruit and minerality and while it drank well and no one complained, it begged for several more years in the cellar. Sometimes you just can’t wait!!!

Yes that is a picture of a wasp on the bottle of Bastianich “Vespa”. Vespa means wasp in Italian and they are quite attracted to ripe grapes. Most of us know Vespa as the maker of those very popular Italian motor scooters.

Bastianich Vespa Bianco 2015, IGT Venezia Giula

From Colli Orientali DOC vineyards, Friuli (Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc Blend)

Porcini Gnocchi with Parmesan in a Butter Sage Sauce

When it comes to side dishes in the Veneto, there are a number of delicious options – polenta, risotto, handmade pastas (especially bigoli which ideally requires a special “bigoli pasta making machine”) and then there is gnocchi.

Let’s back up a bit to the wine selection since that is how I usually begin. Pieropan is the oldest family-run estate in Soave and considered by many to be a top Soave producer, so that seemed like a winner for me. I especially wanted the Pieropan “La Rocca” to be our representative Classico Soave because it is 100% Garganega and is barrel-aged for about a year resulting in a wine that is intense yellow in color with notes of exotic fruit, nuts, and hints of spice. It really pays to read the “tech sheet” and I always search the internet until I find one for my wine which is not always an easy task. Being successful this time, Pieropan recommends serving this wine with a strong flavored dish “particularly risottos such as porcini”. I can’t argue with the winemaker, so something porcini it would have to be. Gnocchi also works well for this type of dinner party as you can make them in advance, freeze, and then cook just before service which is a lot simpler for the hostess/cook than standing at the stove for a very long time making risotto while your guests are waiting. I found several recipes for porcini gnocchi, settled on one, reconstituted the dry porcinis and chopped them until almost paste-like, baked the potatoes, riced them, added the porcinis, some flour and kneaded away until smooth and slightly sticky. I have learned that the best gnocchi results from not adding too much flour! It is much easier to add a little more as you go than working with dry over- floured dough. Next I rolled them out into ropes about 1/2 inch thick, and cut them into 1 inch long gnocchi. Put them individually on parchment paper lined baking sheets, freeze until firm and you can then consolidate into a freezer storage bag keeping frozen until just before you are ready to pop them into boiling salted water for service. Of course if you really have nothing else to do that day, you can cook and serve immediately! For service, I added the cooked gnocchi to a melted butter sauce with fresh sage leaves, and finished with grated Parmigiana cheese. One other reminder at time of cooking, put your large pot of salted water on the stove and keep it almost at a rolling boil just waiting for your gnocchi. I had turned down the heat while cooking another previous course, didn’t wait until rolling boil, cooked them and then added some pasta water to the sauce just as my recipe called for and my gnocchi stuck together more than I would prefer. Next time I would make sure that water was boiling away and leave out the pasta water! But that is how we learn. However, the flavors of those porcinis, sage and Parmesan could not be beat especially with the La Rocca Soave Classico from Pieropan. Another perfect pairing!!!!

A bigolaro is a specific type of pasta press used to make bigoli, a long pasta typical of Veneto. Depending on the area, they are made from whole wheat or white flour. If you can’t get fresh or dried bigoli, you can make do with thick fresh spaghetti but in my opinion there is just no good substitute for fresh pasta.

I had the pleasure of enjoying fresh homemade bigoli prepared and served by Chef Emanuela Calcara at Palladio Trattoria in Bonita Springs.

Bigoli with duck ragu is a specialty of Vicenza and Padua . In other areas of Veneto, you will probably see it spooned over potato gnocchi.

Pieropan “La Rocca” Soave Classico 2016 (100% Garganega)

Soave Classico DOC, Verona   

SECONDO

Crispy Pork Belly with Corn, Yellow Peppers and Zucchini

I so wanted this pairing to be a “shining star” of the evening as Radikon wine has been on my bucket list of wines for several years. The food had to do it justice even though this would be my very first taste of a Radikon ever! I knew that orange wines can be a little challenging to pair with food; however we had previously served Slovenian orange wine paired with recipes from my Slovenian cookbook and it was an excellent pairing. I searched the internet for additional suggestions and discovered a New York sommelier had presented a wine dinner of all Radikon wines and had in fact paired the Radikon Jakot with roasted pork belly and grilled vegetables of corn and yellow peppers. I decided to follow her lead! While I have eaten pork belly at a few local upscale restaurants and thought it delicious, I had never cooked it. It is a bit different than putting a few slices of bacon in a frying pan. But that has never stopped me before!

Staff at my local Publix meat department pulled out a 10 pound box of pork belly for me to see, sliced off a 2 pound piece as I requested and I was ready to go. I opted to use a recipe that called for seasoning the meat with salt, sugar, and black pepper overnight. I also added some smoked paprika since I don’t have a problem blending together several recipes that sound good.

The next day I roasted the meat for 30 minutes at 450 degrees, and then reduced the heat to 275 for another hour of roasting until tender but not overcooked. Be sure to save the rendered fat. You will need it later. After roasting, cool, wrap and refrigerate for at least a few hours or up to 2 days. I was planning to cook it the next day, so even though it was really simple, this was a 3 day process for me. Yes, dinner parties require advance planning and a production plan! That is a whole article in itself.

I sliced the chilled meat into individual portions, and at time of service put that rendered pork fat into a skillet over medium heat and cooked it until well-browned on all sides. The color and aroma was terrific!

For a vegetable, I opted to saute fresh corn cut off the cob with zucchini, yellow peppers and onions. For seasoning, I added garlic, thyme, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper and it was absolutely delicious.

At point of service, place a small bed of the colorful fresh veggies on each plate, top with a piece of that beautiful crispy pork belly, season with some fresh cracked black pepper and a sprig of thyme. Beautiful!!!!

Now to the wine………….our guests were amazed at the amber color of the Radikon Jakot even though we had all had quality orange wine at a previous dinner. We served it at room temperature as recommended and took our first sips of this 100% Friulano. We have already talked about this pioneer in orange wine making in our previous forkandcorkdivine article, so you can learn more about him there. The Jakot was macerated with the skins for about 3 months with no temperature control and no sulfur, then aged in huge Slavonian oak casks for 3-4 years, then bottled and aged for several more years. So all in all, a current vintage of Radikon wine is always 7 years ahead of today. The nose on this wine was loaded with dried fruit, flowers and minerals and the flavors were HUGE with layers that kept on coming! It was really an amazing experience…….I can’t wait to have another! And the food pairing? It was indeed perfect with that fatty pork belly and those fresh crisp vegetables just like that somm suggested. Guess they really know their business!

Radikon Jakot 2012, Venezia Giulia IGT, Collio, Friuli (100% Friulano orange wine)

 Spezzatino (Slow Cooked Beef Stew) on a Baked Polenta Slice

Since this was primarily a “white wine dinner”, I really didn’t want the two reds to feel neglected. It seems that Venetians have not been used to eating a lot of beef as it was hard to obtain, but they did use horse meat and donkey which is featured in many traditional dishes. I am sure my dinner guests were a bit concerned that I may come up with a way to serve it to them, but I absolutely had no interest in that! Beef it would be!!!! I used a recipe for Spezzatino (slow cooked beef stew) taken from my Veneto cookbook and it worked well for this course. The stew was not an Americanized type of beef stew with vegetables; it consisted of just beef and onions cooked in beef broth with a bit of tomato sauce and seasoned with some juniper berries. Here again I added some juniper berries onto my iGourmet order and I am now ready to make many future recipes with juniper berries. This was a good addition to my preparation mix since I cooked it the day before, then continued to cook down in a slow-cooker the next day for service. I opted to serve it on an oven baked slice of polenta that was topped with Parmesan cheese and seasonings. It made a great presentation and it certainly did pair well with the wine.

And the wine? What better lead in to the next course than this medium-bodied Ripasso Valpolicella Classico Superiore by Secondo Marco. We call it our “baby Amarone” since it’s aging process included resting on the skins of dried grapes previously used to make Amarone. You get that rich texture of the ripe dried fruit flavors, spice and floral notes all from a blend of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella. Another great elegant and food-friendly wine from the Veneto.

Secondo Marco Ripasso della Valpolicella Classico Superiore DOC 2013

Valpolicella, Veneto (Corvina blend)

FORMAGGI

Asiago DOP – “through the ages”

Pressato DOP: youngest

D’Allevo DOP: aged 5 months 

D’Allevo Oro del Tempo DOP: aged 1 year

No Veneto wine dinner experience would be complete without serving Amarone. Not wanting to have an additional meat course, a cheese course made up of Asiago cheeses made right here along with the Amarone seemed very appropriate.

Amarone is made by the appassimento method which is to let some Corvina, Rondinella and probably some Molinara grapes hang on the vine until they are extra ripe. Then pick the whole bunches and spread them out to dry on bamboo shelving or hang to air dry in cool drying lofts for 3 or 4 months until they shrivel up like raisins. After that they are crushed and fermented making a 15-16% alcohol wine that is very rich and concentrated. Then they are aged for 2-4 years and finally released for sale. Tenuta Valleselle made this Aurum from a blend of Corvina, Rondinella, Corvinone and Molinara and aged it for 2 years in wood. The result was ripe red fruit with spices, good tannins and notes of coffee. All perfect for the Asiago!

Asiago is a cow’s milk cheese made in and around the town of Asiago. It is DOP – Protected Designation of Origin. Once again, iGourmet had the perfect option for my cheese course, “Asiago DOP through the ages”. In one neat little package I received some young “Pressato” Asiago, d’Allevo Asiago aged 5 months and d’Allevo Oro del Tempo Asiago aged for one year. I served a little taste of each one on a plate for taste comparison of the three ages of cheese paired with the Amarone. The perfect little extra was another one of my favorites that always gets rave reviews, Lesley Stowe “Raincoast Crisps” crackers. They come in different flavors, but my favorite is fig and olive. As it says on the package, try them with some fig conserves, another one of my appetizer favorites!

Tenuta Valleselle “Aurum” Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOC 2005 Tinazzi

Valpolicella, Verona, Veneto

DOLCE

Torta di Mandorle con Gocce di Cioccalato

(Almond Torte with Chocolate Chips)

Fior d’Arancio Blue cheese with Orange

Assorted Italian Chocolates and Cookies

No matter how full your guests say they are, there is always room for the dessert course! Even if just a bite or two. My foodie friend, Mariann Slickers, who is also a fabulous cook but doesn’t want to admit it, offered to make the almond torte and I happily obliged. The Torta di Mandorle or almond cake is a classic dessert for the Veneto and the chocolate chips were a bonus. That delicious cake with the flavor of almonds and a bite of Fior d’Arancio Blue cheese with Orange which is also made nearby was a marriage made in heaven. Maculan Torcolato is one of the most famous dessert wines of the Veneto. It is made from Vespaiolo grapes that have seen a bit of botrytis, then picked and dried in special drying lofts for four months in the appassimento method, then aged in French oak barriques for a year. It was full of aromas of honey, flowers, vanilla, salted caramels and wood spices and guaranteed to pair with almond cakes and aged cheeses like Asiago and blue. My oh my, what a perfect ending to our dinner!

DIGESTIVO

Maculan Torcolato 2012, Breganze DOC, Vicenza, Veneto

In just over five hours a group of winelover foodies worked our way through a magical evening of 10 courses paired with 10 wines all of which highlighted a particular area and/or wine of the Veneto and Friuli regions of Italy, all part of the area known as Tre Venezie. I did the work which included all my research and writing of two other forkandcorkdivine posts, then waited several months for this to become reality and it finally happened. Once again I fell in love with my wine region. Yes, this area now makes some excellent wines and I personally think that you can find white wine heaven right here on earth in the Veneto and Friuli, but especially do not pass by any white wines of Friuli – Collio and Colli Orientali DOCs in particular. I now drink them every chance I can get.

In case you are wondering where I purchased these particular wines, six of them were initially tasted at wine dinner events served by Marcello Palazzi, our Winebow representative, and then purchased through The Wine Store in Naples. Other sources include Natural Wine Naples wine store and wine.com on the internet.

Many thanks to everyone who assisted with the research, the dinner and drinking the wines! I couldn’t make it happen without you. And where to next? That’s an easy question. We have unfinished business to complete. Part 2 of our Tre Venezie wining and dining armchair adventure includes a trip to Trentino-Alto Adige which we all plan to make in just a few weeks. Stay tuned for the pictures! Buon appetito and ciao for now.

lfrakos@gmail.com

5.14.19

Two gentlemen from Verona were recently seen at Osteria Al Carro Armato enjoying a bottle of Valpolicella Classico with a plate of sfilacci di cavallo!  Just a typical sight – nothing unusual about that.  After all, Verona is the wine center of Veneto.  Osterie used to be known for serving wine and simple food, often family style but nowadays their emphasis is on local food specialties with quality wine, and Al Carro Armato is well known for that.  The Valpolicella?  That’s the most common wine in this area, and it is made from a blend of local red grapes. What about the sfilacci di cavallo?  That would be shreds of dried horse meat served on a bed of arugula and possibly some beautifully shaved cheese like Asiago on top.  It seems that cavallo (horsemeat) and sometimes asino (donkey) is quite popular in this part of Italy and many other areas in Europe, but most often associated with Verona.  That particular dish and numerous others made from horsemeat are offered on many menus in Verona.  As much as my foodie instincts want me to explore that further, we have really come to the Veneto to talk about the wine!  We’ll save the cavallo for another time!

