Which Wine On The Table?

The advices of the wine steward Mario Benza

The local food is always best accompanied by wines of the same area in order to create a balanced harmony of flavours and tastes.

Vermentino “Riviera Ligure di Ponente” DOC

During the hot summerly evenings, a glass of Vermentino, served to a temperature of 12° C , accompanied with its fresh flavours in flawlessly first delicate dishes, sea-brass in oven, peeled lobster, the “sardenaira” (pizza with tomatoes anchovis and olives), fresh cheese, stuffed vegetables, and stuffed anchovis cooked in the oven.

Pigato “Riviera Ligure di Ponente” DOC

The matching of the wine Pigato with the dishes, as his character is more branded in respect to his close relative Vermentino, will be more structured: We talk about for example the classic pasta with green sauce “trenette al pesto”, which is a more natural vocation of it, the “Pansotti” with the nuts sauce, a beautiful “Luvassu” (sea-brass) in the oven, grilled prawns, the “farinata” (baked porridge of chickpea flour), seafood salad, spaghetti with clam green sauce, but it does not disdain as per its personality to acccompany also dishes on the basis of white meat like “coniglio al pigato” winey rabbit, turkey or calf.
It exists also the version “Passita” of the wine Pigato. In this case the wine is sweet, its colour is yellow more or less amber, its flavours are complicated and developed, and in combination we could face it with sharp spicey cheese “erborinato”, like i.e. natural Gorgonzola, Roquefort, aging sheeps’ milk cheese, or typical cakes of the Ligurian tradition like “Stroscia”, flapjacks with honey, the “bugie” or bread with oil “pane del marinaio”.

Ormeasco di Pornassio DOC

The Ormeasco is a wine that keeps up with the whole meal: Risotto with sausages, potato dumplings “gnocchetti alla bava”, chickpea, spare-ribs, tripe and kidneys “borlotti”, salads and green vegetables and fresh not spicey cheese, pepper in tunafish sauce, ravioli in tomato sauce or pasta with a meat sauce, various roasts and thousand other dishes.
The Ormeasco or “Pornassio” is produced also in the version “Superiore” , with one more year refinement and almost 13° of alcohol, “passito” and “passito liquoroso” (fortified) and finally Schiac-trà, in rosè very appreciated combined with lot of dishes of the local food.

Rossese di Dolceacqua DOC

The Rossese is a wine, which is perfect to accompany lot of dishes of the typical Ligurian food: Goat with kidneys, “burrida” of stockfish, wild boar boiled in water, rabbit à la Ligurian, lamb with artichoke, aging cheese without herbs, strips of pasta with meat of wild boar or hare sauce. It is to advise to serve it at a temperature of 16° - 17° C.