Where There’s Food There’s Wine
Lately we have been gushing about Italian food, thanks to its recent inclusion in UNESCO as a cultural heritage. One reason why we, here at Vero, are so excited about this incredible achievement for Italy is because we have been fully immersed in the Italian culture for many years: between our American founder and our “in house” chef, they have been living and working in Italy for a combined 40+ years! Fun fact, neither has a stitch of Italian blood in their body. So, clearly, there is something special about Italy which caused them to stay for so many years. No doubt, being exposed to the real way of life in Italy which has changed them forever.
When our founder, Sheila Donohue, arrived from New York in 2001 to start living and working in Italy, her familiarity to cooking was limited to the confines of recipes. Her most extensive experiences with wine were a trip to Napa and some social gatherings in NYC to try wines which were mostly mainstream, popular wines, sprinkled in every so often with “up and coming” wines, which, back then included “Super Tuscans”. You can say that her knowledge of wine was also quite limited to what was widely available in the US market at the time. (To give some perspective, Prosecco back then was largely unknown.) Growing up in an American Irish household, she was not accustomed to having wine at all, let alone with food. Admittedly, dating an Italian American boyfriend in the 90’s she did start to learn the tradition of enjoying wine with a meal, but it didn’t catch on.
Here’s a page from a book in the 1400s, the Tacuinum Sanitatis, which instructed people on how to live a healthy life, with wine and food integrally part of it.
Then, upon arriving to Italy, she caught on quicky to how Italians loved to linger over a meal, in which there was always a glass of wine to help savor the experience. Little did she know that she was slowly being exposed to a UNESCO cultural heritage.
Like most Americans, Sheila got hooked on everything “really” Italian, meaning not the foods that she’d find in Italian American restaurants, nor Italian wines created primarily to satisfy the foreign markets, like Super Tuscans. Instead, got to experience and learning Italian food and wine on a much deeper level, where the culinary and vinous roots were based on generations of traditions, authentic stories steeped in history, and maximizing what nature provides at “chilometro zero,” aka “KM 0” or going ”0 kilometers” to get food and wine, for the dinner table. All of these aspects made Sheila fall in love with Italian food, and the whole experience surrounding it, which we synthesized into these 3 pillars of what made Italian cuisine achieve UNESCO status.
As Sheila got exposed to different types of wine while living and working in Italy, she became as fascinated with the wine as the food. As you can expect, where there is food there is wine in Italy. Why is that?
The short answer is because authentic Italian wine, local to the place where the grapes were grown which is also where the wine is made and graces the tables of the locals, also falls into the cultural heritage of Italian food, consisting of the same three pillars which helped authentic Italian cuisine to achieve UNESCO status.
It’s not just a hunch that we have to make this assertion. There are many data points to support the linkage in the Italian culture between wine and food.
Case in point is a book written by Andrea Bacci in the 1500’s called De naturali vinorum historia or The Natural History of Wines. The book originated because the pope at the time wanted a book about drinking wine with food, aka what we consider wine and food pairing today. It still considered a complete and accurate reference for wine even today, like when researching the history of rose wines in Italy. Just prior, in the 1450s, the first book about wellness, called Taccuinum Sanitatis, came out which was a reference to Italians, all Europeans as well as Arabs, to stay healthy, which encompassed food, wine, exercise, sleep and managing emotions.
Let’s find out more about the rich heritage of wine and food in Italy and the fascination behind it.
Deep Traditions in Italian Wine that Have Formed an Identity
As we talked about identity and traditions in Italian food, the same holds for wine.
When it comes to tradition, the President of the Italian Women in Wine association, Le Donne del Vino, says “Next to food is wine: It’s not only a symbol of a rapport, but has a deeper meaning of meeting, celebration and from intimate to large gatherings.” Wine brings people together, and is enjoyed more so when food is part of the experience. Like food in Italy, wine also unites the generations and is passed along from one to the next like food.
Lorenzo Corino looking at a barrel of Barla aging in Case Corini’s barrel room.