The Veneto is the eighth largest of the twenty geographic regions of Italy with a population of almost five million people making it the fifth most populated in Italy.  You can find the 7000 plus square miles of it in the northeastern corner of Italy bordered by Friuli-Venezia Giulia on the east, Lombardia on the west and Emilia—Romagna on the south.  To the north is Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.  At the very northernmost corner, the Veneto borders on Austria.  Venice is the most populated city and the capital followed in size by Verona, Padua, Vicenza and Treviso.

The Po Valley covers 57% of Veneto and extends from the Carnic Alps, the eastern Dolomites that block the cold temperatures from central Europe, and the Venetian Prealps to the Adriatic Sea.  On the coast of the Adriatic Sea is the Venetian Lagoon, a flat terrain made up of ponds and islands, and home to the city of Venice.  Like most regions in this part of the world, it has been a part of many empires.  The Romans ruled until the fifth century, and at one time it was annexed by the Austrian Empire until a merger with the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.   But it is the Republic of Venice that seems to be most memorable as it ruled this part of the world for a millennium – the 7th century AD to the 18^th century.

The Veneto has numerous microclimates, indigenous grapes and wine traditions although it doesn’t have a single wine brand recognition like the Chiantis and Brunellos made from Sangiovese in Tuscany or the Barolos and Barbarescos made from Piedmont’s Nebbiolo grapes. There is plenty of diversity in these 7000 square miles and something for everybody.  Wines range from Prosecco, a light fragrant sparkling wine that is enjoyed around the world, to the rosés and light reds of Bardolino, to Soave – the region’s most important white wine – and the numerous styles of Valpolicella reds.  And then there is Amarone, the famous Veneto flagship wine produced near Verona and made with a unique blend of grapes in their indigenous winemaking process called Appassimento (air-drying) that gives it lots of power and concentration. 

Veneto is often lumped together (in a good way!) with the Italian regions of Friuli-Venezia Giula to the east and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol to the north thus completing the formidable wine producing zone known as the Triveneto  or Tre Venezie after the Republic of Venice.   There are 28 DOCs and 14 DOCGs just in The Veneto alone.  Eight of these share territory with bordering regions making The Veneto the largest wine production region in Italy.  There are 90,000 hectares or 220,000 acres of vineyards here, and 35,400 hectares are designated as DOC.  The annual production totals 8.5 million hectoliters with 21% of which is DOC (90% DOCG, DOC and IGT) which makes The Veneto the biggest DOC producer in Italy.  Fifty-five per cent of Veneto DOC wine produced is white.

Tre Venezie as a whole produces more red wine than white, but the Veneto produces more whites under DOC. Production is almost equally divided between white and red and more than 60% of the cultivated grape varieties are native to Italy.  The indigenous Glera, Garganega and Corvina Veronese make up almost half of the plantings in Veneto especially in the west where Garganega and Corvina are everywhere. 

Verona, Vicenza, Padova and Treviso are some of the main cities of Veneto and all well worth knowing, but there is one city in particular that always stands out. Venice, or Venezia in Italian and the capital of The Veneto, is located in the eastern region on the Adriatic Sea. There is water everywhere – in fact Venice is built on 118 small islands in the Venetian Lagoon separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges.  Once the center of the former Venetian Republic with all of its romance, intrigue, and culture,  it is known by many names including “The Queen of the Adriatic”, “The Floating City” and “The City of Masks” made famous by its Carnival of Masks.  Here are just a few of the famous people who came from Venice: Giacomo Casanova, a playwright and lover, Marco Polo, the explorer and Antonio Vivaldi, the composer.

The Veneto and Venice take their name from the Veneti, a tribe that settled here around 1000 BC.  Venice became an important link between the eastern Byzantine Empire and the countries of northern Europe; known for trading spices, food, wine, art work, architecture and glass production.   Industry still plays a major role in the Veneto – in fact it is divided into industrial districts that tend to specialize into specific products – Murano for glass, Luxottica eyeglasses in Belluno, but you can find the likes of Benetton and other fashion brands all over Veneto.  Tourism is one of the main economic resources. Doesn’t everybody want to go to Venice?  The importance of agriculture may have decreased somewhat, but we winelovers know the Veneto is one of Italy’s most important wine-growing areas.  Those grapevines are an important crop!  And we foodies are in heaven in the Veneto where we can have Asiago and Grana Padano PDO cheeses to go in our risotto with a contorni of white asparagus or risi bici and finished off with tiramisu while sipping on a glass of Soave listening to some music of Vivaldi.  Oh, I almost forgot – we must have a glass of Macalan Torcolato to make the experience complete.  And now it is time to move on to the grapes and wine.  Which one of the 16 Wine Routes should we travel first? 

The Grapes and Wines of Veneto

Just like everywhere else in Italy, there were grapevines in the Veneto even before the Greeks, who are mostly given credit for bringing the vines.  Supposedly there were wild grapevines here long before Christ when people ate the grapes for food.  There is evidence of actual wine production in the 7^th century BC.   After the fall of the Roman Empire, Acinatico sweet wine was produced that may be the ancestor of several Reciotos.  Just when local wines were becoming famous around the 1600s along came war and disease of the 1700s and 1800s.   Thank goodness winemaking was revived and became so important in the Veneto that the very first Italian school for vine growing and oenology was created here in 1876, the Scuola Enological Conegliano G.B. Cerletti, opened in Veneto by decree of Vittorio Emanuele, the king of Italy.  Now Veneto’s grape growers are among those most modernized in Italy. 

The Veneto got into big business wine production in the 1960s and 70s with their mass-produced whites Soave and Pinot Grigio and Valpolicella reds because we Americans and the Brits were buying their inexpensive tasteless wines in a big way!  Thank goodness for us, while the cheap stuff still exists, the high quality (and naturally pricier!) versions are now available.  Veneto upped its wine game in the 1990s, and there are now formidable reds and fruity white wines just waiting for us to drink!  

Further proof of the significance of winemaking in the Veneto, specifically the Verona Province) is Vinitaly, the most important wine fair of Italy which happens every spring in Verona.  Vinitaly is an international 4 day event featuring an average of 3000 wines from every corner of Italy and three dozen countries making it the largest wine exhibition in the world.

Wine areas

The “state” of Veneto is divided into six administrative provinces: Verona, Vicenza, Padova (Padua), Treviso, Belluno and Rovigo plus one municipality – Venice. The wine regions or zones are basically divided into the same geographic areas.  However there are two very distinguishable wine areas in The Veneto with a transition in the middle between the two. 

The Eastern part is close to the Venice Lagoon between the hills of Treviso, plain of Piave River and Adriatic coast.  This is where you will typically find Prosecco made from the Glera grape, plus Merlot, Carmenere, Verduzzo, Raboso Piave, Refosco, Tocai, Verdiso, and Marzemino made in Lison, Lison-Pramaggiore, Montello e Colli Asolani and Colli di Conegliano.

The Western part is close to Lake Garda and Verona in the province of Verona and home to Valpolicella, Soave, Bardolino, Lugana and Custoza.  Notable wines here are made from Corvina, Rondinella, Garganega, Trebbiano of Soave and Oseleta grapes.   They all grow well here in the fertile volcanic soil of Verona. 

The Central part is a transition between East and West where the hills of Colli Euganei are close to Padova and Vicenza Provinces. You will also find Colli Berici and Breganze here.  There is a lot of wine produced here, but the best wine comes from the hills.  Padova is famous for its special Mediterranean microclimate and Moscato fior d’arancio, a sparkling dessert wine.

Grapes of the Veneto

There are over 850 documented grapes growing in Italy, and you will find many of them here in the Veneto – some native to the region, others that grow all over Italy, and then there are the international varieties widely grown in the country.

The best wine in The Veneto comes from the vines planted near hills because great wine comes from well drained volcanic soil with some sand, clay and gravel mixed in but not from the fertile farmlands where vegetables and fruits (including grapes) grow profusely. 

Grapes are now grown by the Guyot system in the East instead of the old traditional system of Sylvoz, but in the West you will find grapevines on the more traditional Pergola system.  For you winelover geeks, in the Sylvoz system grapes are growing downward from a taller trunk which requires a lot of time for cane pruning and bending and tying of the canes.  The Guyot system is one of the least complicated and easiest to maintain. It is head-trained with a permanent main trunk, plus one cane and a spur for a “single Guyot” or two canes and spurs for a “double Guyot”. Then there is the Pergola system of training vines above head height so that grapes hang down under the shade of the canopy.  We could write an entire article on the art of grape vine growing.

 “Classic” wines are made from native grapes like Glera and Corvina, but since Veneto wines have come into such a high demand on the world’s market, they also grow international varieties like Cabernets, Chardonnay and Pinots.  Many of the grapes most widely planted are listed here; however there are many others some of which are mentioned in the individual wine zones.

WHITE GRAPES

Chardonnay: Can make some decent New-World style wines here in Veneto.

Garganega (gar-GAN-nehga): The basis of Soave; grows well in volcanic soils; makes crisp dry white wines; flinty with citrus, honey and almond and has been the leading grape here since the Renaissance.

Glera: It was originally native to the Istrian Peninsula, now Croatia, and used to be known as “Prosecco”. It’s the basis for Prosecco DOC and DOCG still and sparkling wines. 

Pinot Bianco (Blanc): Planted in central and eastern Veneto and usually appears in a blend.

Pinot Grigio(Gris): Planted across northeast Italy known as “Delle Venezie” an almost brand new DOC; it’s one of Italy’s largest exports and makes a nice light wine but not as good as those of Friuli or Alto Adige.  Who hasn’t heard of Santa Margherita?  It made Pinot Grigio popular!  The Veneto can claim more Pinot Grigio grapevines than any other region of Italy.

Trebbiano di Soave: This grape is more than likely a Verdicchio Bianco and is blended with Garganega to make Soave and Bianco di Custoza.  It is a synonym of Trebbiano di Lugana – a white grape also used in Soave wines.

Trebbiano Toscano: Used in less expensive Soaves and other Veneto whites.

Vespaiolo: An indigenous grape made famous as a dessert wine, Torcolato. 

RED GRAPES

Cabernet Sauvignon: Not often made into notable wines in this region, but the traditional Bordeaux grapes became quite important here after phylloxerra.  The Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot have been cultivated here now for almost 200 years.  The Cabernet Franc is usually bottled together with Cabernet Sauvignon as a blend labeled “Cabernet”.

Carménère:  You will find most of Italy’s Carménère right here in Veneto along with Malbec (called Malbech in Italy).

Corvina Veronese: The leading indigenous red grape which is used in the Amarone, Valpolicella and most Bardolino blends.  The name comes from “corvo” or crow referring to the black color of the grapes. 

Marzemino: This is a dark-skinned late ripening grape grown in the Veneto, but also in Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna.  It makes up 95% of sweet Colli di Conegliano Refrontolo passito wines.  It’s grassy, herbal and has a sour cherry tang.  Other wine areas use it more often as a blending grape.  Opera lovers may recognize the name as being mentioned in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.   

Merlot: Merlot took over after the scourge of phylloxerra and is now one of the most widely planted red grapes in Veneto.  There are more Merlot grape vines here than any other region of Italy, and they are used to make simple wines. 

Molinara: Used in the blend of Amarone, Valpolicella and some Bardolinos.

Negrara: A minor blending grape grown in northeastern Italy, mainly Veneto. 

Oseleta: The name means “little bird” because of the small berry size.  Once thought to be extinct but revived in the 1990s and is gaining some winemaking interest, it’s now added in small amounts to Amarones and Valpolicellas.

Raboso (Raboso Piave): Planted primarily in eastern Veneto; it makes dark, tannic, high acid and alcohol wine.  “Raboso” means “angry”, and that is the sensation you get in the mouth when you drink it too young.  It used to be highly cultivated but not much these days. 

Refosco: An old family of very dark-skinned grapes native to Veneto and her neighbors: Friuli, Trentino, Istria and Karst.  Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso grows in the Veneto Venezia and Treviso plus Friuli.  It makes deep colored wine full-bodied with discernible tannins, black fruit and almond.  Not many make it to the US. Other Refoscos in the family include our old friend Teran from Karst in Slovenia and Croatian Istria. 

Rondinella: It’s the offspring of Corvina and the second most important grape in Amarone, Valpolicella and Bardolino.

Rossignola: An indigenous grape grown in Veneto since at least the early 19^th century. 

Amarone/Valpolicella blend:  Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara – Indigenous reds in Valpolicella used to make Amarone, Ripasso and Recioto dessert wine.  They have large berries and thick skins that are able to stand up to Appassimento process.

The Veneto DOCs, Wine Roads and their Wines

Two of the best known wines from The Veneto are the white Soave and the red Valpolicella.  The leading wines are Amarone (red), Pinot Grigio (white), and then there is Prosecco!  There are other wines you should also know about like Bardolino (red), Bianco di Custoza (white), Recioto Della Valpolicella (sweet red) and Recioto di Soave (sweet white) and grapes like Raboso, Refosco and Vespaiolo.  Here is where you will find them. 

As we mentioned earlier, there are 28 DOCs and 14 DOCGs plus some IGTs in the Veneto.  Due to the varied geographical makeup and the resulting micro climates, specialized wines are produced throughout the region.  Some of the best known examples are the Amarone from Valpolicella, Prosecco from Valdobbiadene and the whites of Soave.  The three best known DOC wines are Bardolino (from the town of Bardolino along Lake Garda), Valpolicella and Soave.  There are many other noteworthy wines and DOCs like the Amarone of Verona, but we won’t touch on all of them.

