wine pairing with black truffles

[Robert Lauriston]

Making pasta with Norcia-style black truffle sauce (melanosporum, fruity olive oil, hint of anchovy and garlice). What's best with that? I think in Umbria we usually drank the fruity local white, e.g. the Antinori Santa Cristina Umbria bianco.

Lots of the recommendations I find online make no distinction between white and black truffles, which is ridiculous.

[jdwdeville]

Honestly, with the flavors you've described I'm thinking a good Etna Rosso might be the perfect price/quality prescription.

[Robert Lauriston]

I think the Etna appellation is still evolving an identity. I've found the wines too variable in style between wineries and vintages to generalize about what they'd be good with. I had a Graci 2008 that might be great but the 2009 and 2010 were nothing like it.

[jdwdeville]

I agree with you, but I think the better producers are in the middle of creating something very, very exciting there- I've had some great bottles from Tenuta della Terre Nere recently. If you haven't tried them yet seek it out!

[sderham]

Several years ago I took a truffle cooking class with Patricia Wells in Provence. Patricia lives in the region where 80% of French black (melanosporum) truffles are produced. This is also the southern Rhone wine region (Chateauneuf du Pape, and other Cotes du Rhone wines.) During our meals we usually tried several different wines with our truffle dishes, and the consensus was the white Chateauneuf was the best match, except with meats or duck. I now live most of the year in this area as well and I think the white Chateauneuf is still the best pairing.

[Bill Hunt]

I have also found great pairings with the whites of the North, say Hermitage, but as you point out, it can depend on what else is in the dish.

I also have enjoyed the whites from Rijoa.

Hunt

[ChefJune]

White Chateauneuf with truffles? I can see that...

[maria lorraine]

I've had melanosporum with a rich, opulent white wine, and it's worked well if the preparation and other ingredients don't go beyond a certain intensity. Shaved over simple pasta, for example, or with eggs, truffle "cappucino", that sort of thing.

What I'm wondering is if the OP's sauce is beyond the intensity level that makes it pair with white wine, and instead would be better with a red. Anchovy and garlic together increase the aggressiveness of the sauce. If the goal is to match the intensity of the wine and sauce, that tips the pairing toward red wine, at least for me. A red with backbone yet drinkability, not one with brute strength.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to ascertain the intensity of the sauce from a distance -- that depends on the ratio of ingredients to one another, the pungency of the garlic, the type of anchovies, the ratio of sauce to pasta, and whether or not truffle slices are also used as a garnish.

If the sauce accompanied something other than pasta, like Chianina beef, that would also be a factor.

[Robert Lauriston]

There's just a hint of anchovy and garlic. Marcella Hazan's recipe, for example, calls for 2.5-3 ounces of truffles, one anchovy, and one clove of garlic, which you pull out before serving. That's for six ounces of dry pasta.

Truffle slices as a garnish, ha. If I could afford that, Burgundy would be an easy choice.

[maria lorraine]

Sounds like a wonderful sauce.

Having spent a good deal of time in Umbria, I'm surprised you chose a white wine when the red wines of Umbria are often an ideal match. Was there a reason for this?

[Robert Lauriston]

I think it was included in the prix-fixe. That was in the 80s, before dry Sagrantino. I think the only good dry Umbrian red in those days was Rubesco, and the place probably wasn't fancy enough to have it.

[maria lorraine]

Ah, I see. The Sagrantino works beautifully, but not Arnoldo Caprai's, unfortunately. It's just too oaked and too extracted. The other workable and affordable great match IMO is Rosso di Montalcino. I am particularly fond of the Mastrojanni for this pairing, though many RdMs will work.

[ChefJune]

I like Bourgogne Rouge with truffles. But I've only prepared black truffles.

[Robert Lauriston]

Yeah, good red Burgundy seems like a good match for melanosporum, and vice-versa. Kind of out of my price range, though.