Drink This Now: Pecorino
What we should be drinking more of and a few good reasons why.
Montefortino, a commune in the Province of Fermo in the Italian region of Le Marche
If you’re curious to know what will be popping up on more and more shelves this spring, our money is on Pecorino, no, not the cheese, the wine. Pecorino varietal wines have been rapidly gaining popularity in the past 10 years, and we are seeing more and more make their way across the pond and onto the shelves of our local retailers and restaurants.
“Interest in white aromatic indigenous varieties has grown exponentially over the past few years — Pecorino, Trebbiano, Verdicchio, along with Albariño and others. The retail side of the business is following the on-premise interest. It’s exciting to watch; the wines are terrific,” says Dan Hodge, Sales Manager for Chicago-based distributor H2Vino. By on-premise, Dan is using wine speak for restaurants. While this renaissance of obscure Italian varieties may have started in these gastronomically-driven environments, it has made a quick migration to the retail environment. Given our new normal with fewer bottles being consumed in restaurants and more of them flying off shelves, the popularity gain of wines like Pecorino is immensely fortunate for the small, humble producers who have been hit hard by the shutdown of winery tasting rooms, tourism, and restaurants.
“Interest in white aromatic indigenous varieties has grown exponentially over the past few years — Pecorino, Trebbiano, Verdicchio, along with Albariño and others. The retail side of the business is following the on-premise interest. It’s exciting to watch; the wines are terrific.”
Why Now?
So, if Pecorino is so delicious, why haven’t we been sipping it for years? Why does Pinot Grigio take the role of standard Italian variety served by the glass? Well, Pecorino’s role in the modern Italian wine scene only came to the stage in the 1990s. Some of my sommelier friends and I often joke it’s impossible to keep a full breadth of current Italian wine knowledge because a new grape variety is discovered every day.
Pecorino was an ancient, almost defunct grape revived toward the end of the 1980s. Guido Cocci Grifoni is credited with being the first vigneron to resuscitate and, subsequently, begin to popularize the category. Although, there have been wineries who discovered Pecorino had been growing in their very own vineyards, since the 1970s; they simply hadn’t recognized the little-known variety. It had probably been sneaking its way into field blends and even bottlings of Trebbiano for years. We’re not entirely sure where the Pecorino grape originated, though there is reasonable speculation that it may have been from the coastal areas of central Italy specifically the small village of Piceno within Le Marche. 90% of plantings are today in the regions Abruzzo and Le Marche tucked along the Eastern coast. Here, they benefit from vast temperature swings and cool coastal breezes, lending their hallmark racy acidity.
What Can You Expect?
The styles of Pecorino can vary quite a bit from producer to producer. However, the grape can be defined by a prominent mineral backbone, notes of bergamot, lemon, and subtle flowers, often sage, and a crisp tartness poised against a rich, even slightly viscous texture. This can make it loads of fun for food pairing. As the wines age, you’ll find them developing a slightly nutty characteristic, and the body will begin to feel richer.
“Guido Cocci Grifoni is credited with being the first vigneron to resuscitate and, subsequently, begin to popularize the category.”
Nom Noms
Pecorino pairs beautifully with hard, salty cheeses, and we love it with pasta and seafood, particularly with lemon and/or cream sauce. Youthful Pecorino can also be a lovely aperitif wine to serve. It’s far more interesting than your average Pinot Grigio, and it will please a variety of wine drinkers.
I decided to get ambitious and whip up a risotto to pair with a bottle of Tiberio, my Pecorino choice one evening. Now that I’ve conquered my culinary fear, I can tell you risotto is not as hard as I had made it out to be. Read below for my recipe for the perfect risotto to pair with a bottle of Pecorino.
Reading Between the Wines
You may see a number of different terms on bottles of Pecorino, including, Colline Pescaresi, Terre di Chieti, Pecorino Colli Aprutini, and more. Pecorino can be bottled legally under a number of denominations. By denominations, do I mean places? Well, sometimes. The tricky Italians like to keep us scratching our heads. These denominations can refer often to a specific area or zone where the wines are produced. However, they can also point to specific regulations required for production. Thus, while we have highlighted Abruzzo and Le Marche, you are likely to rarely find these location names on a label. You’re more likely to find more obscure denominations, so don’t get too hung up on the lingo. Pecorino is gaining popularity rapidly, and because of its recent addition to the cannon of popular Italian varieties, the relating laws appear to have been cobbled together bit by bit. Wine law is always changing, and Italy is no exception. I suspect that we will see forthcoming changes, making it a bit less challenging to navigate the world of Pecorino.
