The world of Italian food and wine matching is vast and has many pleasures, if you have the time and the curiosity to explore. Today we look at Italian cheese “caciocavallo” and the possible Italian wine options to match.

Caciocavallo is a cheese from southern Italy, now a DOP protected production, made from cow’s milk. While it looks like a mini provolone, the cheese comes from the “podolica” cow breed, which is semi-wild breed that grazes on all sorts of natural and wild vegetation.

The areas in which caciocavallo is mostly produced are the high altitude regions of Molise, Sila, Campano and Puglia. This particular Italian cheese must age a minimum of three months, and anywhere up to two years. See after the jump for the wine-cheese match.

Given this variety in age, the wine to match will depend on the characteristics of the cheese demonstrated at its differing evolution. The guys at Gustoblog.it recommend a Lagrein for the younger caciocavallo, which is a lighter wine from the Alto Adige region.

For the aged caciocavallo, they say a Cirò red is good, but I personally would go with their suggestion of an Aglianico del Vulture from Basilicata. The aglianico grape is from southern Italy, and has its greatest expression in the DOCG wine from Campania, Taurasi. The aglianico variety is sometimes described as the “Barolo of the south” and can bestow enormous satisfaction.

Photo | Flickr

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