Nero di Troia is an important wine, full-bodied and complex when aged, particularly stimulating even when it is young and ready-to-drink. In Apulia Nero di Troia wine takes over for being a perfect pairing with both sophisticated and traditional dishes.
It combines with meat cooked in all its variations, matching perfectly also with strong-flavored ones such as lamb, game, guinea-fowl, and preparations with juicy and spicy taste.
Therefore let’s clear the way to titillation for the palate with many dishes based on roasted meat, stewed or in the pan, or even with dishes typical of northern Puglia, from Bari province up until the province of Foggia, from where this wine comes from, like sweet and sour lamb and guinea fowl.
It is an intense red wine with a substantial polyphenols content which defines its tannins. That is the reason why, with succulent dishes, it reinstates the balance to the palate.
It is true that its tannins may be softened by aging in barrels, but they will never lose their character which determines the complex structure of this wine, indicated for formal banquets. Perfumes, mysteries and power inside a multi-faceted wine, capable of enchanting the nose and the palate with scents of blackberry and licorice, spices and wood, with balsamic and herbaceous notes, even slightly bitter that blend with elegance and mitigate flavors as difficult as those of game.
Nero di Troia young wine has a more floral and fruity bouquet, with harder tannins,therefore it demands equally strong tastes, since its typical hints by contrast soften the intensity of the taste of meat, in particular, while the structure enhances the tasty preparation.
In its most elegant version, which derives from the passages in barrique, up to the Riserva versions, where the natural angularity of tannins gives way to greater refinement and harmony, this wonderful wine is appreciated with first courses in meat sauce, but also with the most delicate flavors of legume soups or with the most enveloping flavors of mature cheeses.
Guinea fowl with sage, roast pork, sweet and sour goose and the most classic stews with potatoes are recipes which contribute to best express the unique characteristics of Nero di Troia.
And for the real Nero di Troia addicted, here’s how to prepare a braised meat marinade, and guess which wine to use? Obviously Nero di Troia wine!
Preparation for four people: first of all marinate the small pieces of foal muscle (800 gr.) in a bowl or container with 1 and a half liters of Nero di Troia wine, for at least two hours; put the meat in the pot and add it to a vegetable preparation (1 carrot, 2 leeks, 1 celery stalk), add 1 teaspoon of cooking salt and 30 g. of oil, cook over low heat for 15/ 20 minutes, to release slowly the wine absorbed by the meat; when the wine contained in the meat will be evaporated, add the remaining of the marinade and cook over moderate heat, with lid, for about 2 and a half hours, mixing from time to time with a wooden spoon. Before cooking, season to taste with salt and turn off the heat only when almost all the cooking liquid has been consumed.
Serve the dish with a good wine. A Nero di Troia, of course, and which one if not a label among Crifo ones, from Cantina di Ruvo di Puglia? Choose between Augustale Riserva DOCG single variety, Squarcione Appassimento IGP single variety, Terre del Crifo IGP single variety and DOP in blend, Grifone IGP single variety and DOP in blend and the two Bag in Tube of three liters, “black” and “orange”, IGP single variety.