Serving Piemonte Italian Wine

Series Summary

Wine is a beverage almost as varied and unique as the people who drink it. This is largely due to the fact that the finished wine product has a memory that preserves minute influences of flavor, color, and acidity. The individual complexities of a wine can be determined by such factors as soil mixture, temperature variation, grape variety, vintage, natural flavoring, yeast and the fermentation process, aging, choice of wood barrel, and the list goes on. There is a large subculture built around wine and wine making because there’s something in it for just about everyone. In this wide wine world, different regions produce countless wine varieties. A Spanish Pinot Noir and a Italian Pinot Noir differ from one another in their complexity, texture, and color. This is why so many wine lovers travel to wineries all over the world. In this free video series, learn about the wines from Piemonte. Situated in the Northwestern Italy, this wine region is known for producing crisp white wines and full bodied reds. Learn about the variety of wines: Dolcetto, Nebbiolo, Barolo, and Barbera. Also, learn how these wines are fermented in barrels. Curious about how to pair Piemonte Italian wines with food and cheese? Our wine sommelier gives tips for delicious combinations. So, learn more about Italian wines, and explore the complexity of the Piemonte region today!

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Mark Middlebrook, and I'm here in the Paul Marcus Wines Cantina, our wine cellar. And in this segment, I'm going to talk about how to serve and enjoy Piemonte's wines. The various types. I've got three different Piemonte wines. Northwest Italy. And three different glasses. You don't need to have different glasses but I'll explain why I might use them. White wine, course you want to chill, you just get it cold in the refrigerator. It doesn't need to be that cold when you drink it, but it will warm up in a glass or the bottle sitting on the table. I use a relatively small glass for white wines. Small pours, frequent if you're having a nice long party. Works well with white wine. These are also good for everyday reds. There's nothing wrong with a glass this size. The main thing you want is to narrow it at the top so you can swirl it around and enjoy the aromas of the wine. This is a Bordeaux style glass. I use this a lot for everyday red wines like Barberindo Chateau from Piemonte. It's a good compromise between the smaller glass for white wine and the big one here. For the more important wines from Piemonte. That is the wines based on Nebbiolo grapes, Barolo, Barbaresco, Nuoro, and things like that, I prefer to use a burgundy glass. This is a glass specifically designed for drinking Pinot Noir and red burgundy. And it's designed to really lift the aromatics out of the glass. Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo are both very aromatic grape varieties, so this glass works great. But if you don't have it, either of these two will work just fine. So you get out your bottle, you take the capsule off the top of the capsule off, which I've already done with this one. And get out your corkscrew of course. It's a cork. Open it up. If you're in Italy in a restaurant often the server or sommelier will smell the cork just to detect any cork taint. If there is any problem with the cork you'll smell it in the wine too. But this is like an early warning system. When you pour the wine, oh by the way red wine should be served cool. Certainly not cold but not warm. Red wine should always feel refreshing on the palate. If it's too warm, stick the bottle in the fridge for ten minutes or so just to cool it down. Think cellar temperature, sixty to sixty five degrees probably is ideal. But, you know, if it's a few degrees different don't worry about. So pour, not too much in the glass. You really want to be able to swirl these guys around. That's probably the reason of having a wine glass like this. Enjoy these aromas. Aromas is at least half the pleasure of wine. And then of course you get to drink it. And that's the best part."