Italy is a country that was only united last century. It is no older than the language they speak today, in a manner of speaking. For Etruscan may be existed for a long time but it was only incorporated as the national language (Italian) when Vittorio Emanuele the second, assisted by General Garibaldi, managed to unite the different provinces of Italy into one unified nation.
The result is that today we have this patchwork paese, which still retains local flavours and traditions, languages and beverages.
Take for example the Tuscan region. The local drink here is a glass of Chianti wine, a red wine from the Sangiovese grape. The popular local dish is the Steak Florentine?a massive chunk of meat cooked to perfection. The neighbouring towns may boast of their own specialities but won?t deny the sumptuousness of this either. The Pici is like Spaghetti but thicker and hails from Sicily. Papardelle is the more generic local Tuscan pasta and it worked well with game and meat (wild boar) sauces, something that was easy to find here.
Venice, on the other hand, used more Bigoli, a filled tube-like pasta (often made of buck or whole wheat) and it was mostly eaten with donkey meat or horsemeat in a stew that is cooked for a long time (to soften the meat). Travellers over the alps would exchange their tired horses here for fresh young colts and the locals found an ingenious way to put this old toughened meat to good use. The accompanying wines could include the hearty Amarones, which are big and bold, and heady, something that could hold its own against such a meaty dish.
Sicily?s local pasta is the Busiato, something that is made by wrapping tiny strips around a long thin (knitting of crocheting) needle aka a busi, hence the name. The local wines take on a more vibrant nature that reflects the sun-kissed slopes of the southern Mediterranean, showing their richness and lasting taste. Nero d?Avola is the grape most prominent here, being well-suited to the soils and climate.
The wines thus always evolve as a function of the local climate, as also the local eating traditions, which are nothing more than a function of what is available to eat easily. In other words, nature is the best gardener. It is also the most intuitive way forward to sustenance. Old timers like Diego Planeta and Luccio Tasca in Sicily and the Baron Ricasoli in Chianti Classico understand the deep-rooted wisdom and importance behind this and listen intently to what nature is trying to spell out.
They experiment but only within reason. They know an anomaly before it even rears its ugly head and they quash it before it becomes a detrimental element in the harmonious fabric of man and nature. They make wines that aren?t meant to win medals alone; they make wines that accompany food and add to the delight and civility of a simple meal. They aim to promote familial joy and mirth among people, not amass medals senseless.
Wine and food pairing then is not something that is done by sommeliers in a fine dining but what nature concocts up in its own myriad ways of maintaining eternal equilibrium.
Let this be the first lesson then: when you really want to know the ultimate pairing possible for any given dish or beverage, work back to its origins, the lands and climes it hails from, and see what was commonly consumed there alongside this. The answer will emerge slowly but vivid. And you will never again miss those snotty sommeliers who almost ruin your special outing.
Magandeep Singh is a sommelier