The best wines to pair with braised meat

Braised beef is a particularly tasty and tasty dish , which is part of the tradition of northern Italy and in particular of Piedmontese cuisine. It is traditionally served with polenta. Braised beef is a preparation that requires long cooking , particularly suitable for cuts of less noble red meat , muscle parts veined with fat, such as the priest's hat, fish, real or alternatively leaner cuts such as codon or the walnut. The preparation technique involves first browning the piece of whole meat to seal it externally and holding the juices inside and then cooking it for a long time in stew, with broth or red wine, vegetables and spices. The meat must cook slowly at low temperature, so as to remain very soft and succulent inside. If you want to make the meat even tastier, you can marinate it in the refrigerator overnight with red wine, vegetables, spices, aromatic herbs and then use the wine as a cooking liquid. The cooking base and the vegetables can be filtered or even better blended to create a thick and tasty sauce to season the braised meat, served cut into slices. The main feature of the dish is the richness of flavors due to the long cooking with vegetables and spices and the succulence of the meat, which has preserved its juices inside.

It is an important dish, which requires a combination with a structured red wine , good complexity , balanced acidity and above all tannic. The succulent meat and the presence of the sauce ask for an astringent wine, capable of drying the palate before the next bite. Our attention will therefore be directed to great red wines, complex, intense, deep and tannic. The most classic territorial combination is with a good Barolo , preferably from the Serralunga or Monforte area . If we move to central Italy, we find another red which, due to its characteristics, is perfectly suited to accompanying a braised beef: Montefalco Sagrantino . A wine of great structure and character, with a dense and incisive tannic texture , which enhances its best qualities thanks to the succulence of braised meats. It is certainly one of the most suitable combinations ever for a wine that is not always easy to bring to the table like Sagrantino. Also in our south we find a red that goes very well with braised meats. Aglianico , in its various territorial variations, Taurasi , Taburno and Vulture is a wine that has all the ideal characteristics and above all an important tannic texture, to marry perfectly with braised meat. Finally we recommend another wine very suitable for braised meats: Amarone della Valpolicella , as long as it is a traditional amarone, which despite drying, retains the right tannic and acidic hardness and is not a soft and sweet caricature of this great wine , as often happens to meet the taste of international markets.