 Veneto was the first Italian wine region to institute a Strada del Vino or “wine road”.  Special road signs were erected with information on the vines and wines they were made into, and if you follow it over some hilly vineyards, you eventually wander through the Valdobbiadene to the Conegliano DOC zones.  The road is open to traffic but you will find many walkers and cyclists out exploring the vineyards.   We are going to follow our own “wine road” and look into some distinct and amazing wine areas.

Western Veneto

Valpolicella – Verona Province

The Valpolicella Valley is made up of three valleys crossed by three streams which flow down into the Adige River.  It is a hilly area with lush full landscape along Lake Garda in the Verona Province located in the western part of the Veneto.  The vineyards start just outside the city of Verona and stretch towards Lake Garda in the west where more traditional wine is made and to the east, where some younger winemakers are making modern history.  The Strada del vino takes you through the countryside where vines grow alongside cherries and olive groves.  The climate is supposed to be continental, but the nearby lake gives it more of a Mediterranean-type microclimate.    Here is where you will find that very famous wine: Amarone della Valpolicella!  You will also find four different styles of wine made from a blend of the same indigenous grapes: Corvina, Rondinella and sometimes Molinara.  The Valpolicella DOC was established in 1968 but with the popularity and world-wide appreciation of Amarone and the change in guidelines for production of “recioti” wines, the Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG and Recioto della Valpolicella became DOCGs in 2010 along with distinction of the Valpolicella Ripasso DOC.

Valpolicella (which means “valley of many cellars”) has been trying to shake that mass marketed bad wine reputation and has been overlooked by serious wine drinkers, but is now coming back into favor with important world-class wines.  There are many good wines here once you understand what is in the wines and the hierarchy of styles.  Valpolicella can be complicated as there are five different levels of Valpolicella wine with Amarone della Valpolicella being at the top of the ladder.  Starting at the bottom of the ladder is a nice weeknight drinking wine – Valpolicella Classico.  Its DOC produces more wine than any others.  This is a good pizza/pasta wine and won’t break the bank.  Next up the ladder is – Valpolicella Superiore DOC.  This one is more concentrated and darker in color and of course costs just a bit more.  Save it for the weekend!  And on the next step up – Valpolicella Superiore Ripasso DOC.  It’s also called Ripasso della Valpolicella and has its very own DOC.    And then there is the top of the ladder – Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG.  These grapes have been dried for 4-5 months which ferments the sugars to dryness.  There is a minimum of 2 years aging prior to release but lots of producers wait up to 5 years.  You can keep it in your cellar for 10 – 20 years.  It usually has 15-16% alcohol, and you know it when you drink it!  Take your credit card when you buy it.  And if you really really want to splurge, go for a single vineyard Amarone della Valpolicella.  Take two credit cards for that one!

Rumor has it that Amarone was born in 1936 when a forgotten barrel of Recioto Amara was found in the Cantina Sociale Valpolicella.  The head of the winery tasted it and said “This is not an Amaro, it is an Amarone!”  We don’t know if that is a true story, but many winelovers are thankful for the discovery.

Some alternative winemaking methods in the region

Appassimento:

Want to make some Amarone?  Consider the Appassimento method. The regular blend of grapes (Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara and sometimes Negrara) designated for Amarone are left to hang on the vine until they are extra ripe. Then whole bunches are picked and spread out to dry on bamboo shelving or left hanging to air dry in cool drying lofts for three to four months. Once the grapes dry and shrivel up like raisins, they lose about one-third of their weight in water.  When they are crushed and fermented, they make a 15-16% alcohol wine that is very rich and concentrated.  Next is aging for two years or more – four years for a riserva – before they can be released.    Some of the aging may take place in small oak barrels which gives it even more powerful flavors.  It is easy to see why the Amarone winemaker must have great skill and is worthy of the extra price.

Recioto:

Red or white sweet wines are made by this method. Recioto comes from the word recie which is dialect for “ears” and refers to the lobes, or ears, of a bunch of grapes.  The ears are the part of the bunch most exposed to sun and are therefore, the ripest grapes.  To make a recioto wine, the ears or whatever else of the bunch is the ripest are dried until the sugar is very concentrated.  A percentage of the natural residual grape sugar is left in the wine during fermentation making some very rich and elegant Soave and Valpolicella. 

Ripasso:

The winemaker actually macerates Amarone skins and solids with fresh Valpolicella Classico for several weeks to make this one, which is of course fuller body and rich.  Ripasso means “to pass over” or “do something again”.  After this wine has spent time with those Amarone skins and solids, it comes out jammy almost like Zinfandel.

Secondo Marco

Secondo Marco is the vineyard brand created in 2008 by Marco Speri, son of Benedetto Speri, the patriarch of a legendary winemaking family in the Valpolicella Classico zone. Benedetto was an excellent role model.  After all, he worked with the Bertani family to make some of the very first Amarones.  After working for his father for 25 years, Marco decided to make wine according to his own vision.  Secondo Marco wines are made to be elegant, food-friendly and focus on higher acidity, lower alcohol and less residual sugar.  His 37 acres of vineyards in the town of Fumane are in the perfect spot to make that happen – between Verona and Lake Garda in the foothills of the Lessinia mountains where they get fresh air from the mountains and warm breezes from the lake, and the soil is rich in mineral salts.  The Speris have done their research and decided that their traditional pergola vineyard training system could be improved if they modified it with a Y-shaped trellis. The results are more light, breeze and protective foliage allowing the grape bunches to grow and hang perfectly.  They don’t require invasive maintenance and are easier to pick.  Secondo Marco produces about 55,000 bottles total a year of Valpolicella Classico and Classico Ripasso, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG and Recioto della Valpolicella Classico DOCG.

Secondo Marco Ripasso della Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2013

The Ripasso is a medium-bodied red wine made by fermenting in stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts at low temperature to preserve freshness and fragrance.  Then it’s aged in cement until March.  Next step is refermentation on skins of dried grapes that were previously used to make Amarone. It was aged in Slavonian oak for 18 months and in the bottle for 6 more months.  The resulting wine is rich and textural on the palate with plenty of ripe and dried, red fruit flavors, spice and floral notes.  The grapes are a blend of 60% Corvina, 25% Corvinone, 10% Rondinella and 5% other local grapes.  15,000 bottles of it were produced.  14% alcohol.

Tenuta Valleselle

Tenuta Valleselle is a family estate surrounded by 12 hectares of vineyards on the hills of Lake Garda in Bardolino.  The Tinazzi Family bought the estate in 1986 from the Camaldolese Friars.  Corvina, Molinara, Rondinella, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are planted there along with over 1500 olive trees.  It remains a family business began by Eugenio Tinazzi, followed by his son Gian Andrea, and now with the help of his sons Francesca and Giorgio.  The company has expanded with properties in Valpolicella and Puglia, and they sell their wines in over 30 countries around the world. They are a family tied to wine even in the origin of their name.  “Tinazzi”, in ancient Veronese tradition, were containers similar to barrels where the grapes were pressed to ferment. 

Tenuta Valleselle “Aurum” Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2005 Tinazzi

The Aurum Amarone is made from this blend: Corvina 60%, Rondinella 20%, Corvinone 15% and Molinara 5%.  Corvinone is a black grape native to the Veneto region of Italy except for 2.5 acres in Argentina.  It is usually blended for Valpolicella and Amarone and has become more popular than Molinara due to its denser color and superior flavor.  Corvinone plantings in Italy have now increased from 220 acres to 2300 acres and Molinara decreased from 3200 to 1500.  The grape brings raspberry, cherry, plum and chocolate flavors to the wine.  The resulting wine is a very bright ruby color with notes of ripe red fruit and a spicy sensation.  It’s fresh on the palate with good tannins ending with elegant notes of coffee.  It was aged 24 months in wood.  Alcohol level is 15%.

Lugana – Verona Province…..and Lombardy

Now let’s head slightly to the south along the east bank of Lake Garda, Italy’s largest lake. Lake Garda forms over 30 miles of The Veneto’s western border.  If you head down to the southern end of the lake, there is a much lesser known but you-should-know- about wine area, the Lugana DOC, a newcomer to the DOC scene established in 1967.  The Lugana DOC actually straddles both The Veneto and Lombardia, but we’ll save Lombardia for another adventure.  You may already remember that my beloved Franciacorta comes from Lombardia, so we can’t go wrong there either!  Lugana was the first DOC designated in Lombardia.  Mild breezes from the lake make for a fairly constant temperature with little difference between day and night. Lugana’s terroir is chalky limestone with clay soils rich in mineral salts that make some unique and great white wine from Trebbiano di Lugana, better known locally as the Turbiana grape.  Turbiana is quite possibly related to the Marche grape Verdicchio.  The basic Lugana wine makes up about 90% of production and there must be at least 90% Turbiana in the bottle; however there is also Lugana superior, Lugana Reserva which has been aged for at least 24 months, a late harvest and Spumante wine.  Turbiana makes wines pale lemon in color, with soft acidity and floral and white peach aromas.  They grow near fishing villages, so what do you think we should pair them with?  If you said seafood, naturally you would be correct!  I have also heard that it pairs really well with roasted vegetables, especially zucchini. 

Zenato Winery

The Zenato Winery is located in San Benedetto di Lugana, 15 miles west of Verona on the shores of Lake Garda.  Zenato, founded in 1960 by Sergio and Carla Zenato, has 75 hectares of vineyards in Lugana and Valpolicella.  They make white and red wines with the goal being to showcase the land, the local grapes and the history of the area.  They first made their good reputation with the local grape Trebbiano di Lugana; then in the 1990s bought land and started making wines in Valpolicella at the Costalunga estate in Sant’Ambrogio.  They grow Corvina and Rondinella there, two of the famous grapes needed to make Amarone. Now the Zenato children Nadia and Alberto maintain and expand the Zenato vision while continuing the wines based in Valpolicella and Lugana with 175 acres under vine.  Their current annual production is 2 million bottles.  In Lugana, they make a still white Trebbiano wine from the Lugana San Benedetto DOC, a classic method Brut sparkling and a “Pas Dose” classic method sparkling from Lugana DOC. There are also Garda and Bardolino wines including Chiaretto, Italian rosé.   In Valpolicella, they produce Valpolicellas, Amarones, Recioto and IGT wines. 

Zenato Lugana Metodo Classico Brut 2013

The Zenato Brut is made from 100% Trebbiano di Lugana grapes.  They were vinified with natural yeasts at a controlled temperature in stainless steel tanks, then blended and bottled for the second fermentation in the bottle which is the classic method for making sparkling wine.  It was matured for 2 years in the bottle, then clarified and disgorged.  The resulting wine should be straw yellow with golden highlights, an intense aroma of white flowers with hints of pear and apple and a bit of peach and citrus.  It should be excellent as an aperitif or with meals. 12.5% alcohol.

Bardolino – Verona Province

Head up north along the eastern bank of Lake Garda and you will find the flat fertile plain of Bardolino which was given DOC status in 1968.  What Lugana is to white wine, Bardolino is to red!  It is often a blend of those same three native grapes: Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara – although you won’t find the Molinara much longer in this blend.  The winemakers of Bardolino are phasing it out.  You may already know that these are the same three grapes found in the Valpolicella wine region to the east.  All three grapes have a purpose – Corvina gives the wine some sour cherries and structure while the Rondinella brings along some bright berries.  Evidently the Molinara doesn’t have much purpose any more since they are phasing it out!

Bardolino is quite different from Valpolicella even though it is made from the same grapes.  Named after the town of Bardolino on Lake Garda, this wine is light-bodied, more pink than red, has some faint cherry flavors and sometimes a little spice.  It used to be slightly sweet and sold very inexpensively at Italian markets and to the summer tourists on Lake Garda.  Now the serious winemakers are going for quality and making quite drinkable Bardolino wines.  The reds generally have less Corvina and more Rondinella than Valpolicellas giving them a more uncomplicated fresh, fruit driven flavor profile with notes of sweet berries like ripe cherries with a slightly spicy finish.  Go for the Classico for a step up wine experience.  Bardolino is also turned into an inexpensive rosé wine called Chiaretto.  Bardolino have often been compared to Beaujolais over the years especially when a Novella was introduced in 1987.  There is a more robust Bardolino Superiore which was granted DOCG status in 2001.  They also make Chiaretto Spumante, a sparkling rosé. A few producers you might try are La Fraghe, Recchio and Zenato.

Zenato Bardolino Chiaretto 2017

Zenato’s Bardolino Chiaretto is made from a blend of 65% Corvina, 25% Rondinella and 10% Molinara that grows on the southeast shore of Lake Garda between Bardolino and Peschiera. The “rosé” color comes from fermentation with contact from the red wine grapes.  The harvested grapes are destemmed and then left to macerate for some hours before a soft pressing.  The resulting wine is an intense coral pink color with purplish highlights, a bouquet of white flowers and fresh red fruit with notes of raspberry and currants.  It should be excellent with hors d’oeuvres, first courses, lake fish and white meat

Garda – Verona Province……and Lombardy

The Garda DOC was fairly recently awarded (2005) to qualify wines from single-vine varieties that were previously grown where varieties were all blended.  Now there are single-varietal Garda DOC from white grapes Chardonnay, Cortese, Garganega, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Riesling, Sauvignon, Trebbiano, and Riesling Italico and red grapes Cabernet France, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Corvina, Marzemino, Merlot and Pinot Nero.  This area overlooks Lake Garda where vineyards alternate with olive trees and produces about 520,000 cases a year.  Part of this 2000 acre wine region is shared with Lombardia.  The Classico subzone of Garda DOC became part of the Riviera del Garda Classico DOC in 2017. 

