Food for Wine Thoughts

From a purely nutritional standpoint I have always disagreed with the notion that wine is food. But can wine be food for thought? It seems to me there are amazing little lessons hiding in every glass.

I’m not talking about obvious things like grape variety or production region. I’m talking about what you uncover when you research a wine. Last week, while pouring wines at a charity event I got such a lesson from an earthy little wine whose name pays tribute to an extinct volcano and a lengthy treatise on the nature of poetry.

Arriving at the event, I found the usual lineup—Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon. Then, seemingly out of left field, there stood a little-known red from Basilicata—the region on the Italian peninsula that forms the arch of the boot between Puglia at the heel and Calabria at the toe.

From the name on the label—Ars Poetica Vulcano Basilicata IGT—I picked up the clue that the bottle must certainly contain Aglianico, a dark-skinned variety grown throughout southern Italy in the DOC zones of Taurasi in Campania and Aglianico del Vulture in Basilicata.

The relatively unknown Aglianico wines are not usually for everyday quaffing. They can be dark and earthy with flavors of smoke and leather intertwined with cherry and plum fruit. So when people at the event inquired about the wine choices, I simply told them that it was an earthy little red from southern Italy.
 
When I got home that evening I decided to investigate the name of this wine. Normally wines from Basilicata would be labeled Aglianico del Vulture DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) and not IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica)—a designation reserved for wines that do not follow the rules of the DOC.

Here’s what I found out:

The name Vulcano pays tribute to Mt. Vulture, an extinct volcano that overlooks the small, family-owned estate of Ars Poetica—which in turn takes its name from a lengthy treatise on the nature of poetry written by Basilicata’s most famous son, the poet Horace.

The wine is made with 100 percent Aglianico, and achieves all of the technical qualifications of the DOC, but enologist Donato d'Angelo prefers to categorize it as a red wine of Basilicata, due to its simple, straightforward style—and perhaps as a statement of his own poetic license?

And while I admit that I may never be called upon to put this information to use, or even remember it for very long, I find it interesting to know such details. In that sense, wine can be food for thought.

Tags: wine | Cabernet Sauvignon | Sauvignon Blanc | Basilicata | Chardonnay