Prosecco
Prosecco is cultivated in the Veneto region, most notably in Conegliano. It's a mild, frothy, sparkling wine with a neutral, slightly fruity bouquet. Prosecco is less crisp than Champagne. It is not made in the Champagne method, but rather, Charmat process during which its bubbles are achieved during the secondary fermentation in large tanks. Prosecco often boasts flavors of delicate pear and toast.
Prosecco can pair with Gorgonzola, northern Italian fresh cheeses, fresh goat, Emmentaler, Fontina, Mozzarella, Ricotta, and soft to semi-soft cheeses, herbed cheeses such as the herbed Brin d'Amour, Sottocenere truffle cheese and cheeses soaked in Prosecco itself.
With its fresh, fruity flavors and cleansing qualities, Prosecco is the perfect wine to have at the beginning of a meal.
Aneri $14 or so at Grapevine. It has a metallic smell, sweet, clean finish. Minerals, metallic. Maybe tart nectarine.
Aneri with double crème brie. Not so great. It makes a rotten taste.
Aneri with Pierre-Robert. It mixes fine, though the wine overpowers the cheese. The cheese completely disappears here. However, the pairing brings out a fruity flavor in the cheese and the wine, if you eat a big enough bite of cheese. You need a lot of cheese for this to work.
Aneri with Gorgonzola Dolce. Excellent! Lightly sharp, nice contrast in textures.
Aneri with Pecorino Toscano. OK, but a little bitter
Aneri with Gorgonzola Prenotato. Nutty, mild, creamy, lightly spicy. I really like this Prosecco/Gorgonzola (sharp Gorgonzola) combo, though I think that many people wouldn't be into it since it is a harsh pairing. I like how the wine is fruity and lightly bubbly, and how it mixes with the sharp, creamy, nutty cheese. The Gorgonzola Dolce didn't have as interesting of a flavor, but the textures and styles matched up better.
Anime Prosecco di Conegliano $16.99 at Central Market. 11% alcohol. Extra dry. I didn't ask for an extra dry, but had considered trying one since I have never had one before. This is a very soft wine with a hint of vanilla. This wine tastes more like apricots than some of the others. Anime Prosecco is not bone dry but delightfully crisp and refreshing, with just a touch of sweetness. Anime is supposed to be good for making Bellinis with peach liqueur. It is a pale straw yellow in color with a pleasant nose of peaches, apples, almonds, mineral notes, and baked bread. It is fruit-forward and balanced, with a clean, refreshing finish. It is just what I was in the mood for.
Anime with Vento d'Estate. This cheese is soaked in white wine and then packed in hay and aged in a wine barrel. I am assuming that the wine in this cheese is Prosecco since the cheese has a little bit of an apple and pear flavor and it comes from just southeast of the Prosecco region. Actually, the cheese tastes a little like rotten apples. It is alright together, though I taste some fishiness and then a vomit flavor on the finish. I guess I should call this a fault, though overall, it's kind of interesting. The cheese overpowers the wine. On one level, on the mid-palate, they blend together really well and bring out nice salty, woody, fruity, floral flavors in each other. I like the grassy, floral taste of the cheese with the bright, creamy, exotic wine. And I like that they are both so fruity together. They don't cancel each other out. The more I drink it, the more I like it. Janet Fletcher had suggested in her column to pair this cheese with the Bonny Doon Aglianico red wine, but I decided to try it with Prosecco instead. I'm glad I had it with the extra dry wine because anything dryer would have been disastrous.
Anime with Beemster GrasKaas. I just happened to be demoing this cheese today and it actually works out ok with the wine, though I think a Riesling would have been better for it. The cheese makes the wine taste too tart. They don't fight, but they just aren't very interesting at all.
Candoni $13. 11% alcohol. Brut Prosecco, vino spumante. This is the bottle with the Etruscan frescos. They are painted directly on the glass of the bottle, and depicts an Etruscan fresco from Tarquinia, Italy, in the fifth century BC. This particular one shows two handsome men in blue "barely there" togas, one playing a harp and the other dancing while holding a flute. The bottle says "Before the days of ancient Rome's greatness, Italy was the home of the Etruscans. Their hand-painted frescoes depicted figures vibrant with life, often eating, dancing or playing musical instruments." The grapes are grown in the "hills of the Veneto region." The wine is pleasant, a little biting and bitter on the finish when super chilled, but refreshing overall. Some peach and flowers when I breathe out. When it warms up, the brightness dims and the luscious fruit flavors emerge. Overall, very nice wine, especially for the price and fancy label.
