The Great Wine List at Lavagna Trattoria Italiana, NYC

There’s lots to love about this East Village restaurant, but I love the wine list the best. It reads like a map of Italy covering over 20 regions from Abruzzo to Veneto.

The Wine: Azienda Agricola Laura Aschero Pigato, Liguria and Terre Del Principe Pallagrello Nero “Ambruco”, Campagnia

The Food: Excellent and Authentic Italian

The Place: Lavagna Trattoria Italiana East Village, NY, it was a trip to Italy

Sorry my camera was not working well so no food photos.

There are so many exciting adventures in the world of Italian wine. So many stores to be told.

With these two wines we enjoyed dishes like a simple but perfectly made pizza Margherita with nothing more than tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. That is all you need. Also enjoyed fabulous pasta, fresh fish and more.

Our first wine is from Liguria, the Mediterranean coastal region of north-western Italy that runs from La Spezia to Sanremo, touching the French Riviera. It is a remarkably beautiful place. Here wonderful wines are made on fertile cliffs and hills that are blessed with almost year round sun and favorable breezes from the nearby sea.

Founded in 1981, Azienda Agricola Laura Aschero is a small family-operated winery run today by Laura’s son Marco Rizzo and his wife Carla, and daughter Bianca. With the fine work of oenologist Gianpaolo Ramò they produce 65,000 bottles per year of vintage Ligurian wines of Vermentino, Pigato and the indigenous Rossese.

The wine we had was Pigato, a grape that came from the Middle East and has been grown through out Europe but has flourished here in Liguria. It produces a rich but mellow wine with flavors of peach, honey and a hazelnut bitterness.

It paired so well with the Carciofo al Forno wood oven roasted artichoke heart with white bean puree and cremini mushrooms.

The second wine, a red is from Campagnia in southern Italy. Another great wine region most famous for Aglianico. This wine is of Pallagrello Nero a rarer grape that none the less has a long history in the region. It was one the varieties planted in 1775 by architect and engineer Luigi Vanvitelli who created the royal palace of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies in Caserta. He designed a fan-shaped vineyard where the grape thrived.

“Crafted from one of the three indigenous grapes cultivated at this estate (the other two are Palagrello Bianco and Casavecchia), this wine has a cheerful, inky quality, and a ruddy rustic nature. If you're looking for a wine to accompany your favorite Tuesday night dinner of cheeseburgers, look no further. It's not complex, but it is surprisingly tasty with lots of ripe black fruit, mellow chocolate, jaunty acidity and a spike of menthol. A fabulous wine at a great price point. “ Italian Wine Merchants NY