Winegrowing and winemaking in Italy also gets passed down generation to generation. The first example that comes to mind is the Corino family, made up of 6 generations in Costigliole d’Asti in Piedmont Italy. When our founder first visited the 5th generation, Lorenzo Corino, at the family’s estate, the first thing the Lorenzo spoke about was his family: what each generation did and their contribution to make Case Corini what it is today: an estate focused on old vines, thanks both to the family legacy as well as the priority Lorenzo and now the 6th generation give to preserving their old vines in a regenerative way. The family house was constructed on top of the winery, highlighting the importance it had to the family, yet each generation of the Corino family had another main job, and this continues today. This demonstrates that wine was just 1 part of their life and livelihood, in addition to cultivating other fruits and vegetables.
Another example is Aldo Clerico: in this case we are talking about not only the winery, but also Aldo Clerico and his entire family, which includes his wife Valentina. The Clerico name is well known amongst Barolo wineries as Valentina’s grandfather, who is a Conterno. Aldo and Valentina grew up in “Barolo country” and surrounded by vineyards and whose lives’ rhythms were integrated with vineyard activity. Today, Aldo and Valentina’s lives still follow these rhythms surrounded by nature and family, a Barolo family winery with generations on both sides of the family.
Importance of Place and Biodiversity
As we move onto the second pillar, our focus turns to the fruits of nature and its deep roots. The place where a food and wine come from in Italy is a testament to authenticity. That place is where magic happens, and is what people have fallen in love with, from locals to tourists to wine and food lovers. It’s an Italian word called “territorio” which really does not have a good direct translation into English, and, not surprisingly, to a society, like America, where people move around a lot.
Antonella Manuli, founder of La Maliosa, reaching for an old vine’s procanico grape cluster, a native grape from Maremma Tuscany.
Italy is, undeniably, the country with the most native wine grapes. Why is this so? According to Ian D’Agata in his book Native Wine Grapes of Italy, it is due to Italy’s rich biodiversity. Sound familiar? This is one of the reasons why Italian cuisine is recognized by UNESCO for its cultural heritage. From arrays of microclimates to diverse soils and a great variety of terrain, and other geographic features, make it ideal for winegrowing and winemaking. The concept of a wine, olive oil or food originating from a place, from Italy and elsewhere is a foundation of Vero’s principles. You can’t talk about biodiversity without reference to where it is.
If you were to try to pin down the exact number of indigenous wine grapes in Italy, you will get different numbers. In part this is because it is a moving target: they are continuing to discover new native wine grapes. In fact, after a farmer in Romagna Italy discovered the famoso grape, which makes a white wine from Italy. They thought that famoso was an extinct wine grape while Jancis Robinson and colleagues did research for their Wine Grapes book, a de facto reference to wine grape varieties around the world.
Our founder gets really excited when she tries a grape for the first time in a monovarietal wine. This excitement led us to be the first ever to import the Boschera grape into America, which makes a unique Pet Nat style sparkling wine in Italy.
Likewise, when Sheila met Irene Balim, the Ukrainian woman who heads up the Frignano wine estate in the Modena province of Italy, she found a kindred spirit who gets even more passionate about rare Italian wine grapes. Irene is committed to reviving hyper local grapes in her area and allowing them to get the level of attention they deserve. Sheila tasted Uva Tosca for the first time at Frignano Italian winery, finding out later that the grape was forgotten after phylloxera hit. Aside from the fact that the grape thrives in high altitudes, so it should really only be planted on mountainous terrain, it was overlooked as Italy’s wine industry bounced back in the 1900s after having lost so many vineyards due to the insect pest infestation. Uva Tosca makes a crisp, cranberry juice like sparkling Italian wine.
Not helping the resurgence of cultivating native Italian grapes after phylloxera was the European Union trying to play Big Brother and telling what wine growers what should and should not plant. The native Italian grape, Schioppettino, was an out right victim of this political action when the government made it illegal to plant in the 1970s. This was while they were encouraging those farming Italy to grow only well known wine grapes, pushing. especially. international varieties. This led to it Schioppettino wine not being made for decades, and it is still hard-to-find across America.
A great example of biodiversity and importance of place when it comes to Italian wine is the maceratino grape which makes an Italian white wine blend from Le Marche, one of the off-the-beaten-track Italian wine regions. It gets its name since it is from the province of Macerata where this white wine Italian is produced. Fun fact: this family winery, Quercia Scarlatta, also makes an Italian olive oil predominantly from 1 olive cultivar that is also hyper local to their regional Italian area.
From Vineyard to Cellar to Dinner Table
At the ancient spring on Podere Canalino’s historic farm in Montalcino where Canalino gets its namesake.
