Andre Ribeirinho | Wine, Food and More.

The first ever Umbria is for #winelovers event happened last week in Umbria in the green heart of Italy. With an exciting programme planned for the week this was a great opportunity to discover the region’s wines and their connection to the local food culture.

To make it even more interesting the #winelover group organized a Food & Wine Pairing Competition to better understand the richness of Umbria’s food and wine pairing. Here’s the competition menu with the different Italian dishes and the wines that better worked for each of them:

1. Frittatina Morbida al Tartufo della Valnerina

We started with a Frittatina Morbida al Tartufo della Valnerina, an egg-based dish, similar to an omelette or quiche, enriched with black truffles from the Valnerina valley in Umbria. A rich combination of flavors where the black truffle definitely stood out.

Best wines for this dish:

• FiorFiore 2010 Roccafiore (White) - 100% Grechetto
• Lamborghini (La Firorita) Trescone Umbria 2009 (Red) - Sangiovese, Merlot, Ciliegiolo

2. Risotto Allo Zafferano di Cascia e Guanciale Croccante

As a first course the Chef planned a Risotto with saffron and crisp Italian bacon. The crispy bacon added a different dimension to this simple dish and made it extra enjoyable. I could spend a whole day eating this crispy bacon.

Best wines for this dish:

• Colli Perugini Chiorri Rosato 2011 (Red) - Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon
• Adanti Arquata Montefalco Riserva  2008 (Red) - Sangiovese, Sagrantino, Barbera, Merlot, Cabernet
• Montefalco Rosso Scacciadiavoli 2009 (Red) - Sangiovese, Sagrantino, Merlot

3. Porchetta di Maialino Aromatica Bardata al Prosciutto

The main course was the highlight of the food and wine competition and one of the best foods I’ve had in Italy. A fabulous savoury, fatty and juicy boneless piglet roast covered with slices of bacon. Simply outstanding.

Best wines for this dish:

• Re del Sole LS08 Leonucci (Red) – Sagrantino
• Marchesi Antinori Cervaro della Sala Antinori 2011 (White) - Chardonnay, Grechetto
• La Palazzola Vin Santo Stefano Grilli 2005 (Sweet)

4. Crostata di Mele e Crema Cotta and Cheesecake

Finally dessert time. An Apple Custard Pie and a Ricotta, Chocolate, Raisins and Rhum Cake. A happy overdose of sugar created specifically to match the Umbrian Vin Santo (a style of italian sweet wine).

Best wine for the Crostata di Mele e Crema Cotta:

• Poggio Forno Cantina Neri 2011 - (Sweet) Grechetto, Sauvignon

Best wines for the Torta di Ricotta, Cioccolato, Uvetta e Rhum

• Sperello VinSanto Colli del Trasimeno Berioli 2011 (Sweet) - Trebbiano, Malvasia
• Grappa di Sagrantino Romanelli (Spirit)

The hosts

Fabien Lainé (a French Sommelier working in Norway) was in charge of coordinating the food and wine competition. With the help of Luciana Braz and other #winelovers they’ve pre-selected 70 wines (from a pool of around 200), organized the tasters in teams and collected the competition results. A great job, explained in more detail in Fabien’s blog.

Umbrian Chef, Matteo Barbarossa was in charge of creating four different dishes for the competition. With this mission, Matteo created a dynamic menu of local and delicious Umbrian food to match the region’s diverse array of wines.

Overall this a fantastic wine and food discovery experience in the heart of Italy. Umbria is definitely a fantastic food and wine destination and I can’t wait to go back and discover more.