456726 Fri Nov 02 15:21:08 -0700 2007 9 34 Wine 0 3090424 I've started hosting a wine tasting party/dinner for my friends, where I give a grape/region and ask everyone to bring a bottle. Generally, I figure out what I want to cook, and then figure out the grape/region accordingly. This next round, I've decided that I want to make a porchetta following this recipe: http://www.foodreference.com/html/porchet-020207.html , but am rather uncertain what to ask people to bring. A soave? An Italian red of some sort - but which one? The only caveat is that I'd like to keep most selections at under $20/bottle, and there needs to be an ample enough variety so that people don't end up bringing the same wine (hence why I temporarily ruled out Torrontés, which had been my original selection - a quick online search across shops in the area yielded only a couple of producers being sold). I'm in the LA area, if that helps. (So far, I've had great successes with sparkling pinks and tempranillos.) Thanks for your help! Fri Nov 02 15:21:08 -0700 2007 10604 jacinthe 1 3090533 While the roast won't clash with a rich white (like one of the top Soaves), you shouldn't feel obliged to go that route. A medium-weight, unoaky dry red would be my first choice. Though popular throughout Italy, the dish hails from the central region (around Rome), so that might be a place to start -- Cerveteri, Castelli Romani, Cesanese, Velletri, etc. -- except they're not always easy to find in North America. More common are wines from nearby regions like Rosso di Montalcino, Montepulciano d'Abruzzi, Morellino di Scansano and even Chianti Classico. If you're not allergic to acid, Fontodi's Lachyma Christi del Vesuivio would do the trick. The northeast also has a lot of wines in this style; Teroldego Rotaliano (Mezzocorona's Riserva is a great buy) from the Trentino, for example, or Refosco, Shioppettino or the Merlot-based blends from Friuli. Fri Nov 02 16:00:53 -0700 2007 3090424 10520 carswell 2 3093237 Like you, i'd pick a red from Tuscany or Umbria. Last year I served porchetta with Super Tuscans. Even with the aged wines, the Cabernet component still felt a little too heavy for the dish, and I preferred the ones with more Sangiovese in the blend. In young wines, the two from 2004 were delicious and not that expensive. Here's the menu and wine list for that dinner - SUPER TUSCANS Bacchus Wine Tasting Society Sunday, November 12, 2006 NV Prosecco Crostini Neri alla Chiantigiana Pecorino Toscano e Carpaccio di Bietole Rossi Carpione di Zucche Fritte all'Aceto e Menta 2004 Teruzzi & Puthod Vernaccia San Gimignano, $11 2004 Poggiarellino Rosso di Montalcino, $11 2004 Felsina Berardenga Chianti Classico, $17 La Ribollita 1990 Badia a Coltibuono "Sangioveto" (100% Sangiovese), $80 1990 Ruffino "Il Ducale" Chianti Classico Riserva Gold (90% Sangiovese/7% Canaiolo/3% Malvasia Bianco) , $90 Pancetta di Maiale in Porchetta Schiacciata coll'Uva Insalata Mista 1990 Fattoria Rodano "Monna Claudia" (50% Sangiovese/50% Cabernet Sauvignon). $25 1990 Ruffino "Cabreo Il Borgo" (70% Sangiovese/30% Cabernet Sauvignon), $75 1990 Tierrabianca "Campaccio" (70% Sangiovese/30% Cabernet Sauvignon), $90 1990 Sonia Checcucci Latini "Il Latini" (Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon), $136 1990 Tignanello (80% Sangiovese/15% Cabernet Sauvignon/5% Cabernet Franc), $200 Torta di Mele all'Olio 1998 Isole e Olena Vin Santo del Chianti Classico, 375 ml, $36 Panforte Caffe Sun Nov 04 01:34:30 -0700 2007 3090533 10039 Melanie Wong 3 3093615 I'm curious.... of the above meal, what did you find to be the best match with the super-tuscans? Re Porchetta... Cabernet does strike me as too heavy... that's why I'd personally favor a valpolicella here for the red. Sun Nov 04 08:27:50 -0800 2007 3093237 42549 Chicago Mike 3 3093836 Thanks for the input, Melanie. Sounds like quite the event. "Like you, i'd pick a red from Tuscany or Umbria. Last year I served porchetta with Super Tuscans. Even with the aged wines, the Cabernet component still felt a little too heavy for the dish" Unlike me, you'd probably not misspell Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Lacryma and Schioppettino, however... Agree about Sangiovese trumping Cab in this context. Guess it was implicit in my reccos but it's good you spell it out. How'd you find the 1990 Tignanello, by the