Malcolm Jolley finds a lovely soft wine from Piedmont that goes with everything.
On my way to Beau’s Oktoberfest, I spent last night in Ottawa with good friends. Madame Good Friend is an accomplished cook, and on the menu was a take on carbonara that incorporated the last of this season’s zucchini. It worked beautifully, and so did the wine we drank with it: Poderi di Luigi Einuadi Dogliani DOCG 2016 (LCBO# 232454 – $21.95). Dogliani is the Piedmontese wine region just south of Barolo, but the wines they make there are a very different beast. In Barolo the noble grape of Nebbiolo is king, and it’s thick skin famously makes big wines that need time to mellow out. In Dogliani the dominant red wine grape is Dolcetto, this thin skinned and delicate grape makes a soft red wine, which depending on the élevage, is ready to drink after only a year or two. the 2016 Einaudi is a classic Dogliani wine, just pure line of light dark cherry fruit that will pretty much pair with anything from fish to beef, or a carbonara.