Soave – Verona Province

Now let’s move southeast below Valpolicella region, but still in the western part of Veneto, and just east of Verona to where millions of bottles of white wine are made every year.  Soave is one of those Italian wines most people probably recognize right up there along with Pinot Grigio and Chianti.  And Soave was one of the first zones in Italy (1931) – along with Chianti  – to be recognized officially as having potential to make fine wine. But does anyone really know what is Soave?  Actually it’s a hilly area covering about 6000 hectares that is home to a fabulous white native grape called Garganega.  When you have tasted good Garganega, you will really appreciate its notes of almonds and lemon peel with a lot of depth of acidity.  The wine should be smooth or “soave” – suave in Italian – light and fresh with flavors of peach, honeydew, orange zest and some marjoram.   Soave first gained DOC status in 1968 and Garganega joined the ranks of other popular grapes like Trebbiano di Toscana, Chardonnay, Trebbiano di Soave and Pinot Bianco which unfortunately led to mass production of low quality cheap, boring, bland jugwines.  Big producers like Bolla were some of our only choices back in those days.  Lucky for us that has now changed.  Quality-conscious producers make classic while complex and satisfying white wines from Garganega now that Trebbiano Toscano and Pinot Bianco are not permitted in the official Soave blend.  Garganega must make up at least 70% of Soave with a maximum of 30% Chardonnay and Trebbiano di Soave (Verdicchio). In addition to Soave DOC, we have Soave Classico DOC, Soave Colli Scaligeri DOC, Soave Superiore DOCG, Soave Classico Superiore DOCG and Soave Superiore Riserva DOCG all of which have at least 70% Garganega in the bottle and often up to 100% Garganega.  “Superiore” indicates that the wines were aged for at least 8 months and it was made from higher quality grapes. As you can imagine, the price of this wine can vary widely – from less than $15 to over $50.  A $30 bottle of Suavia Classico Monte Carbonare Garganega really got my attention, and I would happily search out another bottle or two!  Some other quality producers of Soave you may want to try are Pieropan, Inama, Gini and Zenato and just about every producer from the volcanic hills around the village of Soave.

Pieropan

Pieropan is the oldest family-run estate in Soave and has been considered by many to be a top producer of Soave wines.  It was founded in the village of Soave in 1880 by Gustavo Pieropan who was dedicated to his business until 1964. In the 1950s and 60s all production was done by hand.   Leonildo Pieropan “invented” Recioto di Soave, which is a concentrated dessert wine. They were the first winery to market a single-vineyard Soave Classico with the release of Calvarino in 1971. This was considered to be the rebirth of quality winegrowing in Soave. Five generations later, Andrea and Dario Pieropan now manage the family business. Their wine cellars are a successful blend of tradition with modern technology.  The Pieropans practice organic farming on their estate of 74 acres and carry out their work harmoniously with the landscape.    They now oversee numerous acclaimed vineyards but La Rocca and Calvarino are the most praised. They yield small crops of highly concentrated Garganega and Trebbiano grapes on their three single vineyards. 

Pieropan La Rocca Soave Classico, 2016

The La Rocca Vineyard is located on the Monte Rocchetta hill, just below the medieval castle built by the Scaligeri family in the town of Soave.  The soil is chalky and clay; La Rocca sits 200-300 meters above sea level requiring several long narrow terraces facing southwest.  The microclimate produces wine with a unique perfume and distinctive mineral taste.  The Pieropans first produced wine here under this label in 1978.  The 100% Garganega grapes are handpicked, destemmed and crushed, and then get a short maceration with skin contact in 2500 liter barrels.  After fermentation, it is racked into barrels of between 2000 and 500 liters where they age on the lees for around a year, then held in bottle for some time before release.  The resulting wine is brilliant and intense yellow in color with golden hints, notes of exotic fruit and nuts on the nose, soft on the palate with hints of spice, length and elegance.  Alcohol content is 13%.  It pairs well with complex dishes particularly porcini risottos, salmon, scallops and crab.   

Bianco di Custoza – Verona Province

There are almost 3000 acres of Custoza DOC vineyards between the south shore of Lake Garda and Verona.  Bianco di Custoza is a white DOC wine often labeled simply as Custoza.  It could be seen as the white equal to the red Bardolino since the two DOCs overlap significantly.  There are nine grapes allowed for use in this Bianco but most winemakers use just three: Trebbiano Toscano (20-45%), Garganega (20-40%) and Trebbianello (5-30%). The wine is straw yellow towards golden yellow, fruity and slightly aromatic fragrance and velvety flavor.  There is also a Superiore which must be 11% alcohol which is 1.5% higher than the standard version.  This is an unusual requirement as all other Superiore wines only need to be .5 – 1% higher. 

Monti Lessini – Verona Province……and Vicenza

Monti Lessini was granted DOC status in 1987 and has just 99 acres.  It’s a hilly area with volcanic soils that extends through both provinces.  The interesting note here is the native white grape Durello which has a very high natural acidity coming from the plant, not the soil, and results in a unique flavor.  It is also called “Juliet’s Wine” because Shakespeare mentioned it in “Romeo and Juliet”.  About 54,000 cases of wine are produced here which also include Chardonnay, Garganega, and the other usual whites. 

Arcole – Verona Province……..and Vicenza

There are about 300 acres in this newly created (2000) DOC that borders between the provinces of Verona and Vicenza.  The white wines of the DOC Chardonnay, Garganega, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc are said to be pale yellow straw colored with floral notes and great complexity. The reds, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere and Merlot are supposed to make “wines of great character”.  So far, they are producing about 32,000 cases a year. 

Merlara – Verona Province ……and Padova

The Merlara DOC was created in 2000 to represent 67 acres of vineyards shared between the Verona and Padova Provinces.  It is centered around the town of Merlara, 30 miles southeast of Verona and on the northern side of the Adige River.  Winemakers produce white (Bianco) blends from Tai (Friulano), Chardonnay, Malvasia, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio and Riesling plus rosso blends from Cabernets, Merlot, Carmenere, Marzemino, Raboso and Refosco.  They also make varietal wines. 

Valdadige Terradeiforti – Verona Province………and Trentino

Yes, this is another of those “shared” wine regions.  It’s a DOC of Trentino Province with just 52 acres of vineyards, 20 wineries and 1,000 winegrowers – a number of which are actually in the Verona Province.  Grapevines know no boundaries! Once a subzone of Valdadige DOC, It was established as a separate DOC in 2006. They grow white DOC Terradeiforti Valdadige Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay passito.  Then there is red DOC Terradeiforti Valdadige Casetta and Enantio.  The Casetta grape is an obscure red from Trentino-Alto Adige locally known as Foja Tonda.  It has been in the Adige Valley for centuries and is used mainly to make IGT wines.  It is supposed to taste somewhere between Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah with black cherries, tobacco and sweet spices.  The Enantio is a red grape previously known as Lambrusco a Folglia Frastagliata which is totally unrelated to the Lambrusco grapes in Emilia-Romagna.  It is however related to Lagrein and Teroldego, other grapes of this region.  It is supposed to be highly acidic with deep color, and can be aged in oak. 

Central Veneto

Colli Berici – Vicenza Province

The Berici Hills were formed a millennium ago from an ancient seabed and have a terroir very different from the other alpine areas. Winegrowing dates back to the earliest settlement in this rural area of limestone hills and extraordinary beauty in the heart of the Veneto plain, just south of Vicenza.  Tocai Rosso is the typical grapevine of the area producing ruby red wine with vibrant fragrance and fruity dry floral flavor.  There are numerous DOC grapes in the Berici Hills: Chardonnay, Garganego, Pinot Bianco, Sauvignon, Spumante and Tocai Italico for whites and Cabernet, Merlot and Barbarano for reds.  The Barbarano (Tai Rosso) is closely related to Sardinian Cannonau and French Grenache.  Colli Berici became a DOC in 1973.

Breganze – Vicenza Province

Evidence shows that grapevines were growing in Breganze as long ago as 1300 to 1600, that it has been making quality wines since the 18^th century, and became a DOC in 1969.  Winegrowers here typically focus on native grapes, especially Vespaiolo.  There are a number of Breganze DOC designations: Bianco, Bianco Superiore, Rosso and Rosso Superiore plus numerous other designations like Breganze Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon, Cabernet, Pinot Nero and Marzemino all made DOC and Superiore DOC.  Then there are the “Riserva”s for a number of wines put on the market after an ageing period of at least two years.  

Maculan

Founded in 1947 by Giovanni Maculan, the Maculan family has been making wine for three generations in Breganze, a small town in the Province of Vicenza in the north center of Veneto and close to Asiago.  The estate has 40 hectares of vines and olive trees, and currently manages the cultivation of 30 select growers. Fausto Maculan, who took over in the 1970s and made the business a benchmark producer in Italy, has passed on the baton to his daughters Angela and Maria Vittoria.  Fausto is considered to be a pioneer of quality Italian winemaking. His motto is: “A small winery making great products”.  He was among the first to put the varietal name and his name on the front wine labels and to invest in labor intensive vineyard management and modern day quality winemaking techniques. Maculan uses both local and international grapes; the soils are mainly volcanic.  Some of the much lesser known wines made here are almost cult-like by winelovers in the know.  Maculan’s most renowned wine is Torcolato, which is one of the most famous dessert wines of Veneto, and made from the Vespaiolo grape. 

Maculan Torcolato 2012 Breganze DOC, Vicenza

Torcolato is made primarily from 100% Vespaiolo grapes after they suffer a slight case of botrytis, then picked and stored in special drying lofts for four months to concentrate the flavors and sugar as in the Appassimento method. It was later aged for one year in French oak barriques.  The name “Torcolato” means “twisted” in Italian and refers to the way the winery workers tie up the bunches of grapes with twine and then twist them so that the air circulates around them to promise perfect drying.  According to  Maculan the resulting wine is brilliant gold in color, has intense aromas of honey, flowers, vanilla and a bit of wood spices, is sweet and full-bodied on the palate with a clear lively finish.  It should pair perfectly with pastries, almond cakes, aged cheese like Asiago and very strong cheese like blue.  Only 1500 cases of the 2012 were made; its 14% alcohol and Wine Spectator rated it 92 points commenting that it had accents of glazed apricots and salted caramels.

Asiago DOP

We can’t talk about the Breganze wine route without giving particular mention to Asiago, not only a town in the area but home to one of my favorite Italian cheeses, Asiago DOP.  Asiago is a cow’s milk cheese (vaccino) that can be either bold flavored Asiago d’Allevo DOP – made from raw milk and aged for 3 months (mezzano), 9 plus months (vecchio) or aged up to two years (stravecchio) – or it can be fresh Asiago Pressato DOP made from pasteurized milk which has a smooth sweet taste.  DOP stands for Denominazione d’Origine Protetta or Protected Designation of Origin.

Gambellara – Vicenza Province

The Gambellara DOC (1970) creates the border between Vicenza and Verona Provinces.  Its volcanic origin makes it quite favorable for vine growing, and the principal white grape is Garganega.  There are about 279,000 cases of wine made here by 20 wineries on 546 acres who produce three types of DOC wines:  Gambellara DOC, Gambellara Vin Santo and Gambellara Recioto DOCG.  Recioto is the flagship of the DOCs since the process is rather unique.  The Vin Santo is only made in the best vintages and can be kept in the winery for 50 years without deterioration. 

Bagnoli di Sopra – Padova Province

The Bagnoli DOC (just 47 acres) was established in 1995, and a separate Bagnoli Friularo DOCG in 2011; however, the region has been associated with growing grapes and making wine for 1000 years.  The Benedictine monks, who defined the importance of winemaking here, had their seat in Bagnoli di Sopra from 964.  The principal white grapes are Chardonnay, Friulano, Marzemina Bianca and Sauvignon Blanc.  Red grapes are Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Cavrara, Corbina, Merlot, Raboso, Refosco and Turchetta.  Friulara is the local name for Raboso; therefore Friularo di Bagnoli is literally “Raboso from Bagnoli”.  Bagnoli is a village just south of the Colli Euganei hills.  In addition to dry wines, they also make sweet passito and vendemmia tardiva (late-harvest) styles.     

Colli Euganei – Padova Province

The hills of Euganei are volcanic in origin and a number of DOC wines are produced here in the Po Valley of the Padova Province, but specialties of this area given DOC status in 1969 include Colli Euganei Pinello, a straw yellow wine with hints of green, fresh and delicate plus a Colli Euganei Serprino, a sparkling pale yellow bright wine and Colli Euganei Fior d’Arancio which has lingering intense fragrance typical of its grape, Moscato Giallo.  The ancient Pinella grape is indigenous to this area and just 25 acres of it exist. The Serprino grape is said to be the same as Glera.  The Fior d’Arancio, whose name means “orange blossom” is a sweet passito wine made from Moscato Gialla grapes, and biscotti is a highly recommended pairing.