A Few of Our Favorite Pecorino Bottlings:
Netflix and Chill:
Tenuta Cocci Grifoni, “Tarà,” Falerio $10
Umani Ronchi, “Vellodoro,” Terre di Chieti $14
Dinner with Friends:
Tiberio, Colline Pescaresi $20
Fattoria Valentina, Colline Pescaresi $20
Celebration:
Emidio Pepe, Pecorino Colli Aprutini $85
Nom Noms Nº 1
Jillian’s (Almost) Perfect Pecorino Risotto
Ingredients:
2 Cups Carnaroli or Arborio Rice
1 Medium White Onion
1 Cup Dry White Wine
Olive Oil
Alotta Butter
1/2 -¾ Cup Pecorino Cheese
1/2 -¾ Cup Parmesan Cheese
2-3 Parmesan Cheese Rinds
1 Lemon
4-5 Sage Leaves
The key with risotto is just plan to plant yourself at the stove for a good 30-45 minutes. Turn on some good music, pour your wine, and get cooking zen.
Mise en place
Get your Parmesan brodo going. Don’t worry; it’s so much easier than it sounds. Put 10 cups of water in a pot with a couple parmesan cheese rinds and roughly 2 teaspoons of salt (no need to be too precious. I just guesstimated.) Bring this to a simmer. You will leave this simmering for the duration of cooking your risotto. I like to throw a ladle in there. It will come in handy. If ya wanna get fancy, you can use a fine mesh strainer to filter out the little cheesy bit floaters, but I didn’t cause ain’t nobody got time for that, and my risotto was delicious.
Finely chop the onion.
In a small sauce pot, melt about 4 tablespoons of butter on low with the sage leaves. You can let this hang out on very low heat while you cook your risotto, so all that herbal sagey goodness seeps into the butter.
Get out the following items and have them ready:
Microplane or Grater
Measuring Cup
Pepper Grinder
Salt
Lemon
Plain Salted Butter
½ Cup Plain Water
1 Cup Dry White Wine (in addition to the one you’re drinking while you’re cooking)
2 Cups Carnaroli or Arborio rice
Go Time
In a large heavy bottom pan or dutch oven, heat a good thick layer of olive oil (roughly 5 tablespoons) over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and a dash of salt. Stir the onion quite a bit (like every 30 seconds). You want to get it translucent without taking on any color. This will take 5-6 minutes roughly.
Add the ½ cup plain water. Stir it around, and let the onion absorb the water for several minutes. At this point, the onion should be super supple and look like it’s melting. Let all the water absorb.
Add the 2 cups of that fancy rice, and stir it around a whole bunch (constantly), so it gets nice and coated in that olive oil. The edges of the grains will start to get clear. This should take about 5 minutes.
Add the 1 cup of dry white wine. Let it simmer. Stir it around. This should absorb in about 2 minutes.
Now start adding that Parmesan brodo you made. You want to add roughly ¾ cup at a time, and stir the rice around constantly until each batch of brodo is absorbed into your rice. Each brodo addition should take about 3 minutes. You can adjust the heat if this process is going too quickly or too slowly. You’ll keep doing this for about 25-30 minutes. Don’t be afraid to start tasting your rice to check the texture. I started after about 15 minutes of the brodo-adding. When it’s time to pull the risotto off the heat, the grains will still be a little toothsome, but you’ll have a beautiful creamy starchy texture to the mixture. You’ll likely have a little brodo left over.
Remove the risotto from heat. Add about 2 tablespoons of plain salted butter and stir.
Make it rain. Microplane or grate about ½ cup of Pecorino and stir. Microplane or grate about ½ cup of Parmesan and stir. Feel free to use taste as your guide for how much cheese you want. When was the last time you saw an Italian nonna or nonno use a measuring cup?
Add some of that sage-tastic butter you made. Leave the whole sage leaves out of the risotto. Feel free to reserve a little of that melted butter to drizzle over the individual portions before you serve. If you feel like your risotto is a little too thick, you can absolutely add a little more brodo at this point to refine that.
Zest the lemon into the risotto and stir.
Serve it up! Pour it up! You can garnish with a couple sage leaves, some chopped chives, a little cracked pepper, or more cheese-- whatever floats your boat.