Wine and Food Pairing of Soave with Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein

Welcome to our 1^st Italian food, wine & travel monthly bloggers group. We all share a love and passion for many things Italian and our group of bloggers are going to be taking you through the world of Italy region by region.  We'll be sharing with you our recipes typical of the regions, wines recommended and our experiences traveling throughout each region. This month we're starting with the Veneto region and I'm sharing with you the popular white wine of the region known as soave.

Evan Goldstein Master Sommelier and myself

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a "Sensational Soave" master class at Ribelle in Brookline, Massachusetts, which was taught by Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein and Giovanni Ponchia from the Soave Consorzio/Consortium. The event included a blind tasting of 10 different soave and the variety of styles in these 10 wines were very interesting coming from the same region, but due to the way they are produced they demonstrated different profiles. The tasting and discussion on soave taught by Evan and Giovanni were followed by 3 courses paired with soave. Soave is a very versatile wine for food pairing. Below are the delicious pairings from the event to make your mouth water.

Evan Goldstein & Giovanni Ponchia

First course

Yellow fin tuna crudo with tomato conserva, green tomato and furikake

2013 Cantina di Monteforte Soave DOC “Terre di Monteforte

2013 Fattori Soave DOC “Danieli”

Second course

Orecchiette with littlenecks, black garlic, bok choy

2013 Fornaro Soave Classico DOC

2013 Suavia Soave Classico DOC

Third course

Chicken with buttermilk chawanmushi, endive and poppy seed

2012 Marcato Soave Classico Monte Tenda DOC

2011 Roccolo Grassi Soave La Broia DOC

It was hard to pick favorites from the blind tasting as some were aged in oak, some from different DOC's, some older vintages, different soils and a dessert wine so I'm listing my top favorites:

2012 Cantina del Castello Soave Classico DOC “Castello”

2013 Coffele Soave Classico Castelcerino DOC “Ca' Visco”

2001 Gini Soave Classico La Frosca DOC

2005 Monte Tondo Soave Classico Foscarino DOC “Casette Foscarin” (aged in oak)

2009 El Vegro Recioto di Soave DOCG (dessert)

Where is Soave?
Located a short distance from Verona you will come across this beautiful fortified walled town perched up on the hill with a castle that was built 10 centuries ago. There are over 3,000 growers of Soave with 90 wineries and 4 cooperatives producing it. Many of the crus of this region are found in the Soave Classico DOC region or the Colli Scaglieri DOC located on the hillsides. 

What is Soave?
Soave is a white wine producing region that consists of 2 DOCG's stated in the tasting, Recito di Soave DOCG, a sweet white wine made using the passito process, and Soave Superiore DOCG. Soave was actually the first geographic delineated wine, along with Chianti, in Italy in1931.  The primary grape of this region is garganega, which makes up the majority of the Soave wines by a minimum of 70% by law, but most producers do produce quality Soave with 100% garganega. It can also be blended with trebbiano di soave and chardonnay.

It's well worth seeking out some soave, plus it's a beautiful region not only for wine, but some beautiful areas are within reach including Lake Garda, Padua, Verona and Venice.  I look forward to traveling back to this region in January for the release of the 2011 Amarone thanks to the Consorzio di Valpolicella.

Thanks for joining again our 1st Italian Food, Wine & Travel event on the Veneto, but it doesn't stop here.  Follow along with some other great blogs featuring different aspects of living in the Veneto and what it has to offer.  

Here are our featured articles this month:
 

Cooking Chat - A Valpolicella for Grilled Swordfish and Eggplant Pasta
Food Wine Click - Veneto Food & Wine from Half a World Away
Curious Appetite - Traditional Artisan Cheeses  
Just Elizabeth - Venetian Shadows
Italian Journeys - Asolo and Basana del Grappa
Monica Cesarato - Veneto Off the Beaten Path

Make sure to join our bloggers conversations on Twitter throughout the day at #ItalianFWT .  We also post on #ItalianFWT throughout the month so feel free to join us all the time and share your Italian experiences!  Make sure to check back on December 6th for our 2nd Italian Food, Wine & Travel event.  Next month's feature will be one of my favorites, Piedmont!    

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