Pizza Tonight - What Makes a Good Pizza Wine?

There are those wines out there that are just made for Pizza night.  So what makes for a good Pizza wine?  They are usually not too pricey, are flavourful enough to stand up to tomato sauce and cheese, and are normally kind of 'meh', take it or leave it kind of stuff. 

Generally speaking we are not busting out the good stuff for Pizza Hut (or Papa John's - Gawd do we miss Papa John's up here in Nova Scotia). 

Tonight we had the 2009 Feudo Badala Negroamaro from Puglia, Italy.  This varietal only recently came on our radar and has been pretty good.  This wine was on sale for $12 at Cristall & Luckett Wine Merchants locally.

Overall, it had enough tannin in it to enhance the Pizza but wasn't overly powerful.  It is a tad on the thin side but still is a nice drinking wine.  We think this typifies what makes a good Pizza wine.  Tannins that let you know your drinking something that can cut through the greasiness of a cheesy Pizza and then something that is not too heavy so as to make you want to stop at one glass....or slice.

That is why Italian table reds like this one and the Sangiovese based wines are great with Pizza.  They check all the boxes when it comes to having something to enhance the food experience for something so common.

So, what are your favorite Pizza wines?  Examples?  Memorable experiences in a Piazza in Rome?  Let us know.

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon