Pizza Vino

If you missed my Let’s Do class at Domaine LA last week, it was all about Italian wine and pizza pies. We talked regions, grapes and general food and wine pairing tips.

Here are the wines I poured alongside some delicious Mozza pizza. I called them my Ultimate Pizza Wines. But really, only being able to choose 5? SO hard.

I knew I wanted a Lambrusco (or a Gragnano). For SURE. I also wanted a barbera and a sangiovese based wine. Nebbiolo? Definitely. Then I would need a somewhat oddball- so, I picked one of my fav Emilia-Romagna orange wines. It’s a style of white that can handle bolder flavors.

If I could have gone on, the list would’ve also included an aglianico, nero d’avola, montepulciano and some aromatic lighter reds like frappato or rossese.

My main criteria for pairing wine with pizza: good acidity and some semblance of structure and tannin. Anything nice and cold is also pretty dope. Red bubbly? Perfect. It’s like the wine version of beer or Coca Cola (which is apparently what Italians really like to drink with their pizza.) Main things I avoid and that sound super icky: jammy, oaky or incredibly full bodied flabby wines. Actually, I usually avoid those qualities in wine regardless of whether or not there is a pizza in front of me. Point is- there are more things in the world of Italian wines that work with pizza than don’t. So it ain’t rocket science.

Thought: Could one become solely a pizza sommelier? That would be an off the charts amazing as hell job.

Question: If you could attend any wine class or tasting what would you want the topic to be? I would love to know. And if you live in LA, maybe I can make it happen!

4 Comments
  • Laura @ Sprint 2 the Table
    November 23, 2011

    If you figure out how to become a pizza sommelier, do let me know! I read this and was thinking Montepulciano before I got to your comment. 🙂

    Good call on the Nebbiolo especially. It seems almost made to drink with pizza!

  • Jesse (@tricerapops)
    November 23, 2011

    i think a class on different expressions of a variety (countries doing different things with the same grape) would be interesting. also if there’s a producer that has multiple vineyard sites, a comparison between cuvees/bottlings would also be enlightening. sticking with the Italian theme – I’d totally dig a class on ‘obscure’ varietals (non Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, etc.)

    • whit
      November 23, 2011

      yes! great ideas jesse. as usual. definitely already on my to-do list: Grapes You’ve Never Heard Of. and now going to add a BLIND tasting of a single variety from different parts of the world.

      laura- great minds…

  • Shauna
    November 23, 2011

    What incredibly perfect timing – we’re throwing together some personal pizzas tonight (I made my own dough! Holy crap!) and I was thinking that the hubby and I desperately needed some vino to go with it. And again, you swoop in to save the day. Mad props to you!

    As for class or tasting ideas, I live on the opposite side of the country, so I’m out of commuting distance for this one. But if you’re ever in DC, I’d love to see a dessert (as in cakes, pies, cookies and brownies) pairing class so that I can make informed (ie, not crappy) decisions the next time I go out with the girls for a sugar binge…