*Candoni with Piave Mezzano. I threw these two together and they worked! The cheese is semi-hard with a dense, creamy texture that really coats the palate. Perfect blend of sweet milk and light fruit, plus the added bonus of the mouthfeel; the cheese is firm, but becomes creamy in the mouth, and then along comes the sparkling wine to shake it all up. It's a great combination for flavor and texture alike.
Carpenè Malvolti $17 at all the stores except for Austin Wine Merchant where it is $15. This is my favorite Prosecco. It had a great pear and almond taste, and a wonderful mouthfeel. It was creamy and frothy, light, and delicious.
Carpenè Malvolti with Capriole Fresh Goat Cheese. This cheese is so frothy and citrusy. The wine is also very frothy. This is so good! It is tangy and pearish. It blends perfectly. Very well-balanced. The cheese makes the wine extra tart, and the wine makes the cheese pretty and creamy.
Carpenè Malvolti with Gorgonzola Dolce. This was really good. The cheese was sweet and mild, and the wine, fruity. I liked these two and served them, but felt like they were both a tiny bit mild for each other. Still, good. People liked this. The textures were good together -- smooth, silky, creamy cheese with lightly bubbly wine. It was a very sweet cheese, lightly spicy, milky, and a little fruity. The wine takes the sweetness out of the cheese. It is good with the fruity wine.
Carpenè Malvolti with Gorgonzola Naturale. This was great together. The Gorgonzola was much sharper and spicier than the dolce. I liked how the light bubbles interacted with the spicy, creamy, blue veins in the cheese. Even a strong Gorgonzola is still smooth. The textures and flavors went great together. I didn't serve this because I didn't want to kill palates at the beginning of the tasting, but this was definitely my favorite.
Carpenè Malvolti with St. André triple crème brie. I was hoping to find a Champagne/Brie match in these two. They worked out ok, but it wasn't my absolute favorite. I think that the Prosecco's bubbles may be too tiny to cut through the thick cheese. Still, since St. André is so salty and creamy, it went well with the wine.
Col di Luna Prosecco Veneto. $13 a bottle at Grapevine. 11% alcohol. This wine came with a little string woven around the cork. It was good. It doesn't smell a metallic or toasty as some champagnes. Pears, tart, fresh, crisp finish. It was lightly fizzy on the tongue. It was good. The guy at Grapevine told me this was most similar to the Carpenè Malvolti, which was sold out.
Col di Luna with Gorgonzolas. It went well with both Gorgonzolas, Dolce and Naturale. I liked it best with the Naturale, but did the Dolce instead. Light fruit and light sweet cream together with a little bit.
Col di Luna with Délice de Bourgogne. This was awful together! I tasted the cheese and it was at its peak. Then it totally didn't match the wine. It was bitter and tasted like dirt. I liked the Col di Luna a little better with St. André, but it was still not so great.
Col di Luna with Brillat-Savarin. The cheese is buttery and lush, but it made a bitter taste.
Col di Luna with St. André. These two were good together. The cheese was salty enough to work with the light bubbles and fruit, yet not too overpowering or mushroomy. It didn't taste bitter. The wine cleans the palate. Light butter and fruit flavor, like a pear tart with a buttery crust. I went to Central Market to pick up some St. André for a party, but the batch looked too young, so I didn't buy.
Col di Luna with Piave. This was a good choice, though I didn't really like the two textures together since the cheese tended to feel grainy in the mouth. Piave is from the Veneto region, so a good match for Prosecco. Cow's milk, semi-hard to hard. This cheese is tangy, lightly grassy, with a smooth, pleasant finish. It is a great snacking cheese. It is like Parmigiano-Reggiano, but lighter, so it goes well with a pear/apple wine.
Col di Luna with Montasio. I didn't like these two together because the cheese was too sticky in my mouth (and not in a creamy way), and the mixture made a vomit taste. I don't know why because it is cow's milk, not sheep's. I love Montasio. It wasn't the worst combo ever, but I sure wasn't going to serve it.
