Brined smoked pork and refosco

It’s always a toss-up whether to drink red or white wine with pork. I normally go for white but I really liked this combination of a brined smoked pork chop with a light(ish), slightly smoky refosco at Casa in Bristol the other night.

It was accompanied by yet more pork in the shape of cabbage with pancetta swimming in an indulgently buttery sauce so it could well have been that that fired the pairing too. Anyway, safe to say, refosco and pork.

Refosco is a grape from the Veneto in north east Italy. This bottle which came from Molmenti & Celot, was a 2020 Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso from just outside Venice had a lovely wild hedgerow berry fruit with a hint of bitterness that made it particularly refreshing. It would also be really good with mountain ham and other salumi (charcuterie).

You can buy it for a very reasonable £12.99 from Wanderlust wine which makes it a bit of a bargain

Casa by the way is a more casual relaunch of what used to be Peter Sanchez-Iglesias top end restaurant Casamia and I like it the better for it. It’s pricey but the food is delicious. (I was a guest btw)

Here's another type of pairing with refosco you might enjoy.