wine and manacotti

[tlk319]

i am serving manacotti and would like a wine that stands alone as well as enhance the dinner...I am not much on dry or real sweet wines so any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Thx
Trish

[Thomas]

Assuming you are preparing the manicotti with a rich, thick tomato sauce, look for a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo or maybe a Salice Salentino.

[robr]

Chianti Classico or a good red zinfandel.

[wdonovan]

I'd pick the M d'Abruzzo or chianti based on the acidity / sweetness of the sauce. With a very acidy sauce, the chianti will balance well. A sweeter wine against an acidy sauce will exaggerate the sourness and could make the sauce taste biting.
With a slightly sweet sauce, the M d'Abruzzo would be in order for the same reason in reverse. A chianti could be exaggerated toward the sour side by a sweet sauce.

[Thomas]

Donovan,

What happened to your view about contrast? As you asked in another post, why put same wine with same food attributes?

I regularly pair southern Italian wines with acidic tomato sauces, for the contrast; and I do not get sour as my reward, I get opposing mouthfeel working as an interesting, and even harmonious mix.

You make the assumption that a wine that is not acidic is sweet. That is not the case. We are talking about lower acidity and more fruit in southern Italian wines as opposed to northern.

In fact, I would hardly ever--no never--drink a sweet red wine with tomato sauce or any other sauce...




[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 01-30-2006).]