Conti Neri From Ambiente Wines, and imported by Terra Verus in Austin. 11.5% alcohol. I got this bottle for free at work! Boy do I love my new job. I was supposed to take this to Thanksgiving, but instead, I kept it for myself. The label says (in Italian) that the grapes are picked by hand and put into small baskets. They make their wines by bringing together modern and ancient techniques. The resulting wines have a modern nose and an ancient flavor. It is aromatic, and dry with light bubbles and slight sour taste. To me, it almost smells like a dessert wine -- like fruity, syrupy, and high alcohol, except that it isn't. It smells like rotten pears and apples. When I taste it, it is dry and tart with lots of minerality. It still has good fruit, but doesn't taste anything like it smells. It's very refreshing, like lemonade. On the other hand, it still has some residual sugar so a that it will do well with lots of cheeses.
Conti Neri with Mixed Herb Pure Luck fresh goat cheese. Oooh, this may not work -- all the garlic in the coating of the cheese. I can't decide if I like this or not. It is exciting at first with all the fruit, spicy herbs, and bubbles fizzing around. Then something tastes like fish for a second. And then it is nice and bouncy. It is nice. I don't think it's a perfect match because the fresh herbs are so crazy, but I like it.
*Conti Neri with Malga. This cow's milk cheese is rubbed with mashed up Prosecco grapes and herbs. It tastes like mint and something sour and bile-like. The only reason I am putting these two together is because they both involve the Prosecco grape. Even though they seem like they would be awful together, I love them. The Prosecco has that sourness that works well with the sour taste in the cheese. The fruit in the wine comes out. This is fun together. It's got a kind of nuts and candy flavor to it.
Loredan Gasparini, Montello e Colli Asolani Brut $10.99 at Central Market. 11% alcohol. From Venegazzù, Italy -- in the Veneto region near Treviso. Read more about it at http://www.venegazzu.com. It is a little sharper than some Proseccos. It has a definite almond, nut flavor. It is sharp with strong bubbles. Tart. Patrick tastes apricots, but I don't taste it at all. It is very dry and acidic. It's good. I feel like I'm not getting enough flavor out of it, though. It is very refreshing. It tastes a lot like Champagne. It is like sour apples or unripe strawberries.
Loredan Gasparini with Montasio. This cheese is like an extremely mild Parmesan. It comes from the north.
Loredan Gasparini with Montegrappa. Montegrappa is a little like the Montasio above, but more aged and piccante. It's still a smooth cheese.
Loredan Gasparini with Pecorino di Fossa. This Pecorino is salty and mild. It is aged in a cave. It has a crumbly texture.
Loredan Gasparini with Ricotta Salata. Ricotta is a firm whey sheep's milk cheese. It's salty and spongy. It's nice together, albeit, a little dry. The cheese is dry tasting. This cheese is great with Prosciutto. The wine goes well with these two, though it's still a little sharp.
Mionetto "Il" (as in "the" in Italian) Prosecco $9.99 a bottle everywhere. This was excellent for the price. It came with a bottle top on the wine, though, which was kind of odd. It seemed a little more bubbly, more tart, and more crisp than some of the other Proseccos, but it still had the light pear flavor.
Mionetto "Il" Prosecco with Gorgonzolas. It went well with both gorgonzolas.
Mionetto "Il" Prosecco with Brillat- Savarin triple creme brie. I was determined to get a good brie/prosecco match, but it just wasn't working with all the wines. If the cheeses were to mushroomy and earthy, it made a horrible bitter taste in my mouth.
Rive della Chiesa Prosecco Colli Trevigiani "Vino Frizzante" About $11 at Grapevine. 10.5% alcohol. A customer at Grapevine told me that this was really good for the price. It came with a strange cork -- halfway in between a Champagne cork and a regular cork. I had to get it out with a corkscrew. The mouthfeel of this is definitely frizzante rather than spumante. The bubbles are really light. It has higher sugar than some. It is lightly tart, a little sweet, creamy, with an aftertaste of fermented pears and spice. Some bitterness on the finish. It's nice for an aperitif wine. It is not as elegant as Carpene Malvolti, but having a sweeter taste, it might go well with some cheeses that I like.
Rive della Chiesa with Crescenza. Sticky, nutty, slightly bitter cream cheese style of cheese from Italy. Never mind. I think that, in its prime, this cheese would have gone well with this wine, but it had turned in my fridge. It was way too bitter.