Eastern and Northeastern Veneto

Prosecco – Belluno, Padova, Treviso, Venezia and Vicenza Provinces

Like Champagne is to France, Prosecco is to Italy.  Prosecco, the sparkling wine made from the Glera grape, reigns supreme in 5 provinces of Veneto and 4 provinces of the Friuli-Venezia Giula regions of Italy.  There are 57,000 plus acres in vineyards as of 2017 producing almost 37 million cases of the fizzy stuff in 2017.  It’s been one of the Italians favorite aperitivos and the most sold sparkling wine in the US because it is refreshing, light, often dry (but you can get it sweet, too) and comes at a good price-point.   The Prosecco producing area was established as a DOC in 2009 but the name came from the little village of Prosecco near Trieste, where the grape and wine was thought to come from.  The Glera grape must make up a minimum of 85% of all grapes used to make Prosecco.  The other 15% may include local grapes Verdiso, Bianchetta Trevigiana, Perera and Glera Lunga and international grapes like Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Nero.  It must all be white wine – there is no such thing as Prosecco Rosato!  Some producers use a blend including a red-skinned grape and label the wine Rosa Spumante.  White sparklers not meeting guidelines for Prosecco are also called Spumante. 

The Glera is a white grape variety that has nut-brown vines growing golden yellow grapes.  The vines are vertically training, thinned, pinched and tied to encourage the aromatic substances to settle on the grapes.  The first half of September is when the grape characteristics are the best for winemaking and perfect for producing quality Prosecco.  DOC Prosecco is produced in nine provinces of Veneto and Friuli- Venezia Giulia, Prosecco Superiore DOCG comes in two forms: Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene (val-dob-YAH-dinnay) Superiore DOCG which can only be made between those two towns in Treviso, and the smaller Asolo Prosecco Superiore DOCG made near the town of Asolo. 

The Superiore Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG sparkling is made on the hillsides in far smaller quantity – about 6900 hectares in Conegliano/ Valdobbiadene and about 1800 hectares for Asolo.  The hills are steep enough to require all the work be done by hand, which increases the quality as well as the price!  Interestingly enough, Stefano Ferrante, head winemaker at Zonin, supposedly said while presenting a masterclass that Prosecco drinkers – outside of Italy – don’t care if it is DOC or DOCG.  That may be the case for the occasional wine consumer, but I must say that I will certainly be on the alert to judge for myself. 

The Rives and Cartizze

Since 2009 the Superiore Conegliano Valdobbiadene producers have had the option of using the name of the village of their wine’s origin to the label.  “Rive di………..” on the label means that they are one of the 15 communes of 43 villages from the hills conforming to the wine-growing standards of that special DOCG zone. Producers tend to reserve this designation for their top wines; therefore you should expect that this bottle of Prosecco was made with extra special care from the highest quality grapes.  Each “Rive” should express the particular terroir of the hillside – the soil, exposure and microclimate.  Yields in the Rives are reduced to 13 tons of grapes per hectare and they are always picked by hand.  If you are still looking for THE special sparkler, there is single-vineyard Superiore di Cartizze DOCG, made from 260 acres of vines on the 1001 foot high vineyard on the hill of Cartizze.  This one is the Grand Cru of Proseccos!  The producers don’t even to bother mentioning “Prosecco” on the front label, just the Superiore di Cartizze.  

How they make it…or more confusion with Prosecco vs Spumante

Prosecco is usually produced using the Charmat method:  secondary fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks rather than in the bottle like méthode Champenoise.  Prosecco DOC wine can be “Spumante” sparkling, “Frizzante” semi-sparkling or “Tranquillo” still wine, but Spumante is the most famous and popular and has longer lasting bubbles.  The level of sweetness is based on EU Regulations.  “Brut” can contain up to 12 grams/liter of residual sugar, “Extra Dry” has 12-17 g/l and “Dry” has 17-32 g/l.  Very little still wine is produced and even less is exported.  Glera grapes made in Prosecco style outside of the DOC/DOCGs would be non-protected such as “IGT-Veneto, less expensive and possibly of dubious quality. 

It is important to mention that the term “Spumante” is a wide class that covers all sparkling wines made in that particular vinification method.  There is a Prosecco Spumante, but Spumantes in general may include grapes other than Glera.  Spumantes are made in the Metodo Classico (champenoise method) with refermentation in the bottle or by the Charmat method (second fermentation in the tank).

Col Fondo

The Charmat method for making sparkling wine was invented in 1895 by Professor Federico Martinotti and the pressurized tanks were designed, built and patented in 1910 by Eugene Charmat.  So how did they make it before then?  There is a small number of producers going back to the traditional old method used before the 9^th Century of refermenting or finishing the first alcoholic fermentation in the bottle.  This process is called col fondo. They leave the yeasts in the bottle instead of disgorging which causes sediment to accumulate on the bottom (il fondo) ending up with cloudy funky sour tasting and smelling wines.  The official term for this style is “Rifermentato in Bottiglia”; the wines are not even always labeled Col Fondo.

The Prosecco Wine Route

The Strada del Vino Prosecco winds through the hills and vineyards between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene.  There are about 25 miles of twists and turns on this route through hills, tiny villages and along mountain tops in the northeastern corner of the region. There are some 175 wineries here with vineyards everywhere, which travel writer Mark Ellwood said in Conde Nast Traveler a few years back it is “akin to Sonoma twenty years ago”.  You can even follow the arrows that lead you up a path to a Prosecco vending machine on top of a high hill.  You can buy a bottle of Prosecco and some snacks to enjoy at a table among the vines if you haven’t tasted enough yet – or you just want to take time to enjoy the view!  But please drive slowly and carefully as the road is narrow and hugs the edge of some steep cliffs. 

Zardetto

The Zardetto family goes back over a hundred years ago when Bepi Zardetto lost his horse and cart loaded with wine barrels during the retreat from Caporetto on the Italian front of WWI.  Since that time Ernesto Zardetto has won silver medals for his “sweet wine” and Zardetto Prosecco has had great success on the international market.  Fabio Zardetto, the sole owner since 1998, has brought new energy to the company.  In 2002 he began building a new and modern winery to specialize in sparkling Prosecco.  They are located in the heart of Prosecco country between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene.  Fabio oversees the entire process from the vine to the customer, utilizing his knowledge of every hill and terroir in the Prosecco DOC to source only the very best grapes.  Those include Zardetto-owned vineyards in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG, Prosecco DOC designated for cru wines, high quality co-op wineries in Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG hills and the Prosecco DOC.  Their winemaking philosophy is to collect and separate grapes from each vineyard allowing them to express their specific features, then chilling and pressing them gently.  After the initial fermentation with yeast, the second fermentation occurs in large pressured tank called “autoclave” (called the Italian method) over a period of nearly 40 days.  This gives the Prosecco its flowery, fruity taste that we love! It is finally filtered and bottled.  Zardetto has 88 acres of their own under vine and total production is 1.9 million bottles a year. 

Zardetto Prosecco Dry Z Brut Organic Prosecco DOC

Z Prosecco is Fabio Zardetto’s very first organic Prosecco.  He used carefully selected and certified organically grown Glera grapes from various vineyards northeast of Conegliano.  The tasting notes tell us to expect a lemon-yellow color with elegant bubbles forming hearty white froth.  There should be aromas of white flowers, apricot and herbs; citrus, orange blossoms and stone fruits on the palate and lingering fresh citrus and floral notes on the finish.  It should be perfect as an aperitif.  Alcohol level is 11%. 

Colli di Conegliano – Treviso Province

This area covers 59 acres of vineyards in the hills around the town of Conegliano.  It was established as a DOC in 1993 and elevated to DOCG status in 2011 to include the red and white still wines produced in this area which is usually associated with the production of Prosecco.  The base wine of this subzone is a dry white made from Manzoni Bianco, Pinot Bianco and Chardonnay and sometimes a tiny bit of Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.  The few red wines made are from Cabernet and Merlot grapes.  What this area is noted for is sweet passito wines: a sweet red Colli di Conegliano Refrontolo Passito, which is dried-grape wine made from Marzemino, and a sweet white Torchiato di Fregona, made from air-dried Glera, Berdiso and Boschera grapes.  Just under 15,000 cases are produced here. 

Corti Benedettine – Padova Province

This little known outside-of-Veneto region was just granted DOC status in 2004 and extends to the southeast of Padova Province and south of Venice Province.  The designation was more intended to mark an important historical period in the social and economic development of the area.  Winegrowing here dates back to Roman times during the second Republic, but it was the Benedictine Monks religious group that owned large areas of land here for almost 1000 years.  They had to reclaim the wetlands to cultivate it which took a great amount of expertise. They built canals and drainage systems to create Corti which held living quarters for the friars and houses for the farmers.   They historically produced quality wine from native grapes Raboso, Refosco, Tocai and Moscato Giallo, and today local winegrowers produce a number of international varieties as well as the natives.  There are just 326 acres of vineyard area producing a little over 17,000 cases per year in white, Rosato, red, sparkling and passito wines.    

Lison-Pramaggiore – Treviso and Venezia Provinces……..and Friuli-Venezia Giula

The Lison wine area is located partially in the Treviso and eastern edge of Venezia Provinces and partially in western Friuli-Venezia Giula. It’s on flat lands made fertile by many years of humus carried during the flooding of streams coming from the Alps.  There are over 800 acres in the entire area.  The Lison-Pramaggiore DOC was established in 1985 incorporating the Tocai di Lison DOC from 1971.  Lison wines are made from Tocai, a signature white grape in this area, and now known as Tai to avoid confusion with the Tocai wines of Hungary.  Lison wines were sold under the Lison-Pramaggiore DOC for 25 years along with the red blends sold as Cabernet di Pramaggiore, but in 2010 Veneto wine regulators separated them and even elevated Lison to DOCG status.  While most of Lison’s vineyards are in Venezia Province of Veneto, some of them are in Friuli making Lison the only DOCG in Italy that crosses over two wine regions. 

Montello-Colli Asolani – Treviso Province

This area travels up from the foothills on the right bank of the Piave River from Montello to the slopes of the Grappa peaks. These 150 or so acres were established as a DOC in 1977.  In 2009 Asolo Prosecco DOCG was granted (named for the town of Asolo), and then along came Montello Rosso established as a separate DOCG in 2011.  Winemakers here produce DOC whites such as Montello e Colli Asolani Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Manzoni Bianco and Prosecco.  Reds are Montello e Colli Asolani Rosso, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Carmenere and Merlot. 

Piave River – Treviso and Venezia Provinces

The Piave DOC was established in 1971 in the northeastern Veneto and is named after the Piave River that flows through it.  This grape growing zone is the largest in Veneto covering over 1100 acres.  To the south is the Venetian Lagoon and the northern Adriatic Sea and to the west are the plains.  Piave can make both blends and varietal wines.  Most are dry, but dried-grape passitos are made with Verduzzo and Raboso grapes.  Whites are Verduzzo, Tai, Chardonnay and Manzoni Bianco.  Cabernet is the leading red varietal and is a blend of Cabernets and Carmenere plus Merlot and Raboso.   Raboso used to be the dominant wine in this region until international grape varietals gained in production.  Since the 1990s Raboso has become much more popular and successful, and in 2010 the Piave Melanotte DOCG was created to single out fine Raboso wines from Piave.  These must be 95% Raboso, between 15 – 30% of grapes dried before pressing and then aged for 3 years before release.  The Piave DOC fills in all of the gaps along the Adriatic coastline right across Friuli-Venezia Giulia to Slovenia and up into the Alpine foothills.

Vicenza – Vicenza Province

The Vicenza wine region was granted DOC status in 2000. Geographically Vicenza is the center “V” of the “three Vs” wine producers in the Veneto: Verona, Vicenza and Venezia.  Its 274 acres of vineyards cover the entire province of Vicenza including vineyards already covered by Gambellara, Monti Lessini, Colli Berici and Breganze.  Vicenza produces the same wines as other nearby regions: Bianco blends of Garganega plus Chardonnay, Manzoni Bianco, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Riesling and Sauvignon plus reds of Merlot, Cabernets, Carmenere, Merlot, Pinot Nero and Raboso.

What’s ahead for the wines of Veneto? 

The trend for a number of years was for Italian wine zones to go smaller and have more named and clearly defined subzones; i.e. more DOCs and DOCGs.  There were a number of mini DOCs or DOCGs created like Arcole and Merlara in Verona and Vicenza DOC in 2000 primarily to upgrade a style of wine or a particular grape.  DOCs first came into existence in the 1960s in an attempt to raise the profile of Italian wines.  Then along came the first Italian DOCG wines in 1980 for Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.  These were all great choices for that status but now there are 74 wines with DOCG status, some covering just one wine and with hardly any available.  Today there is much discussion over the so called “DOCG Dilemma”.  One winemaker was quoted as saying “The DOC or DOCG regulation is a way to have legislation; it is a way to control much more the quantity and not the quality”.  The designation DOCG does not necessarily ensure that the wine is better. 

Now since 2016, there seems to be a reversal by making larger denominations out of smaller areas and adding new styles.  The Friuli DOC was created in 2016 which includes all of the Friuli DOCs and DOCGs.  We will explore them next in our Friuli-Venezia Giulia article. 

And then there is the 2017 formation of the Delle Venezie DOC, Italy’s 335^th DOC!  The announcement was made on center stage at Vinitaly in April, 2017. The entire DOC is only for Pinot Grigio and a white blend (Bianco), includes 62,000 acres of vineyards and can produce 20 million cases or more.  This DOC wine can be produced anywhere in the regions of Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giula or in the Trentino Province.  The Pinot Grigio must be 85% Pinot Grigio grapes and the rest can be any white grape allowed to be grown in the region.  Creation of this DOC is seen as an attempt to raise the profile of Pinot Grigio by guaranteeing a higher quality wine since a large amount of Pinot Grigio comes from this area which now qualifies for DOC status. 