way? The last time I encountered it -- about a year and a half ago -- it didn't deliver pleasure commensurate with its reputation or price. One taster advanced that it was still in its shell. I'm not so sure (and have heard that Antinori doesn't consider it a huge success). The '98 I&O vin santo I tasted a couple of years ago was fabulous. Sun Nov 04 10:29:24 -0800 2007 3093237 10520 carswell 4 3126066 The wine and menu selection in my case were the reverse of the OP. I had this group of wines that I'd been cellaring intending to open them together for a tasting and wanted to serve something that was of the region, would be a relatively blank foil for the wines, and that required no last-minute prep. I do think a bistecca would have been a better match for the wines at their stage of evolution, but roasting a porchetta and then letting it rest for the hour while we paid attention to the wine fit my criteria better. I had expected the wines to be more evolved at then 16 y.o., with the softening and harmony to pair with this meal. But instead they were quite dense and tight, and the small amount of cabernet dominated each blend completely. The Monna Claudia and the Campaccio were the only ones that seemed to be at peak. The Sangioveto and the Campaccio were the best matches with the pork. The other Sangio/cab blends still have a ways to go. Il Latini was actually my favorite wine of the night, followed by the Sangioveto. The Tignanello was quite backward, and when we retasted the bottles dregs the morning after, it had just started to crack open. The other wines were well oxidized at that point. None of them were a bad match for the menu. The porchetta made with just the rolled up belly was a big success. Given the amount of fresh tannin and acidity in these wines, that extra pork fat was a welcome relief. The wines were amazingly youthful. My bottle of 90 Tignanello was hand-carried home from an enoteca in Siena. I've had it twice before through importer channels from friends' cellars, as recently as three years ago, and I thought that those might be ready by now. I think mine was probably more backward for not having made the sea voyage. One friend had brought the ratings of these wines from when they were released. The Tignanello and Campaccio has identical scores, iirc. But tasting them at this point, the Tignanello is clearly the superior wine with more length, elegance, and complexity, even though it was hard to pull those things from the glass until long into the night (and the following day). The vin santo was indeed fabulous. At the store, I had my hand on another bottle, but the clerk stopped me and said that for the red line-up I was serving, I really should go with the I&O. Didn't really want to spend that much on top of everything else, but it was well worth it. Wed Nov 14 17:35:26 -0800 2007 3093836 10039 Melanie Wong 1 3090993 IMO a non-regional wine is probably the ultimate match for this dish: Riesling. It's a good "pork" wine in general, and really shines with "spicy" pork dishes... If you want to stay Italian and under $20 then do a nice red and white combo: Soave Classico and Valpolicella, the best of each you can afford within your budget... Since you're hosting a tasting party with numerous bottles, why not do both an Italian and non-italian pairing! Fri Nov 02 19:54:00 -0700 2007 3090424 42549 Chicago Mike 1 3091826 Since you're making an Italian dish and you live in LA, I would go to Wine Expo and describe your recipe to Roberto or any of the other guys on staff and they will give you a variety of Italian wine pairing options. Sat Nov 03 10:01:49 -0700 2007 3090424 74451 vinosnob 1 3093721 Barbera. And that recipie is making me salivate. Sun Nov 04 09:25:38 -0800 2007 3090424 50041 whiner 1 3093764 Thanks for all the excellent ideas - I think that splitting the group in half, with half bringing Soave and the other half bringing either a Riesling or one of the suggested reds - haven't decided on that part yet. (And I realized that above, I made it seem as though I was going to pair Torrontés with the porchetta, but that wasn't my intent. I initially wanted to do something from Argentina so I could make alfajores for dessert, but then I couldn't find enough variety in the Torrontés, and then ran across that recipe for porchetta...) Sun Nov 04 09:55:34 -0800 2007 3090424 10604 jacinthe