**Rive della Chiesa with Emmental. Very nice. I knew these two would be good. I love the nutty, sweet flavor of the Emmental. These two just feed off each other. At first, I think the wine is too much for the cheese, but then the cheese has such a nice, creamy back-up plan for the wine. Boy is this good. I think it is especially perfect because the wine is not too bubbly or too acidic. They blend so well. I don't know why, but they really work. Both are so subtle, but unforgettable together.
*Rive della Chiesa with Smoked Mozzarella. Very good. Interesting. This cheese works with this sweeter, less fizzy Prosecco because the Mozzarella has that smoky, salty edge. If this Mozzarella weren't smoked, it would be too weak. With the smoke, it has a nice tang, so it holds up to the wine. They are very different, but complement each other well.
Sergio Mionetto Vino Spumante $16.99 at Morrell's in NYC. 11% alcohol. This Prosecco is "extra dry," slightly fruity, and crisper than a traditional prosecco with aromas recalling green apples, citrus fruits, honey, and almonds. It is supposed to go well with seafood. This is delicious! It doesn't taste extra dry to me, but I guess it is. It is not as dry as brut. It is nice and tart. It is very frizante and has some good green apple flavors and light honey and tartness. It is very fizzy. I am not tasting almonds. This is so good, we are killing the bottle in no time. It isn't as smooth and creamy as the Carpenè Malvolti, though.
Sergio Mionetto with Bosina Robiola. This is ok, but not so great. This soft-ripened fresh Piedmont cheese is very lactic with light mushroom flavors. Even without the wine, the cheese is a little bitter. With the wine, it is still bitter. It is alright, though. I like Cravanzina better usually.
Sergio Mionetto with Cravanzina. This is good together. I think that the Bosina Robiola above has a little more "character." The rind is earthier. Overall, the Cravanzina is milder and seems to blend better with the Proseccos. This isn't the first time that I have preferred the Cravanzina over Robiola for this wine. I always like the textures together, and the tart milk with the tart fruit.
Villa Sandi extra dry Prosecco di Valdobbiadene $9.99 at Central Market. 11% alcohol. It comes in a clear, strange-shaped bottle. It looks like a liter, but it is a regular sized bottle. It looks a lot like a cheap liquor bottle. It is not too bubbly and is light yellow. It smells faintly of tree fruit and and is tart on the finish. This is great, especially for this price. It is delicate and very pleasant. It has nice acidity. It tastes like a fruity Champagne. Very smooth. Sweet fruits, maybe like pears and some fruit that I can't determine -- apricots? Maybe an aftertaste of almonds. It's a very pleasant wine. The price lowered to $9.49 later. Then I got this for $8.79 at Grapevine on sale.
Villa Sandi Prosecco di Valdobbiadene with Brin d'Amour. Salty, creamy, herb-coated, ripe sheep's milk cheese from Corsica. This is the best Brin d'Amour I have ever tasted. I'm so excited! These actually go together, finally. I think it's so good because the cheese is nice and salty, yet still creamy. The herbs on the outside play nicely with the little bubbles in the wine. There is some mold on the outside, but the slight bitterness is ok. The bubbles cut into the cream in the cheese. The flavors of the two are similar -- fresh, rich, sometimes Prosecco can even be creamy. This is such a refreshing pairing, and it's not boring. The cheese tastes woody, herby and outdoorsy, and the wine is crisp and spring-like. This wine seems best with creamier types rather than the hard mountain cheeses of Northern Italy or something like Parmigiano-Reggiano. I also like this wine with a cheese with something added -- Gorgonzola with the blue, Sottocenere with truffles, and then Brin d'Amour with spice.
Villa Sandi Prosecco di Valdobbiadene with Sottocenere. It is good with the wine. The crispness of the wine goes well with the creaminess of the cheese. I like the earthy, wild flavor of the cheese with the tingly wine. The wine brings out a garlic flavor in the cheese.
Villa Sandi Prosecco di Valdobbiadene with Cravanzina. This cheese is at its peak, but the wine is bringing out too much bitterness in the rind of the cheese. It is too bitter. I like it at first with the acidity and the creamy paste of the cheese, but the rind is nasty together.
