Ligure: A precious and little-known wine region

For the past couple of days my aunt has been visiting from Colorado, where she runs the School of Natural Cookery. As you might imagine, she's an awesome cook. So, naturally, last night when I got home she had just started putting some ideas together for dinner. She was blending some fresh kumquats with a little cream and an anise-infused simple syrup for some inventive sorbet for desert, but other than that the options were open. We ended up creating a pasta with fresh baby artichokes, shrimp, baby sea scallops, and a saffron/lemon/butter sauce.  The wine I picked to go with this was something that I brought back from my last trip to Italy. 

It was a 2006 Cascina Feipu dei Massaretti, Pigato di Albenga from the DOC Riviera Ligure di Ponente. It's not an expensive wine, but it's damn good. Even though it's only about 10 Euros, it is very hard to find since they don't export much of it (the production is just too small!). That said, it is extremely refreshing, but not like Sauvignon Blanc. It is less "tropical" and more straw-like. It is similar to Vermentino (another grape grown in the Ligure region of Italy), but it is lighter in color and fresher on the palate. That said, Ligure is actually located in the Italian Riviera, just south of the french border and Monaco. Since it is quite close to Piemonte, they also grow grapes like Dolcetto, but those really don't get exported. 

My first experience with this wine was in Santa Margherita, a small beach town on the Riviera. They served this wine with a dish consisting of a native Mediterranean white fish topped with a tomato and olive sauce and pan fried with thinly sliced potatoes. Needless to say, this was the first dish that I reproduced upon returning home. Alas, I only brought two bottles of this wine home with me and just finished the second last night. 

For your sake and mine, I will ask Jeremiah (our Italian Wine Buyer) to hunt some of this fantastic wine down. But, since it's not imported, he might have to pull some strings. I'll let you know when we get it in. In the meantime, you can enjoy some of these pictures from the Ligure region of Italy, which is on the coast just south of Monaco. It's famous for its ritzy ports (Portofino) and its tanned folks.

Cheers!