The third pillar of Italian UNESCO pertains to our concept of farm-to-table and the slow food movement, which we highlighted in our first article right after Italy got the UNESCO award, giving an example of a farmer and chef in Romagna Italy which is an extreme scenario of kilometer 0: he grows, harvests, prepares and serves all in one place. Aside from enjoying a super fresh and authentic Italy experience, this concept clearly provides benefits related to sustainability. Think: no transportation is even needed!
But, let’s go back in time: as we mentioned earlier, wine and food have been attached at the hip in Italy, and elsewhere in the Old World, even in ancient times. But how is it that when you travel around Italy and embark in the Italian food traditions that the wine the locals serve magically pairs with the wine?
To pair wine and food in today’s world is an extensive methodology, as we explained in this article. The modern sommelier is only a recent “official” figure. The concept of achieving wine and food harmony was not done by a professional wine expert. Instead it was something done by the locals who not only followed their intuition but also came about through necessity. There is a saying “if it grows together it goes together.” In fact, heres’ a good tip for finding ideal wine and food pairings: When traveling in Italy and trying the typical Italian cuisine, see what wine the locals are having with their local dish. It is a shortcut to achieve wine and food harmony.
Alberto, winegrower and winemaker of Podere Canalino preparing a meal with vegetables from his ancient farm’s gardens.
Think of the farmers living in isolated rural regions, with little money and lots of mouths to feed: they had no choice but to go with the wine produced by their own vineyards which grew alongside the fruits and vegetables they cultivated and with animals roaming through their farm. Plus, they were very practical: choosing a wine which would make their dish easier to digest. Think in Tuscany, where the sangiovese grape abounds: a dry red wine with some body and tannins helps to ingest fatty and/or heavy foods, like meat dishes made from the locally raised animals. Have a Tuscan Sangiovese paired with steak is one of the all time classic wine and food pairings to this day.
If you have the opportunity to visit Podere Canalino in Montalcino Tuscany, you find yourself on the same property that the Sodi family farmed since 1800. Canalino is called such since there is an ancient spring which has been functional since at least the Middle Ages. This has helped the property to be an ideal place for a farm, cultivating fruit and vegetables, including wine grapes. In fact, Saint Catherine of Siena had a monastery on the property in 1650 where she had vineyards, where the Sodi family sangiovese vineyards are planted to this day. Alberto, who is the winegrower and winemaker for his family’s estate winery, keeps growing a variety of fruit and vegetables which keeps the family, and guests, fed all year round.
When speaking about sustainability and Italian wine, we would be remiss not to mention La Maliosa. It is an “agricultural startup” founded by Antonella Manuli who had a goal to create a farm for the future which was rooted in building up and improving the natural ecosystem in Maremma Tuscany. Her approach has been to leverage what is local and apply modern “smarts” to farm and make natural wine and organic EVOO, using concepts like regenerative agriculture. She even patented a method called Metodo Corino, developed together with viticultural researcher and wine producer, Lorenzo Corino, to document and demonstrate the approach she took to produce high quality natural wine. One of her most recent initiatives which underlines the concept of local growing, preparing and serving is the Saturnalia Wine Bar restaurant in Tuscany, not far from her farm, where you can enjoy her Tuscan wines, Italian olive oil and local, seasonal foods.
Experience For Yourself The Living Cultural Heritage of Italian Wine
We wrote this article to share our passion for authentic Italian wine that speaks to the same cultural heritage as Italian food. It is that passion, that our producers have as well, which drive us towards being a bridge between artisan farmers that love their land and wine lovers and foodies across America who crave hidden gems that are hard to find.
Vero sells to distributors across the USA, as well as licensed establishments in certain states, plus to consumers and businesses who seek out well made boutique wines, olive oils and specialty foods that are farm-crafted in limited quantities by artisan farmers around the world.
For distributors and licensees, contact us to learn more about our portfolio and how we can help you.
For consumers and other businesses and corporations seeking hidden gems of wine and foods, you may purchase in our online store and we ship around the US. We also have an award winning wine club with a popular 3 month wine subscription gift option. Our gift sets provide a handy way to send a personalized and unique wine, olive oil and food gift while we do the heavy lifting to get it shipped to the special someone, partner and client. We organize custom tailored sommerlier led wine tasting, olive oil tasting and wine and food pairing events. Reach out to us to get started.