Villa Sandi Prosecco di Valdobbiadene with Goat Cheese, Texas, from the Mozzarella Company in Dallas. This cheese is very much like a French Jacquin in the texture and light, citrus, delicate flavor. It gets wiped out by the bubbles in the wine, though. It doesn't fight at all. If anything, the acidity in the cheese brings out some lush fruit in the Prosecco that I didn't notice before. On second thought, once the cheese warms up, I really like this. After I taste the tart wine, I get some nice, light, goaty flavors in the cheese as well. It's good together.
Villa Sandi Prosecco di Valdobbiadene with Gorgonzola Dolce. This cheese is spicy, creamy, sweet, and even sour. Great! Where the mold is hot, the wine cools it off. I always like Prosecco with woody, earthy tasting cheeses. I love the sharp little bubbles with the mold, and then the creamy sweet milk with the acidity in the Prosecco. This cheese really shines through. And I also like the mild almond flavor in the wine with the nutty Gorgonzola. There are so many flavors, it's hard to figure out what is going on.
Villa Sandi Prosecco di Valdobbiadene with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Such a great cheese with so much nutty, sweet flavors. Boring and then bitter on the finish. I am not wild about this and the wine tastes like nothing with this strong, hearty cheese.
Villa Sandi Prosecco di Valdobbiadene with aged Pecorino Toscano. This cheese, by itself, is so tasty, sweet, nutty, and herby. It is almost like eating a cheese straw. Ick. Bitter. This isn't good. I don't know why I keep thinking a hard cheese might go with Prosecco. They never do.
Villa Sandi Prosecco with Ricotta Salata. This was a great combo with Prosciutto. I did this for a class on cold cuts and Italian cheese. The cheese alone is also very good with the wine. The flaky texture and the salty, sheepy light flavors go well with the slightly sweet, fruity wine and bubbles. Fun to eat.
Villa Sandi Prosecco di Valdobbiadene with Robiola. This is one of the best Robiola's I've ever had, but this match is awful. It is bitter. The only think I taste is bitter mold, and then there's always the texture of rubbery cheese and fizzy wine. Woo, that was just bad. It was a delicate ugliness, though.
Villa Sandi Prosecco di Valdobbiadene with Zamorano, Spanish sheep cheese. They don't fight, but they don't taste like much interesting, but they don't overpower each other. The cheese is not as full-flavored as a Pecorino Toscano .It has a distinct olive flavor. It reminds me of a Manchego with more pizzazz. The cheese tastes a little sweet and salty, and then, with the wine, it's just like drinking mineral water with Saltine crackers.
Zardetto Prosecco Brut Spumante $12 at Grapevine. This is from the Conegliano area in the Veneto in Northern Italy. Light, smooth, not much taste, fizzy. No weird Champagne aftertaste. A little bit of fishy/metallic flavor. I liked this, but it is so light, it's almost forgettable. It is a very versatile wine. It seemed like it went with every cheese.
Zardetto with Malga I loved these two together. Malga is a sweet, herby, minty cheese that has been rubbed with mint and Prosecco grapes, so it made for a perfect pairing. The crispness of the wine complemented the herby flavor of the firm cheese and the cheese brought out more fruit in the wine. The pairing was a little bitter. The wine cleans the palate. Crisp. Great complement to a creamy, yet bright, cheese. Unfortunately, Grapevine is out of Malga.
Zèfiro Prosecco Brut $11.99 at Whole Foods. 11% alcohol. The label is pretty. It is sort of modern in blue, yellow, and orange. I bought this because it was cheap. It is very light yellow, almost clear. I get floral, apples, yeast, and maybe nuts in the nose. It tastes very tart. It is good, but definitely a palate-cleanser. The finish is very dry.
Zèfiro with Asiago Fresco. This cheese is really mild and a little tangy. It is ok together. They are both pretty mild, but the wine doesn't totally cancel out the flavor of the cheese. The wine is a little stronger, but you can still taste the cheese. These are good together because the wine tastes sweet with this cheese, and the cheese is milky and mild. It is very pleasant together, the smooth milk and the tingly sweet fruit.
Zèfiro with Capra goat cheese with honey. It is ok, but the aftertaste is a little too sharp. This goat cheese is very luscious, smooth, and sweet. It doesn't have too much zing. The Prosecco seems too bubbly for it. I think this cheese would go well with a bubbly Moscato. This cheese needs more sugar with it or maybe just more fruit. The wine is too dry.