I'm always amazed at how diverse Italian cuisine really is. But actually there is no such thing as Italian cuisine. Food in Italy is always local or regional, prepared with ingredients found locally.
The best wines come from the lush hills of Piedmont. But the best veal in Italy, vitello piemontese, also comes from Piedmont. Locals claim that there is more sheep, goat and cow milk cheese in Piedmont than in all of France combined. Our butcher keeps free range chickens that he feeds on corn, biscuit and milk from his cows. Anchovies are always fresh from nearby Liguria and the pork is incredibly tasty.
Finding the right wine to go with your meal is almost a national sport for the locals. We've experienced this regularly when we've been invited to dinner with friends. They discussed which wines would go best with the meal with a passion and knowledge that would do credit to a sommelier.
We get asked this question a lot. Today we are going to look at the pork and veal that will be around 14-18 months old. Both extremely popular in Piedmont.
Of course there is plenty of choice when it comes to finding the right wine to go with your meal. However, we would like to introduce you to some of our favorite wines for this purpose.
We know the wines we have selected very well. We source them from our Babarolo winemakers with whom we have had close relationships for many years. You can't go wrong with these, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
veal
Veal in Piedmont is usually prepared with a dash of white wine. This applies to osso bucco as well as to saltimbocca. A structured and mineral white wine goes very well with veal. If you prefer a red wine, we tend towards a very balanced Barbaresco, that shows good structure and body, but also through its elegance impressed and the veal not overpowered.
Pork
As a dish, we have chosen beautiful pork fillets with marjoram (as shown). We also recommend white or red wine with this. For the white wine, we chose a full-bodied and slightly grassy Roero Arneis from our winemaker Deltetto. It's the 2015 Roero Arneis San Michele. The matching red wine comes from the Barbera specialist Robert Ferraris. It is the 2014 Barbera Superiore Bisavolo, a full-bodied, supple wine with great balance. This Barbera gives the pork the right kick with its fine acidity.
