We all love to eat. By giving equal attention to the wine served alongside the food, you can turn an ordinary meal into a memorable tasting experience. Even if you’re a wine novice, it’s possible to create wonderful pairings at home by following some universal rules.

Today, we’ll focus on a couple of famous Italian dishes and the iconic wines that pair perfectly with them. Generally speaking, if you take a traditional dish from a specific region, it’s quite likely that the local wine will pair nicely with it.

The first dish that comes to mind when thinking of Italian cuisine is, of course, pasta! Let’s take Spaghetti Bolognese as an example – a rich and deeply flavored meat sauce. No need to overthink this – you can go classic and choose a good Chianti Classico Riserva.

Chianti, mainly made from Sangiovese grapes, typically gives us a lighter-bodied red wine with good acidity. The acidity is needed to balance the acidity in the Bolognese tomato sauce. In fact, it’s simple – tomato sauce + Chianti = very good! You might prefer the Riserva because it offers deeper flavors that suit the concentrated taste of Bolognese that has simmered for hours.

Another iconic Italian dish is, of course, risotto. Here, it depends on what type of risotto it is. For example, Risotto Parmigiano pairs perfectly with a lighter, fresher, and rounder white wine that won’t overpower the elegance of the risotto. You could look at something like Gavi di Gavi.

If we add depth to the risotto with mushrooms or even truffles, then we’ll need a more structured wine. A worthy Chardonnay, especially one that’s oak-aged, would work wonderfully here. For instance, Pio Cesare Piodilei or Cantina Toblino Foll. But why not also a lighter red? In that case, you could try the elegant Nebbiolo wines from Piemonte like Barolo and Barbaresco!

So, in general – the more flavors in the food, the more flavors there could be in the wine.

Prike wine expert Sander