Patience pays off for this Italian wine: Pasqua Sagramoso Valpolicella Superiore Ripasso 2003

I probably sound like a broken record by now but here is wine that is definitely better the second night. Pasqua Sagramoso Valpolicella Superiore Ripasso 2003 is delicious after 24 hours! Valpolicellas often do benefit from aeration. I decanted half of the bottle and then later that night recorked the remainder in a mini-bottle. This allowed it to better develop flavours like rich ripe plum at the peak of its season coated in a spicy and savoury juice of fresh fieldberries and mixed with candied figs. Harmonious, balanced and engaging.

It really doesn't make a false note, while in its initial hours of consumption it seemed a bit less integrated, a bit more challenging and green. After a generous decanting (if you're serving the entire bottle at once rather than patiently waiting for the next day like I did, allow for two to three hours in a carafe) the intensity of young fruit cedes some ground to notes of well-worn leather. Any sourness on the palate becomes bittersweet.

Pasqua Sagramoso is a distinctive Valpolicella wine that uses the ripasso method. The producer explains that vinification process on its site.

AUTHENTIC PAIRING IDEAS

A friend of mine who once traveled to Italy thought the most striking thing about how Italians do dinner is their tepid approach. Dishes served in restaurants are never served hot out of the kitchen. Grilled vegetables have come to room temperature, cooked meat has had time to rest, and cherry tomatoes -- let those stew in the balsamic and oil dressing a good while before bringing them to the table.

So for an Italian wine that clearly benefits from a good breather like this one does, I would suggest dishes that you make ahead and then let sit for a bit (handy if you are entertaining guests or for summer cooking when you want to prepare ahead to avoid the peak late-afternoon heat):

Grilled zucchini steeped in a marjoram and lemon mixture, grape tomatoes baked in the oven and removed from the heat to let expand and contract...

Broccoli blanched until it gets a vivid shade of green and then left to mingle with a sprinkling of crushed fennel seeds and some oil and garlic...

An escalope of chicken in a marinade that gets tastier and more flavourful with every passing moment...

Patience!

Illasi, Verona, Italia. 13.5%.

When the chicken you're eating is actually a red herring: Allegrini Valpolicella Classico 2004

Yesterday I picked up Michel Phaneuf's Le Guide du Vin 2006. Scanning through it quickly for a good deal, I came across the Allegrini Valpolicella Classico 2004, which the author qualified as one of the great 4-star bargains of the year, as well as one of the very very few Italian wines categorized as such. I needed to be convinced. I tasted some Valpolicellas recently at a Venetian-themed tasting and none came off very well. I also recalled having this Allegrini on earlier occasions and not feeling like it was as good as it should be. I had wondered why since it's routinely feted by so many, and now, with the 2004 vintage, particularly well-received. So I take home the bottle from the liquor store with this history in mind.

Opening it with pizza à la poulet fumé, I found it thirst-quenching, Rhône-ish in its generous cherry flavours -- but grapey too -- and perhaps bit green. Since it was a young wine, I knew that rebottling it (in a half-bottle so it's less likely to become over-oxidized with time) and then having it the next night would likely do it some good. It did. The ripened strawberry hints now came through and the typical Valpolicella finish, which is slightly bitter, was rounder, longer, and more delicious. Rarely will rebottled wine lose quality within 24 hours. But also equally as rare is the mellowness and added complexity that this one gained. I wondered if decanting it for an hour before serving would do the trick next time. Another lesson might be avoiding it with the pizza I had, which in retrospect was not a suitable pairing for it. In his book, Phaneuf writes that grilled chicken and tomatoes make ideal matches, which is indeed what I ate. But the chicken he mentions are breasts -- specifically ones stuffed with prosciutto. I suspect this is the key to the pairing. Meanwhile my pizza had heaps of cheese, basil, mushrooms, and barbecue flavour but no salty cured meats whatsoever, just bits of chicken. Same bird, different scene! On the second night, I had some scraps of the leftover pizza, but my main dish was a hearty sandwich: chunks of honeyed ham on oatmeal bread with anise mustard and rosemary potatoes on the side. Something about the tanginess of the ham sandwich harmonized with the wine much better than the pizza did.

The bottle label reads: "Well rounded wine with a fruity character accentuated by the cherry aroma. Recommended serving temperature: 16-18 C. Excellent accompaniment to wide variety of dishes: fish, pasta and meats. 13%"