So what is my takeaway from all of this discussion?  It has been most confusing for me to learn about the wines of Veneto.  Yes, other wine regions of Italy are also complicated but the many different DOCs/DOCGs, styles of wine and methods for producing them require a lot of research and study in order to get a basic understanding of the region. And then there is the question of whether the extra expense of DOCG, Superiore, and every other special information about the wine really mean anything and are they worth it?  So here are my words of wisdom.  I do know that I really enjoy drinking Italian wines and would happily try all 850 of those grapes!  I am up for the challenge of learning about them.  Part of the enjoyment of drinking that special bottle of wine is learning its story.  I’m a firm believer that every wine has one. Check out where the wine comes from, the producers and how they make the wine, and last but not least – taste a lot of wine then make your own decision.  Drink what you like.  And if the wine happens to be a DOC and not DOCG, so be it!  Enjoy.  

So what’s next?  We are turning this into a forkandcorkdivine graduate study “armchair” adventure.  Stay tuned for information about Friuli-Venezia Giula and Trentino-Alto Adige.  On to Tre Venezie!  Next stop?  Friuli Venezia Giulia!  Ciao.

All of the information that I used to prepare this article is available on the internet and the following books: “The Wine Bible” by Karen MacNeil; “Vino Italian: The Regional Wines of Italy” by Joe Bastianich and David Lynch; “Wine Folly: The Master Guide” Magnum Edition by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack and “The World Atlas of Wine” by Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson.  Please accept my apologies if there is any incorrect data or information; I try to verify from several sources. 

LFRakos@gmail.com

Forkandcorkdivine.com

4.3.19T

Champagne – how I love you!  Let me count the ways: Brut, Non-Vintage, Ultra Brut, Vintage or Millésimé Brut, Blanc de Blancs, Blanc de Noirs, Prestige Cuvée, Rosé, single vineyard, single varietal, grower-producer, Grande Maisons de Champagne; from Montagne de Reims, Cȏte des Blancs, Vallée de la Marne, Cȏte des Bar or The Aube, Cȏte des Sézanne.  I love them all……………….and apparently so did the folks at Wine Enthusiast Magazine. 

The Champagne wine region in France was honored as the 2018 “Wine Region of the Year” at the January 28, 2019 Wine Enthusiast Magazine “Wine Star Awards” black- tie gala event in Miami, Florida.  Just a few days later my husband and I, along with a few winelover foodie friends, honored Champagne on a much smaller – but no less gala – Champagne dinner at our home.  This is the story of our love and appreciation for Champagne paired course by course with delectable foods– all 8 courses and 10 different examples of those fabulous tiny bubbles!

For the past year and a half, I have been intrigued with learning about “exotic” wine regions that were completely unfamiliar to me both in wine and food.  From the Eastern Mediterranean to Croatia to Slovenia, Macedonia and Turkey, I did the research – studied about the country, the wine and the food – all resulting in a forkandcorkdivine.com article and an at-home wine dinner to drink the wine and pair it with foods from that country. 

When deciding on the topic of “Champagne”, I truly thought it would be a simple task.  After all, I knew a thing or two about Champagne!  Or so I thought.  The past few months of reading several books and internet research on everything I could find about the region, the history, and the details about this wine called “champagne” quickly humbled me resulting in a new appreciation for Champagne bubble by millions of tiny bubbles that will probably last a lifetime.  The next few pages are devoted to the wines that were shared by our group, and the foods that we lovingly prepared and served with them.

Félicitations Champagne

“Wine Star Award” Dinner

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Welcome Hors D’Oeuvres

Ham and Comté Cheese Tartlets

Scallop Rillettes

Truffle Parmesan Popcorn

    Potato Chips with Creme Fraiche and Caviar                 

Green Olives a la Provençale                   Almonds       

Gosset Grande Reserve NV Brut,  Vallée de la Marne

We welcomed our guests in typical French style with Champagne and hors d’oeuvres served casually in the living room.   Upon reading about food pairings with different styles of Champagne, the basic little nibbles included nuts (almonds preferred) and olives (a la Provençale the best!) along with some items most people don’t think of but really should try – popcorn with Parmesan cheese and truffle oil and potato chips.  I gave the potato chips an upgrade which was well worth the effort – put a dollop of crème fraiche on top of a chip, sprinkle on a little caviar, and some fresh chopped chives – and voila!  It is super tasty!!!  Anita, my foodie friend with a flair for preparing all foods French, gave the upscale touch to our hors d’oeuvres.  She prepared delicious little tartlets of ham and Comté cheese hot out of the oven.  That pastry almost melted in your mouth.  And not wanting us to go hungry before dinner, she also brought along some rich and creamy scallop rillettes for spreading on crackers.  If you have never had rillettes, they are a decadent artisanal spread similar to pȃté made of a protein in lots of butter and cream. Unfortunately I did not get any separate pictures of either of these delicious morsels! 

On to the Champagne………..  The first bottle of the night was made by Gosset, the oldest wine house in Champagne.  The house of Gosset traces roots back to 1584 when they made still wine in Aÿ.  Their grapes are sourced almost entirely from Premier and Grand Cru vineyards in the Vallée de la Marne.  The Grande Reserve Brut NV Gosset is a blend of 45% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir and 10% Pinot Meunier from 3 different vintages with a 9 g/l dosage.  It was a bright golden color with ripe red blackcurrants, wheat and dried fruits on the nose and mineral notes with ripe and dried fruit on the palate.  The Gosset scored 92 points from WE, WS and W & S.  It was a perfect way to begin our journey!

The Glass Debate

An experiment of taste testing with
flutes, white wine glasses and coupes

Champagne Aubry Brut Premier Cru, Montagne de Reims

  Bernard Brémont Millésimé Grand Cru 2011, Grand Montagne de Reims

Upon reading about the great debate over the best type of glass to use for drinking Champagne, we decided to do our own experiment.  We tasted a Brut NV and a Vintage Champagne in crystal flutes, Riedel universal or white wine glasses and coupes.  We evaluated them based upon aroma, fruit and acidity, finish and integration of alcohol. While we didn’t do formal scoring, the differences were noticeable particularly when tasting the Vintage Champagne.  Everyone had their own opinion – some still preferred their flute – but several of us opted for the white wine glass for the rest of our tastings.  Why not try this experiment yourself? 

The Champagne Aubry Brut Premier Cru NV is a white blend of 55% Pinot Meunier, 25% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir and 5% of the heirloom grapes Arbanne, Petit Meslier and Fromenteau.  The Aubry twin brothers Pierre and Philippe are some of the very few winemakers who utilize these indigenous grapes.  Half of this particular wine is made from reserve wine more than half of which came from a solera going back to 1998.  We enjoyed lemon citrus flavors with notes of flowers, mint and crushed rocks.  Aubrey Fils has just 30 acres primarily Premier Cru in the village of Jouy-lès-Reims in the Montagne de Reims and produces just 10,000 cases a year.

Bernard Brémont is a Récoltant Manipulant which means they make the Champagne entirely on their property in the Grand Montagne de Reims.  The Bernard Brémont Brut Grand Cru Millésimé Ambonnay 2011 is a medium bodied white made from 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay and it was excellent.  There were aromas of fresh stone fruits with citrus notes, stone fruits and biscuit on the palate with a citrus and mineral finish.  Vivino users rated it 4.1.  This Champagne really deserves a white wine glass to fully enjoy all of the aromas.  Bubbles are great, but I want to get the full effect!

First Course

Crab Salad in a Citrus Vinaigrette with Fresh Citrus Sections

Laurent-Perrier Brut Nature Ultra Brut NV, Vallée de la Marne

Laurent-Perrier Brut Nature Ultra Brut NV was paired with our first course.  This Champagne is a white blend of 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir from 17 Grand Crus with an average rating of 97%.  There is 0 dosage, and it was aged for 4 years.  The spec sheet says “it appears without make-up in its natural form” and that it did!  The color was very pale and crystal bright; citrus, white fruit and flowers on the nose; a long delicate taste of floral, fruit and mineral notes with a long clean finish.  Wine Ethusiast rated it at 93 points.  Laurent-Perrier is located in the Vallée de la Marne and is part of a family of 4 champagne brands, one of which is the world famous Salon.  Laurent-Perrier was one of the first Champagnes I ever tasted and remains one of my favorites to this day! 

After reading all of the tasting notes about the L-P Brut Nature Ultra Brut, I decided that the crab salad in citrus vinaigrette made with fresh citrus sections would be the perfect match for the clean bright citrus flavors of the Champagne.  Indeed it was!  The lump crab meat was mixed with fresh avocado and a vinaigrette made from the juices of lime, orange and grapefruit.  It was all layered using my Ateco 4 piece round food molding set which is one of the best little culinary tools I have purchased, and sat perfectly on a lettuce leaf.  It is easy to do and makes an impressive food item.

Second Course

Oyster and Brie Champagne Soup

2013 Marie-Courtin “Resonance” Extra Brut Champagne,  Cȏtes de Bars

Oysters are almost mandatory to serve with Champagne, but freshly shucked raw oysters were not to be!  So I did the next best thing and made this rich and creamy Brie Champagne soup.  It was simple to make and I added some shucked fresh packaged Willapoint farm raised oysters from our local Publix seafood department.  They were perfect for this recipe and the soup received rave reviews from our guests.

Dominque Moreau is a grower-producer on a 6 acre estate in the Cȏtes de Bars.  She makes just 1000 cases of Marie-Courtin Champagne, named after her grandmother who worked this land during World War I.  The 2013 Marie-Courtin “Resonance” Extra Brut is a white Champagne made from Pinot Noir grapes making it a wonderful example of a “grower producer, single vineyard, single vintage, single varietal and zero dosage” Champagne.  We expected to get hints of smoke, slate, dried pears and red stone fruits in a creamy expressive well balanced Champagne and that is what we got!  If you have the opportunity to drink any Marie-Courtin, do not pass it by!  Antonio Galloni gave it 94 points. And please drink it in a white wine glass.

Third Course

Seared Scallop on a Potato Pancake with Caviar Champagne Sauce

Bernard Brémont Brut Grand Cru NV,  Grand Montagne Reims

Anita, with her French foodie flair, prepared this absolutely beautiful and delicious dish for our next course.  She seared U-15 scallops, placed each one on a delicate potato pancake and ladled on some amazing sauce made from butter, crème fraiche, Champagne and caviar.  Very decadent and I wanted to lick the plate clean!

We were lucky enough to enjoy a second wine from the Bernard Brémont family – a Bernard Brémont Brut Grand Cru NV.   This one was a medium bodied white made from a blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay with a dosage of 7-8 g/l.  It had a spicy nose, bright citrus, pear and mineral scents with clean, lemon, orchard fruit and peppery spice flavors on the palate.  This bottle rates 91 points from IWC.  The pairing was beautiful and we all agreed that the Brémont family makes very good Champagne.

Fourth Course

Corn and Dried Tomato Soufflé with Shrimp Onion Relish

Doyard “Cuvée Vendémiaire” Premier Cru, NV Brut Blanc de Blancs

(disgorged 2018),  Cȏtes des Blancs    

Next up was a Blanc de Blancs Champagne, so I opted to go in a slightly different food direction and made mini soufflés of corn, sun-dried tomato and Parmesan cheese.  I put them in the oven just before service and then topped them off with a sautéed shrimp, mustard seed and scallion relish.  They came out of the oven looking good but not quite as high as I anticipated. Guess that foil wrap around the dish to hold up the top of the soufflé was not as necessary as I had hoped!

My soufflé pairing was with another grower producer with viticulture roots back to 1677.  Doyard has 10 hectares in Cȏtes des Blancs, and they intervene as little as possible, practice biodynamics and preservation of old vines.  They bottle their wines with 4.5-5 atmospheres pressure instead of the usual 6 and use 10-21 grams sugar for tirage instead of 24.  Our bottle of Doyard Cuvee Vendémiaire Premier Cru NV was disgorged in 2018 and was a 100% Chardonnay white blend of 50% from 3 vintages and 50% reserve wines with 5 g/l aged on the lees for 4 years.  It was intensely citrus colored, very mineral, flavors of apples, apricots, ginger, lemon curd and clean spiced finish.  Robert Parker rated it at 94 points.  We don’t argue with Bob!

Fifth Course

Fried Mushrooms with Peppery Creamy Dipping Sauce

2016 Cédric Bouchard Roses de Jeanne, Val Vilaine Vineyard,

Blanc de Noirs, Cȏtes de Bars

Fried foods are supposed to make an excellent pairing with Champagne, so in order to test that theory I opted for making some whole mushrooms battered and Panko breaded then fried in the Waring deep fryer till golden brown.  They were seasoned with black pepper and thyme and served with a mayonnaise based dipping sauce seasoned with Dijon mustard, garlic, lemon, thyme and lots of fresh ground black pepper.  The fried foods theory is correct, believe me.  Those mushrooms and peppery sauce could not have been better with our wine………….

