Chicken and Shrimp Skewers with Poggio della Dogana Romagna Albana

This month I’m hosting our Italian Food, Wine & Travel group (#ItalianFWT) as we pair Italian wines with barbecue.  I recently did a virtual tasting with the owners of Ronchi di Castelluccio from Emilia Romagna, brothers Aldo and Paolo Rametta.  It was fun to explore this region more as it’s not one that I try all too often.  We had tasted a wine from their first family passion project featuring their wine Poggio della Dogana Belladama.  This white I felt would be the perfect feature for this month as it’s from a white grape, Albana, that most may not be familiar with.  Plus, the Albana paired lovely with the shrimp and chicken skewers I barbequed this week. 

The Winery – Poggio della Dogana 

Paolo and Aldo Rametta acquired the Poggio della Dogana estate in 2017 in the town of Terra del Sole within the Forli-Cesena province in the Emilia Romagna region of north central Italy.  The winery was named after the small hill, “poggio” in Italian, that held the customs post, “dogana” in Italian, that stood as a territorial and cultural border between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and Papal Romagna.   

Poggio della Dogana

The vineyards are 20-year-old vines that were already in the process of being converted to organic when they purchased the land.  Today, the winery is certified on the European level. 

Vineyards of Poggio della Dogana

The estate consists of about 50 acres that sits between the communes of Brisighella and Castrocano Terme.   The Rametta brothers main focus in vineyard plantings is on native varieties of Romagna.  Biodiversity is active between the vines with honey bees living amongst the vines, tended to by a local beekeeper, that helps pollinate the vines.  Also present are an abundance of olive trees. 

The Albana grape 

The Albana grape is a white grape variety that dates back to ancient times and is mostly found in the region of Emilia Romagna. Albana is mostly known for its sweeter style wines, but can also be produced in a dry, secco, version.  It’s sweetness levels vary from amabile (medium sweet), to dolce and passito where the grapes are more concentrated.  You can also find it produced as a sparkling wine under its own DOC, but not under the Romagna Albana DOCG. 

Albana grapes sourced from Consorzio Vini Romagna

The Romagna Albana DOCG was the first white DOCG established in 1987.   Albana can be straw to golden colored with intense florals and sometimes some herbal aromas.  It will show notes leaning more towards stone fruits like peach, pear and apricot.  The wines are mostly medium to fuller bodied with a high acidity giving them the ability to produce great sweeter style wines.   

The Wine 

The 2022 Poggio della Dogana “Belladama” Romagna Albana Secco DOCG is an organic wine made from 100% from the Albana grape.  The grapes are planted in Brisighella, where the vines are situated about 250 meters above sea level in younger, yellow sandy soil.  The wine is named after their mother, Rosanna, whom had a horse with the name from her grandfather’s stable that she loved as a child. 

As described during the tasting this wine is “a red wine dressed in white” due to its complexity shown on the palette.  This wine had no skin contact during vinification and is vinified in cement with indigenous yeasts that helps bring out the nature of the wine.  It is aged for 9-10 months in cement and then bottled for 4+ months.   

The wine was light golden colored with a floral nose and apricot and pineapple aromatics.  Medium to fuller bodied with a round texture and moderate to higher acidity on the palette.  Notes of pineapple and some citrus with a slight bitterness.  13.5% ABV, SRP $30-35 

The labels of the wines were drawn by the great great grandfather, Silvio Gordini, whom is a known artist in the Emilia Romagna region. 

Romagna Albana pairing with Shrimp and Chicken Skewers 

It had been awhile since I made skewers and with this month’s theme on bbq and wanting to try this Albana I figured it was time to make some up.  Without trying the wine first, but having an understanding of the grape produced in a dry style, I felt that some shrimp and pineapple skewers may lend well to the flavors in the albana if they were to be on the tropical side.  I even gave them a little teriyaki glaze as well.   

To appease to my little guys I also made some chicken skewers and asparagus and grilled those up removing them from the skewers and cutting up the asparagus mixed together in a dish topped with some extra virgin olive oil and kosher salt.  I even made some side dishes of a simple greek salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and feta along with some roasted butternut squash.  A little smorgasbord for the sampling. 

Both of the skewer dishes complimented this Romagna Albana, especially the shrimp and pineapple skewers.   Even the roasted butternut squash seemed to go well.  I guess the wine turned out pretty versatile with the array of foods I tried it with.  I guess you never know until you try.   

Enjoy the rest of our Italian food and wine writers group as they share some interesting Italian wines paired with barbeque. 

• Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm features "Chicken Spiedini and Il Sorriso from Sicily"

• Camilla of the Culinary Cam will entice us with "Simple but Spectacular: Grilled Top Sirloin + Attilio Ghisolfi 2018 Sbardaja Nebbiolo" 
• Terri at Our Good Life shares "Savor the Flavors: Exploring the Perfect Pairing of Italian Wine and Barbecue with Speri Amarone 2018" 
• Gwendolyn of Wine Predator writes "Fresh from the grill: Halibut and Pizza with wines from Sicily" 
• Martin of Enofylz Wine Blog will "Discover Abruzzo: Five Masciarelli Wines and Smoked Wild Boar Pairings" 
• Alison of Artisan Wine Tasting will feature "Elio Filippino 4 Amis Lange Rosso from Piedmont and a Filet, mushroom and brandy on the grill"
  

  You can shop on Wine.com in support of Vino Travels and find a variety of Albana wines to try for yourself.

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  *This wine was provided as a sample, but opinions are always my own.