Cured meats soaked in wine, a refinement of taste and quality.

The technique of refining Italian cold cuts in wine dates back centuries. Today, it has been revived in many parts of Italy and is becoming a real trend to make certain types of cold cuts more appealing. The addition of wine in the mixtures of cold cuts is a technique rooted in history and has always served to ensure better maturation of the mixture and its antiseptic action. This is especially true for minced or knife-chopped cold cuts, but always contained in a casing. From Ventricina to Sopressa Vicentina, from Salame Mantovano to Milano, not to mention the sweet sausages of southern Italy or the Salama da sugo ferrarese. 

But today, what we see is an increase in products that are produced and immersed in wine for a certain period of time. A technique we primarily knew for drunken cheeses that is now expanding to include hams, coppa, pancetta, salami, lardo, and more. In many cases, the results achieved have added value to the cold cut itself. In other cases, the results are of questionable quality and palatability. This technique has become a must in recent years to boost sales of products that have stagnated: a touch of creativity to overcome the crisis.

Particularly noteworthy are the Venetian producers of cold cuts who are creating new products of excellent quality, as they mostly use wines from Valpolicella with a very particular spiciness that pairs well with the flavors and aromas of the processed meat. 

Corrado Benedetti, for example, in his laboratories at Corte dello Schioppo in the Valle di Negrar of the high Valpolicella Classica, has created a range of highly enjoyable refined products. Among these, we remember the Cordivino, a small salami refined in Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, with a coarse grain from the meat cut and a small size to enhance the penetration of the wine. Also by Benedetti is the Lombata refined in Amarone called Bacchus. This is indeed an unexpected delicacy. Corrado Benedetti also produces a very good Coppa refined in Amarone called Deavina.

Descending into Puglia, an ancestral recipe comes from Martinafranca and the lands of the Itria Valley: the Capocollo al Vincotto from Salumificio Giannelli is a recipe that combines meat with a cooked Negramaro wine that is then used in the mixture to add flavor and keep the product aseptic. An extraordinary cold cut, free of additives, preservatives, and other synthetic elements. A product of great pleasure, simply thrilling.

Also in Veneto, the historic cheese factory La Casara of the Roncolato family in Roncà, among the eastern hills of Verona, produces an excellent Coppa Stagionata al vino Bianco, particularly with wine made from Durella grapes typical of those lands. 

In short, the galaxy of cold cuts refined in wine is growing more and more, and each cold cut producer tends to have its specialty. Now, the food-wine pairing is done directly in the deli with results that we can definitely define as increasingly evident and reassuring.

Bernardo Pasquali

S&M