………2016 Cédric Bouchard Roses de Jeanne, Val Vilaine Vineyard Blanc de Noirs Champagne is from another young up and coming grower producer in the Cȏtes de Bars who is getting rave reviews for his wines.  Bouchard makes single-variety, single-vintage, single-vineyard Champagnes completely unlike anyone else in this region.  He farms organically, hand harvests at low yields, and bottles at 4.5 instead of 6 with zero dosage.  Some of his wines are from just 3 rows of Pinot Noir which he crushes by foot.  He makes just 300-500 cases a year of this 100% Pinot Noir Blanc de Noir.  After all, the vineyard is only 1.5 hectares!  We were told to expect red fruit richness on the palate similar to a red Burgundy, followed by floral and herbal notes of chamomile, white tea and chrysanthemums.  Bouchard recommended that we decant his Champagne then drink at 55 degrees from a Pinot Noir glass.  Most of my guests were leery of decanting a Champagne, so I’ll save that for another time, but as I was sipping this wonderful Champagne from my Burgundy glass, I could indeed imagine all of those aromas and flavors.  Bouchard is another producers that if you have the opportunity to try, do not pass it by!!!!

 Sixth Course

Roasted Salmon on a puree of French Green Lentils

2007 Bollinger “La Grande Année” Rosé,
Vallée de la Marne

I was so anxious to taste all of these Champagnes, but the 2007 Bollinger “La Grande Annee” Rose was one that I just “had to have” when I was browsing online as I usually do for our wine dinner events.  I called it my splurge for the night.  As far as I was concerned, it did not disappoint.  It is a blend of 72% Pinot Noir and 28% Chardonnay from 14 Crus: – 92% are Grand Cru and 8% are Premier.  Also 6% of the red wine comes from the famous red wine of Cȏte aux Enfants.  Bollinger has been in existence since 1829, is one of the most prominent producers in Aÿ and one of the most renowned in all Champagne.  They are one of the few Champagne houses to produce most of their own grapes to make their base blends.  This 2007 was a delicate coral tint with aromas of redcurrant, dried fig, mint, blond tobacco and dried flowers followed by delicate flavors on the palate of plum, kirsch, fresh cut grass and a lasting chalky finish.  WS gave it 94 points and I am so glad that I splurged.  And for a quick moment, we thought we saw James Bond joining us!

My “splurge wine” needed a special pairing and this Dorie Greenspan recipe for roasted salmon on French green lentils sounded delicious to me.  I have never prepared a recipe by Dorie that I did not like!  Always trying to keep it authentic, I got green lentils from France and cooked them with a clove studded onion, carrots and celery in chicken broth just like Dorie said to do.  Some of the cooked lentils got pureed and added back into the pot while the cooked vegetables came out, got diced and added back.  While our guests were enjoying their fried mushrooms, our salmon fillet was seasoned with EVOO, salt and pepper and roasted for just about 10 minutes at 475 degrees.  The timing was perfect as I plated it on a bed of those tasty lentils and garnished with chopped parsley.  And yes, it was so delicious with that beautiful coral tinted Bollinger rosé!

Cheese Course

Langres AOP Cheese Champagne Volcano

What French inspired dinner can go without a cheese course?  Not this one!  Still keeping it authentic, I was able to source some Langres AOP cheese from igourmet.com.  It is a cow’s milk cheese with a soft orange color rind made only in Champagne.  The most important reason for wanting this cheese was the online videos I watched of this cheese being served by poking holes in the top of it, then pouring Champagne over it.  Watching this cheese on a platter with Champagne bubbling out of the top of it volcano-style was something that I had to see in person!  So that is just what we did – some remaining Laurent-Perrier poured and bubbled over that cheese as everyone watched and waited to try it.  A volcano it was not, but it was delicious! 

Sweet Endings

Fresh Berry Galette

Fossiers Mini Rose Biscuits            Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds

de Venoge “Cordon Bleu” Demi-Sec, Cȏtes des Blancs

Every dinner has to have a “sweet ending” no matter how full we all are.  Mariann prepared a typical French dessert for us – a beautiful fresh berry galette with whipped cream.  We made room for it and loved it.  I am not sure if anyone had room for one of those famous mini rose biscuits by Fossiers, but we had them and all felt very French!

De Venoge made the last bottle of the night – a de Venoge Cordon Bleu Demi-Sec from the Cȏtes des Blancs.  De Venoge started out in business in 1825 and was the first Champagne maker to illustrate their wine labels.  You can find them in Epernay, and today they are part of the Lanson group.  Their Champagne style is vinosity with freshness; they use only the first pressing, age their wines for at least 3 years and use a low dosage of about 7 g/l.  The Cordon Bleu Brut Demi-Sec dessert wine is a white blend of 50% Pinot Noir, 25% Pinot Meunier and 25% Chardonnay with 40 g/l dosage, 45 grams cane sugar and was aged 4 years.  It had notes of acacia honey and was perfect with dessert.  I didn’t find it overly sweet at all. 

And just like that……………. 10 bottles and pairings later…………our Champagne Wine Star Award celebration dinner was over. But you can be assured that my personal love affair with Champagne will go on and on forever! I believe our guests all had their personal favorites, but like children – I love them all equally.

Many thanks to our winelover foodie friends for participating, contributing Champagne and their cooking expertise. And many many thanks to my friend Marcello Palazzi from the Winebow Group for providing me with photos from the actual Wine Star Awards that took place in Miami on January 28, 2019 plus that beautiful Champagne bottle specially made by Moet and Chandon just for this celebration. And of course this event could not have taken place without my husband Chuck’s assistance, support, tolerance, love and just plain putting up with me for the months that I spent doing the research, bringing this event together and making it come true! Merci beaucoup! And where will our next event take us? Who knows, but I know that wherever it is, it will be special.

Forkandcorkdivine.com 2.10.19

Just when I think I have planned and served my most unique wine dinner ever, the next one wins the prize for first place!  Seeking out and tasting wine from exotic places has taken center stage for me for the past several years.  What do I personally consider “exotic”?  “Exotic” and unique covers just about any country or wine region that I am unfamiliar with or whose wines I have never had the opportunity to taste ……….and believe it or not, there are many of those places with many more opportunities yet to come.  My husband and I have wined and dined together with a few foodie winelover friends in the wine regions of Lebanon, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Alsace, Pfalz,  Southwest France, Southern Rhone, Santorini, Canary Islands, Sardinia, Sicily and other Italian regions just to name a few, plus many others and all without leaving SW Florida.  Therefore our latest unique wine dinner should come as no surprise.  It’s a “triple header” – we are dining in the Balkan countries of Slovenia, Macedonia and Turkey – “fork and cork divine” style!

“Dinner in the Balkans” was THE most challenging but most educational and unique wine dinner that I have planned and served to date.  On a Saturday night in early November, 2018, six foodie winelover friends gathered at our home in South Fort Myers to embark upon an eight course dinner paired with nine wines from Slovenia, Macedonia and Turkey.  I’m sure it was with some trepidation for our friends since they had an opportunity to study the menu and wines in advance, and the wines were like none we have ever poured before.  While Teran, Rkaciteli, Emir, Rebula, Vranec, Papaskarasi and Öküzgözü may be everyday drinking wines to some of my international social media winelover friends, I can assure you they have not found their way into SW Florida wine stores or onto our restaurant wine lists!  And the food – I’m sure that jota and manti weren’t high on anyone’s bucket list for foods we can’t live without!

You may be wondering “Why oh why did I select these 3 countries for a wine dinner”? I really did have a good reason.  There were several bottles of Slovenian wine and one from Turkey in our wine collection that I had purchased when internet browsing for wines from Croatia and Hungary on the Blue Danube Wine Company website, and they were just begging to be tasted!  Thanks to one of our friendly wine representatives, a bottle of Macedonian wine appeared.  Her comment was that she knew “we would appreciate it”!  Guess we are known as the geeky wine people who drink and appreciate unique wines, and truer words could not be spoken.  Wanting to make a well-rounded menu with good wine representation from these three countries, I went internet shopping once again and at long last, found some excellent examples on another online wine store website.  I’m not even naming them  as I can no longer find them on the internet!   Finding many of the more unique wines is a major challenge, so if you are not up for this first step, don’t even bother to attempt food and wine pairing, recipes, preparation and service.  Or you can take the really easy way out and have me plan the dinner for you.

The Menu

After several months of reading, internet research and writing three separate forkandcorkdivine.com articles about these three Balkan countries, my menu was complete with wines and food pairings that looked on paper like good choices.  Never having previously tasted any of the wines or the food items I was about to prepare, I hoped for the best.  Our friends learned a long time ago that I often experiment on them!  I apologize that you will most likely find this a lengthy article about “dinner”, but just looking at the pictures and names of the food and wine hardly tells the story of how they all came together.  This was the end result of months of research and preparation.

Dinner in the Balkans:

   Slovenia, Macedonia & Turkey

  Saturday, November 3, 2018

 Mezze

Goat Cheese Wrapped in Grape Leaves  

              Salami, Prosciutto & Liverwurst               

Belokranjska Pogača Slovenian Welcome Bread

2016 Primoz Štoka Teran Teranova Peneče,

Kras, Slovenia (Red Pet-Nat)

We usually begin our wine dinner events with a sparkling wine, and keeping with tradition we jumped right into the world of uniqueness with a sparkling red Pétillant- Naturel wine from the Kras wine district in Slovenia.  Štoka made the first “pet-nat” wine in   Slovenia, and this one is made from the famous Teran grapes grown in vineyards in the Kras Terra Rosa red soil.  It was very dry, tannic and inky with dark berry fruit flavors yet only  12.3% alcohol.  And yes, that’s a pop top  – not a cork and wire cage.  Some of us recalled the Teran wines we enjoyed at our Croatian wine dinner.

I paired it up with goat cheese sliced into rounds and edges rolled in a blend of rosemary, thyme and culinary lavender, then wrapped up into a little grape leaf package.  Brush the package with EVOO and bake at 450 until cheese is creamy and starts to ooze out of its little package.

My lavender was purchased from the organically certified fields of Pelindaba Lavender on the San Juan Island of Washington State.  The grape leaves were organic from Bulgaria right off the shelf at Whole Foods.

Pork and cured meats are served everywhere in Slovenia, and the Karst region is especially famous for their air-cured ham called Pršut.  They even have festivals to celebrate it.  Unfortunately I could not source any official Pršut cured meats to purchase, so my guests had to settle for Boar’s Head!

I decided to test my baking skills with Belokranjska Pogača, or “Slovenian Welcome Bread”.  After a less than perfect test run, that bread coming out of the oven just a few hours before the arrival of our guests was really exciting for me.  After all I had followed the Slovenian Protected Agricultural Products  guidelines for the finishing touches on it :

“Belokranjska Pogača is a type of flat bread and is produced according to a unique recipe.  It is round with a diameter of approximately 30 cm. In the center it is 3 to 4 cm thick, thinning to 1-2 cm at the edges.  With oblique lines, it is incised into squares with an approximate distance of 4 cm, coated with a whisked egg and topped with cumin seeds and coarse salt crystals.  When baked it is broken along the incised angled lines rather than being cut.”

Best of all – the goat cheese stuffed grape leaves, charcuterie and freshly baked welcome bread proved to be a good pairing with that sparkling Teran.  Can’t say that the sparkling was my favorite wine ever, but I can say that I am probably one of the few people (maybe even just 6 people!) in this area who has ever tasted it, and I did enjoy it.

                                         Spinach Burek

A typical Balkan pastry filled with spinach & cheese

2017 Tikves Rkaciteli, Tikves, Macedonia (White)

Our second course found us a little further south in the Balkans to the Republic of Northern Macedonia.  Wanting to continue with another mezze-type item, the recipe for spinach burek sounded perfect.  Burek is a family of baked filled pastries and typical street-food type item found in many of the Balkan, Eastern Mediterranean and Asian countries.  My recipe called for sheets of filo dough stuffed with a cooked fresh spinach feta cheese mixture, then baked and topped with black and white sesame seeds.

I opted to pair the burek with a 2017 Rkaciteli from Tikves Winery.  The Rkaciteli was fermented 4 months in stainless steel tanks, golden yellow in color with scents of fresh peach, grapefruit, pineapple and mango and high acidity.  It was pretty intense and paired well with the feta and spinach of the burek.  Rkaciteli is an ancient grape originally from the Republic of Georgia.   The burek was delicious and the pairing was quite interesting.

Salad

Ҁoban Salatasi Turkish Shepherd’s Salad

Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, Turkish olives & feta in oil & vinegar dressing

2016 Turasan Emir, Cappadocia, Turkey (White)

The next stop on our trip found us in the amazing Turkish area of Cappadocia, the home of troglodytes and fairy chimneys.  They have been making wine here for more than 7,000 years.  This region is really fascinating to me, and we drank a wonderful 2016 Emir wine from the Turasan Winery.  Emir is indigenous to and only grown right here, and I really enjoyed this wine.  It had notes of citrus peel, white flowers and pears and is often compared to Albarino or Pinot Grigio.  Only 1500 cases of it were made, and I am so happy to have served it with a beautiful salad typical of Turkey — Ҁoban Salatasi, or Turkish Shepherd’s Salad.  The salad was so colorful and light with a bit of oil and vinegar dressing and topped off with feta cheese and Turkish green olives.

The Turkish olives can be found at the Petra Mediterranean Store right here in Fort Myers.  Petra was a good source for unique ingredients when I was preparing for our Eastern Mediterranean wine dinner.  Side note for my non-foodie friends: Did you know that black olives are green olives that have ripened?  In fact green olives right off the tree are so bitter you cannot eat them.  It takes the curing or brining process to make them those delicious little morsels that we enjoy in our martinis or on our salads. 

