Food/Wine pairing - Valpolicella

Valpolicella, especially as made by Allegrini, is a full-bodied red wine with lots of character and acidity. It would probably do all right with a red pasta sauce, but if you're looking for a regional match keep in mind that you don't see many red sauces in the Veneto, where Valpolicella is located. I'd say Osso Bucco would make a fine match, as would most red meats.

HTH Mark Lipton

Hi Mark, Thanks for the reply. I can understand red meats (I'm a basic carnivore), but without searching through my wife's cookbook collection, what's Osso Bucco?

Thanks, Dick R.

A veal roll is good, stuffed with spinach and eggs.

Literally translated, it means "bone with a hole" as I recall.

Osso Bucco is an incredibly delicious dish prepared from veal shanks. They're baked in a covered casserole with a mixture of chopped vegetables (onion, carrot and celery) in beef broth. Garlic, tomatoes, lemon peel, basil, s&p, white wine, olive oil, thyme and bay leaf also go in.

It's an easy dish to prepare, but there's a lot of chopping required. Also, it's best to make one's own broth rather than use the store bought boullion.

When the shanks are falling-off-the-bone tender, they are removed to a platter and the sauce is thickened by reduction and adding flour. The traditional accompaniment is risotto Milanese, but I usually just serve it over plain rice and drink Chardonnay with it.

I have a detailed recipe for 6, but it's in jpeg format so I won't post it here. E-mail me if you're interested, with osso buco in the subject line. Remove dontspam from my address.

Tom S

Agreed. A white is more usual with Osso Buco. And it is usually accompanied by rice cooked with saffron (indeed risotto alla Milanese), so all the more reason to do so. Chard sounds fine, but Chenin would also be great.

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

Ed,

Ripasso is actually made by pouring Valpolicella juice over the skins left behind after Amarone is made so it is a sort-of "in-between" style. It's always been interesting to me that they actually make 4 different styled wines in Valpolicella from the same basic mix of grapes (those being Valpolicella, Ripasso, Amarone and Recitto (spelling?))

Cheers, Gary

The correct writing is Osso Buco = "Hollow Bone"

Sounds weird to have white wine with veal. I usually have something like syrah with osso buco. Isn't it too greasy for a white?!

Dimitri

IMO Syrah is too heavy to accompany osso buco. Likewise Cabernet. If you insist on a red, I think Chianti/Sangiovese or Burgundy/Pinot Noir would be more appropriate. Possibly a Valpolicella (to bring this back on topic). Veal is more delicate than beef and the wine shouldn't stomp all over the meat.

BTW, osso buco isn't greasy if it's prepared properly, and it goes well with big, rich whites. Although I usually serve the same Chardonnay with it that goes into its preparation, a dry Austrian Gewurtztraminer (or the like) would be nice too. No NZ Sauvignon Blanc or Sancerre with this dish please!

Tom S

Salut/Hi D. Gerasimatos,

le/on Sun, 27 Mar 2005 18:24:40 +0000 (UTC), tu disais/you said:-

Really Dimitri? That's amazing. I usually find that veal is too delicate a meat to serve with most reds. A delicate light red would go with a big bosomy veal dish, and of course osso bucco can be that, but the more classic accompanying wine is white.

This is an ideal moment for Michael's favourite Gruner Veltliner, though a mig but not too oaky chardonnay wouldn't be at all bad. However, I'd look to a big white from Italy, though I'm sadly too ignorant of them to suggest one. Orvieto perhaps?

Syrah, at least any syrah I've ever drunk, would 0 in my opinion simply swamp the dish.

Well, different strokes for different folks. The last time I had osso buco I had a Darioush syrah and I think it went well. I cannot imagine having a white wine with that dish. I did have some champagne (1988 Krug) with that dish and overall I think white is a mistake, IMO. This is coming from a person who loves white wines.

Dimitri

Do you have the recipe? I'd like to compare. I'd guess yours is quite tomatoey and light on veggies. There's very little tomato in my favorite recipe.

Tom S

Last big tasting dinner I went to we had osso bucco with 1989 and 1990 Bordeaux. It went well.

In addition to variations in the sauce, there is much variation in veal in the US. In many parts of the country, "veal" is rather red, may not be milk fed only, and may resemble beef as much or more than classic, very young, milk fed, veal. I have to have veal shipped in if I want the classic thing. A dish made from this near-beef veal could handle a much stronger wine than classic milk fed veal.

Reply to snipped-for-privacy@cwdjr.net .

Orvieto is a town in Umbria producing excellent whites. Campania's white wines are now in the limelight: Greco di Tufo, Fiano, Falanghina. Sardinia also with her Spanish-like Guernacha. All the rest is literature

Yes, I thinks so too. The tannin would clash with the lemon zest flavours, and Tom's suggestion of a Gewurz seems appropriate, though I never tried it. And yes, GV seems a logical choice.

I know you are in fact clued into italian whites, but so many italian whites are on the flabby side, I would stick to Friuli for safety reasons ;-) I would imagine a Tocai Friulano...

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

You are free to invent your own world.

I did not prepare it. I had it at a restaurant.

Dimitri

OK, but can you describe it? What color was the sauce?

Tom S