Pira & Pizza

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One of my favorite wine pairing rules is to combine foods and wines which rhyme, or more difficult, share a harmonious onomatopeia. So while my ancient Zojirushi breadmaker twirled up a batch of risen dough, I went searching for the chef’s libation, settling on a too young 2012 Pira ‘Serralunga’ [Barolo]. At least I double decanted this garnet wine before tasting, but that didn’t temper the structure nor tannins. I found it to have a fine bouquet: hazelnuts, truffles, flowers. On the palate, a drying feel in the mouth, but not acidic, with a long cherry fruit flavor. I wonder if this was filtered, it was unusually clean and sediment free. Still, I found this manly Barolo to be delicious and enjoyed it over two nights. I’m putting the normale on my list, and would slot it into the A- zone. This is a good Piemonte although I’m not sure how well distributed it might be. In a perfect world, this needs another decade.
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Black olives and pepperoni, that looks good. I tend to southern Italian reds, rose or sparkling with red sauced pizza.

Doesn’t look like a lot of red sauce on that pie.

I’m not a black olives guy on pizza (I like them by themselves tough), but I approve of this pairing.

Tom, you need to come up with a Southern Italian red that rhymes with pizza.

I like to pair 20 year old Barolo with homemade pizza and were going to say that that wine seemed about 10 years too young, and then saw your last remark. Have had great success with a Schiavenza Prapo 01 and a straight Aldo Conterno 04 with pizza recently.

I’m not sure if these are the same Pira dude as yours, but I just checked and saw that I have some bottles of an E. Pira & Figli and a Luigi Pira, 2004s, in the remote storage.
Those are good-looking pies and I don’t think it’ll be a hassle to find local slices (I prefer Margherita) to rhyme-pair with.

Luigi Pira is the same dude. You can see Arv’s bottle says Bottled by Az. Agr. Pira Luigi. And the CT pictures of the Luigi Pira are the same.

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Pizza looks great! Pira sounds delicious.

Thanks. My bottles are in the remote storage, purchased and stored since (maybe) 15 years ago. I don’t recall what they look like.

Just for clarity, E. Pira is not the same dude as Luigi Pira. That’s Chiara (she/her/hers) Boschi’s winery in Barolo. The Luigi Pira winery is in Serralunga.

The original plan was to have a Pepoli chianti with the pepperoni pizza, but I kept chewing over the word combo in my head and syllabically it felt like the second choice. I guess I’ll do that next.

The red sauce looks light, because the kids were in charge of the cheese and – when I stepped away for a second – basically dumped the entire bag on the pie. Their logic is ‘mo cheese, mo better’ whether or not that throws everything out of balance. Perhaps when they grow up they will be hawking small barriques in the Langhe…

I should have noted that the wine is indeed bottled by Luigi Pira. I have heard rumblings that some of their newer wines are closed under DIAM30, which I didn’t even know was available.

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There was some debate in the thread linked below as to whether Luigi Pira was supposed to be modernist (small barrique, etc) or more traditional, but I guess it was settled into modern in the updated list. What’s your take?

Anyway, your rhyming requirement makes me wonder what you would drink the Italian wines in my cellar with, Arv. I can’t think of rhyming Italian foods for a lot of them. Sunday challenge!

  • Nicola del Negro Muscat Chambave


  • Gini Soave Classico La Frosca


  • Nicola del Negro Muscat Chambave


  • Cascina Adelaide Barolo 4 Vigne


  • Poderi Luigi Einaudi Barolo Ludo


  • Elio Grasso Barolo Ginestra Casa Maté


  • Kirkland Signature Barolo neener


  • Cascina Luisin Barbaresco Asili


  • G.D. Vajra Barolo Albe


  • G.D. Vajra Barolo Bricco delle Viole


  • G.D. Vajra Barolo Ravera


  • G.D. Vajra Langhe Nebbiolo Claré J.C.


  • Tenuta di Fessina Etna Musmeci


  • Nicola del Negro Petit Rouge Chambave


  • Planeta Carasuolo di Vittoria

Kids! They know good pizza! :grin:

The color seemed pretty light (see pic) to me, so I would not have thought this to be moderniste, but I don’t have informed views on this topic. I remember having a 20 year old Voerzio ‘la Morra’ along with some young Bordeaux once, and it was as dark - or even darker, and I thought that kind of extraction was a hall mark of the newer wave of producers.

This is a rather confusing subject for me, especially since producers are swinging or had been from what I read. I think John Morris, who’s in this thread, is way more experienced. If not, we have to flag down Greg Dal Piaz or some of the other guys.

For what it’s worth, Vajra is supposed to lean traditional but, from my recollection from this Spring, their 2016 Barolo Albe was pretty dark, not even close to the bright, clear color of their fun Claré JC (which isn’t a Barolo of course). I could open another bottle for science.

On the other hand, the 2014 Terre del Barolo Undicicomuni Arnaldo Rivera that I had at a restaurant in February was a bright clear ruby if I recall correctly (I now realize I should really take color notes). That thread (from 2014) lists Terre del Barolo as “currently” modern but formerly traditional but then notes that “new releases are using Slavonian oak casks, somewhat extended maceration- possibly dialing back.” Of course that wine actually came out in 2018 I suppose. So what do I know.

The winemaking varies with the bottling:

The Vignarionda spends a year in barrique.
The Marenca spends a year in 500 liter tonneaux.
The Margherita and Serralunga are aged in 2,500 liter Slavonian botte – quite traditional.

The maceration times are on the short side of traditional, 15-20 days, except for the Marenca, where it’s a very short 7-10 days.

So you can’t really characterize the winery, only the individual bottlings, and none of them are extremely modern or extremely traditional.

The info is all available in English on the importer’s website.

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Always good and solid input.

Think you mean Slavonian (region in Croatia).

Thank you John.

The website says this about the Serralunga:

The wine-making process of Barolo Serralunga takes place in horizontal fermentation tanks with temperature control for > 12-15 days> . The wine ages in large 25-hl wooden barrels for 24 months.
Garnet red color with orange reflections. The nose reveals a classic Barolo, fresh and elegant in its notes of leather, hay, earth and spices. On the palate it is round, well balanced between acidity and tannins, very persistent.

Presuming that’s all maceration, is that modern, traditional-short, or some midpoint?

Il Poggione E Pizza

Reminds me of a favorite bit of random dialogue from Spinal Tap:

David: I’ve been listening to the classics, I belong to a…great series
um…It’s called the ‘Namesake Series’ of casettes…

Marty: ah…

David: And they send you the works of famous authors, done by actors
with the same last name…so I’ve got Denham Elliot reading
T.S. Elliot on this one…

Marty: Yeah…well, that’s interesting…

David: I’ve go… Yes, I’ve got Danny Thomas doing “A Child’s Christmas
in Wales” by Dylan Thomas, and…next month it’s McLean Stephenson
reads Robert Louis Stevenson ah “Treasure Island” probably.

Marty: That’s interesting…It’s fascinating.

David: Yeah… and there’s also something…there’s uh shorter works of
Washington Irving, read by someone called “Dr. J.”

Marty: Oh, that’s Julius Irving…Julius Irving…

David: Oh!

Marty: The basketball player.

David: There you go, keeping with the series, yes. I didn’t know that, yeah.

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