Main Fare Petite Plates

With six wines remaining for dinner, I decided to pair five of them with entrees representative of all three countries and to save one wine for the difficult and final challenge of a dessert pairing.  Just serving up a “petite plate” of anything is quite a challenge for me.  After all I come from a background of “Food for 50” recipes and large quantity cooking.  My idea of service is a pan holding at least 25 servings!  But I tried my best and think I may have succeeded.  Just don’t ask my guests for their opinions!!!!

Eggplant Potato Gnocchi with Chunky Eggplant Sauce

2014 Kabaj Rebula, Goriška Brda, Slovenia (Orange)

Slovenia is well known for making orange or amber wines.  While Georgia is officially the birthplace of orange wine, Slovene wine makers have been macerating their white wines underground in Georgian “Qvevri” for many generations.  Qvevri are large earthenware vessels resembling egg-shaped amphorae.  If you would really like to learn more about orange or “amber” wines, this book by Simon J. Woolf,  “Amber Revolution:How the World Learned to Love Orange Wine”, was recently released and I found it fascinating and very educational.

I was ecstatic to have an orange wine made by Jean Michel Morel of Kabaj, one of the premier wineries of Slovenia, to serve at our dinner.  Kabaj has won numerous awards for their wines and often selected as one of the top 100 wineries by Wine and Spirits Magazine.  Our eyes all opened wide as Chuck poured this 2014 Kabaj Rebula.  Wow, was it orange!  This particular 100% Rebula (known as Ribolla Gialla in Italy) was macerated 30 days in French oak barrels and 4 months in bottles.  Then it was aged for 12 more months in oak barrels and 4 more months in the bottle before ready to drink.  It had notes of dried flowers, honey, hazelnuts, citrus peel with a mineral flavor and very long intense finish.  It was exquisite for me.  Wines like this can and should be served with a food of substance, and after a lot of research I opted for making homemade eggplant gnocchi with a very spicy and chunky eggplant tomato sauce.  It was garnished with shaved ricotta salata and fresh basil leaves.  After all, this area of Slovenia is very close to Northeastern Italy and many of the foods are similar.  My eggplant sauce may have been a bit on the too spicy side, (hot pepper flakes will do that!) but the entire dish was perfect with the Rebula.  I cannot wait to have some other wines from Kabaj to taste.

Brushing up on my gnocchi-making skills.  First time with eggplant!

Jota Hotpot

Slovenian kidney bean, potato, sauerkraut and smoked pork

2009 Batič Angel Grand Cuvee

Vipava Valley, Slovenia (Orange)

Keeping with the Slovenian orange wine theme, we moved on to Batič, another very well-known winery but this time from the Vipava Valley right up against the Italian border.  The Batič family has been making wine since 1592, so they do know a few things about it.  Today Ivan, Palmira and their son Miha do extended maceration on the white grapes and are quite famous for their orange wines.  Our 2009 Angel Grand Cuvee was a blend of 9 different white grape varieties spanning 3 different vintages.  The amber colored wine in our glasses was like no other we have had before and was made from Pinela, Rebula, Zelen, Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Klarnica, Fruilano and Vitovska.  I defy you to find anything like that on a wine shelf anywhere in this part of the world!  The wine had aromas of canned peaches, apricots, other fresh stone fruits and had a very long and creamy finish.  It was quite special.

The Batič Angel could not have paired better with our Jota “Hotpot”.  Jota (YOH-tah) is a hearty western region Primorska Slovenian dish that is a cross between a soup and a stew. I chose a traditional version from “The Food and Cooking of Slovenia” cookbook by Janez Bogataj.  It was filled with smoked pork and fat-back type bacon seasoned onions, garlic, tomato paste, kidney beans, potatoes and sauerkraut.  I prepared it on Friday, then slowly cooked it on low in a crockpot most of Saturday and by the time it went on the plate, the flavors were married together and an excellent choice for our little Angel!

Chicken Rolls Uvijaci

Stuffed with cheese & wrapped in bacon on grilled zucchini

2015 Stobi Winery Macedon Pinot Noir

Tikves, Macedonia

2013 Tikves Bela Voda, Tikves, Macedonia

(Red Blend 50% Vranec 50% Plavec 91 pts RP)

Our next petite entrée represented Macedonia and needed to pair with two Macedonia wines, one an international grape – Pinot Noir – and the other widely grown in Macedonia – Vranec – which was blended with a Plavec.  We all enjoy Pinot and found the 2015 Stobi Macedon to be a very drinkable wine full of lush dark fruit.  Amazingly enough, a friend of mine had recently read my forkandcorkdivine.com article about Macedonia and recognized this wine on a Naples, Florida restaurant wine list.  Being familiar with it from the article, she took a chance on something unique, ordered it and liked it!  Stobi is the newest and most modern winery in Macedonia, so I am happy that they are having good results.

The second wine for this pairing was a 2013 Bela Voda from the Tikves Winery in the Tikves wine region.  This one came with quite a pedigree.  It’s 50% Vranec and 50% Plavec grown on a site-specific location high up in the Kosuf Mountain.  And……. Wine Advocate rated it 91 points while the 2011 and 2012 rated between 92 – 94 points.  I realize points don’t mean much for a lot of winelovers or wine geeks, but it at least tells me to take an interest in it. This one was outstanding  “like a Southern Rhone blend” and I am happy that wines from an unknown and unique wine  region such as Macedonia are receiving such accolades and rightfully so.

The chicken rolls “Uvijaci” recipe sounded like a good solid pairing for both the Pinot and Southern Rhone blend-like wine.  With the smokiness of Gouda cheese inside a thin chicken breast all wrapped up in bacon, how could we go wrong?  Chuck grilled it, finished it off in the oven, and served it on grill-marked ribbons of seasoned zucchini.  Getting full anybody?  Hang on, only two more courses to go…………………..

Lamb Manti with Yogurt & Brown Butter Tomato Sauce

2015 Chamlija Papaskarasi

Kirklareli, Thrace, Turkey (Red)

I was extremely eager to taste this very indigenous wine from a highly touted winery near the Black Sea in Turkey.  Mustafa Camlica founded the Chamlija Winery in 2000; however, his family has been farming here for generations.  Chamlija Winery recently won at the 2018 AWC Vienna International Wine Challenge as “Best National Producer of the Year for Turkey”.  They also won 7 gold medals and 5 silver medals.  And we were about to taste one of those wines, Papaskarasi – a blend of 85% Papaskarasi, 15% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon.   The wine was just as Matthew Horkey of Exotic Wine Travel had described it “ light red with notes of sour cherry, rhubarb, brown spice, white pepper, Mediterranean herbs and violets”.  This wine is really a winner!  I only wish that I could source more Chamlija wines.  Matthew and Charine Tan had recommended Chamlija wines, and I put my money on their recommendations.  After all, it was their Exotic Wine Travel book “Uncorking the Caucasus” that got me interested in Turkish wines in the first place.  He and Charine Tan had tasted their way through Turkey, Armenia and Georgia a few years ago and wrote about their travels and tasting experiences.

Having read an internet article describing a perfect pairing for this wine to be a typically spicy Turkish dish of lamb manti with yogurt and brown butter tomato sauce, I bought my required Aleppo pepper for the tomato sauce and started practicing on my manti.  I’m got ravioli making down fairly well now, so I thought how challenging could this one be?  When I started making the little bundles of ground lamb mint lemon cayenne mixture and wrapping them up just so into perfect dumplings, I learned my lesson.  However, I will say that the result was a beautiful dish with the prerequisite spice and flavor which actually looked like the picture.   The cooked manti dumplings were served on a base of chilled garlic yogurt sauce and topped off with the Aleppo pepper brown butter tomato sauce, then garnished with a sprinkling of sumac, fresh mint leaves and lemon wedge.

Some foodie notes:

Manti: The size of the manti is supposedly in direct proportion to respect for the recipient.  Since I had difficulty sealing up my little dumplings, I cannot imagine the degree of difficulty to make one a centimeter square.  My manti pastry squares were 7 cm square or app. 2 3/4 inches.  The great manti makers from Kayseri in Anatolia are renowned for making the smallest version – so small you can fit a number of them on a spoon!

Aleppo pepper:  Aleppo-style pepper is a deep burgundy red mild variety of Capsicum Annuum, is also known as a Halaby pepper, and is about half as hot as the chile pepper flakes or powder that you probably use most often.  It gives a medium heat of 10,000 SHU on the Scoville scale.  Named after the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, it is now largely sourced from Turkey and elsewhere, due to the challenges of growing and exporting from the war-torn  Syrian region. Aleppo is a common Middle Eastern condiment, traditionally used to season meat, beans, salads, and dips, but it can be used like any other dried red pepper. It slowly builds up heat with earthy, cumin-y undertones and a little bit of fruity tang.  Try it as a substitute for crushed red pepper flakes or paprika.  My “Aleppo – style” pepper came to me from Spice Way in California by way of Amazon.com, not Turkey or Syria.

Sumac: Its an almost purple spice with a tart somewhat vinegary or lemon flavor, and NO – it did not come from the poison sumac tree, a different variety of sumac.  Sumac spice has been used for thousands of years in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking.  Try sprinkling it on hummus, in salad dressing, or kebabs.  My sumac is actually a product of Turkey, and I bought it at Petra Mediterranean Market in Fort Myers.

Sweets

Turkish Coffee Custard

with a Dark Chocolate Magic Shell

Cevizli Ҁikolatali Kuru Kayisi

Chocolate dipped dried apricots

Turkish Delight Candy

2012 Gulor Saraplari G-Silver Serisi Öküzgözü (60%)-Cabernet Sauvignon (40%), Sarkoy, Turkey

My most challenging pairing was the dessert course!  I wanted to showcase this 2012 Gulor Öküzgözü-Cabernet blend with something typically Turkish, but as you know pairing a Cabernet with dessert is risky and difficult at best.  Yes, I wanted to serve some typical Turkish candies, so a plate of Turkish Delight was the easy part.  My Turkish Delight was the hazelnut variety and it is yummy.  I also found it at the Petra Mediterranean Store in Fort Myers.  After lots of internet searching I happened upon this recipe for Turkish Coffee Custard with a Dark Chocolate Magic Shell from Chef Camille Cogswell who was the second pastry chef ever to win the James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef.  She is known for melding Israeli ingredients with a Southern flair at the Zahav restaurant in Philadelphia and now the 2018 Rising Star Chef.   It’s not a Turkish recipe, but it does have Turkish coffee and chocolate, two things that sounded perfect to me, so I added it to my menu.  This recipe took me 3 days to prepare, so planning and advance prep is always key for success. On Day 1, I prepared the custard.  At Chef Camille’s recommendation,  I decided to purchase a silicone muffin pan for shaping, baking and freezing my custard cups.  It worked perfectly.  I was a happy dessert chef when on Day 2 those perfectly round frozen coffee custards popped out of the molds.  Next step was turning them into a magic shell.  On Day 3, I made my dark chocolate, coconut oil and corn syrup mixture for dipping and it was indeed magic!  The chocolate set up immediately into a hard shell when I dipped the frozen custards into the chocolate.  Those three days of prep were really worth it.  That Turkish coffee custard looked fabulous on a dessert plate topped with some actual gold dust left from a previous event, and supplemented with Cevizli Ҁikolatali Kuru Kayisi, a typical Turkish fruit dessert of dried apricots that I stuffed with walnut halves and painted with more melted dark chocolate.

Oh yes, the wine……….the Gulor Öküzgözü-Cabernet blend gave up red and black fruit with spicy black pepper and violet aromas, nicely balanced acidity and tannins and great fruit on a lengthy finish.  Gulor was the first boutique winery in Turkey and is located on the north shore of the Marmara Sea.  The winemaker is from Languedoc and obviously knows how to make great wine.  This blend has won numerous awards including Bronze at the 2015 IWC in San Francisco, and I am sorry that I only purchased one bottle.  I think my dessert and wine pairing passed the challenge!

My Balkan wine dinner is now complete.

This eight-course nine-wine dinner may be history, but the memory of it will last with me forever.  The months spent researching about Slovenia, Macedonia and Turkey and their wines, the culinary knowledge required about each country and representative foods, deciding upon appropriate food and wine pairings, finding and interpreting recipes, wine and food product sourcing, the production planning, service setup, and actual food preparation and service is a monumental task.  The good news is that I am retired from my professional career, and this has now become my new life.  And I love it!!!

During the past several years I have learned about so many grape varieties, wines and wine styles that were all new to me.  I’ve also written and published articles about them which you can  find on this website.  I would not want to be without the power of social media and interaction. They are powerful resources for me. I am so lucky to have become acquainted with  many people around the world including wine bloggers, wine travelers, winemakers, winery owners, sales associates and authors.  When I can sit with friends in my home here in Southwest Florida and share wines from across the world and then communicate with the people who made them, I am overjoyed!  I will probably never see those exotic or unique wine regions, nor meet any of those wonderful people, but drinking the wine connects and unites many people around the world.  If you are in a wine rut, or only drink certain wines, you just don’t know what you are missing out on.  Please be adventurous and search out as many unique wines as possible!  I have many more to find. Onward to our next forkandcorkdivine adventure……………………..

11.16.18

LFRakos@gmail.com