WITH Giovanna making such a tasty pasta broth, you really need a nice rustic red in your glass to match the dish. This week, I’d suggest heading to southern Italy for a Primitivo from Puglia, or a Nero d’Avola from Sicily.
Both wines are rich, with good acidity, which makes them very food-friendly. Puglia and Sicily are still areas where you can find well-made wines without having to pay too much money. In fact, in my experience, they make some of the best value quality wines in Europe. The key is to find a producer who controls and carefully manages the yield in the vineyard. There is a tendency in Italy to allow over-cropping, which means you grow more grapes and can therefore make more wine. However a wine from a high-yielding vineyard will taste quite thin compared to one from a neighbouring well-managed field. By pruning a percentage of the crop, you let all of the nutrients and goodness from the soil into fewer grapes, which makes them (and therefore the wine) taste better.
Due to the heat and the sunshine, Puglia is much better known for its reds than its whites, and the reds quite often have more of a "new world" feel to them. You’ll mostly find juicy Primitivos and muscular Negroamaros in this region. Both can be fantastic, but a good Primitivo will suit this dish better.
Critera Primitivo Salento IGT Schola Sarmenti 2015 (Inverarity One to One, £10.99). This is a great barbecue wine (weather permitting), and it’s also wonderful with the cheeseboard if you have any left after the soup course!
Corolla Nero d’Avola 2015 (Majestic, £8.99). This is a lovely wee wine … soft, approachable and fruit-driven with good mid-weight tannins. It’s a glugger, and great value for money.
Rapitala Nero d’Avola 2015 (Waitrose, £8.99). Sometimes the supermarket selections at this price-point can disappoint. Not so with the Rapitala which admirably showcases Sicily’s ability to produce great, food-friendly wines under a tenner.
Pete Stewart is Glasgow director of Inverarity One to One, 185a Bath Street, Glasgow www.inveraritymorton.com
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