Italian wine and truffle: Pairing advice plus 12 wines to try
Autumn heralds the arrival of white and black truffles across Italy, so it’s time to start dreaming about truffles shaved over pasta, truffle fries and more. But what to pair with black or white truffles? Decanter picks out a dozen wines to try.
Italy boasts the world’s oldest and largest tradition of truffle hunting, which is part of the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list. Over 70,000 licensed hunters wander in the Italian forests at night with their dogs, which are essential to detect the scent of truffles beneath the soil.
Its truffle capital is Alba in the Piedmont region, which is home to some of Italy’s best-loved and most famous wines, including Barolo and Barbaresco. Both these wines pair wonderfully with truffle dishes, and you’ll be able to enjoy the local wines of Alba if you attend one of its famous truffle festivals.
Outside of Italy, Burgundy also has a rich truffle heritage. Its autumn truffles are in season from September until the New Year and are dark brown with intense aromas of earth and roasted hazelnut. Despite their name they are found outside of the Burgundy region too, in regional France, Italy and Croatia.
One factor that drives the popularity of truffles is their unique ability to transpose the aromas of the earth into edible form. All truffles release musky nuances that recall the beguiling experience of walking in the woods after the rain, but white truffles do so in an especially delicate and refined way.
Truffles in brief
Truffles are hypogeous fungi that grow close to the roots of trees and develop intense aromas when reaching maturity in order to attract animals to eat them and, in doing so, spread the spores.
Different truffle species exist but not all of them are suitable for human consumption. The ones we usually eat are black winter truffle, which grow between December and March, black summer truffle (available between May and August), and white truffle of Alba.
The latter, scientifically named tuber magnatum pico (‘truffle of the lords’), reaches maturity between the beginning of October and January. The lofty prices and reputation of white truffles derive from both the quality and the rarity – they only grow in geographically limited areas, and only close to a small group of specific trees including hornbeams, hazelnuts and downy oaks. The climate must be humid and rainy but not too cold, as ice makes truffle hunting impossible.
Where to find truffles in Italy
White truffle: Langhe (Piedmont), Acqualagna (Marche), San Miniato (Tuscany), Molise, L’Aquila and Chieti (Abruzzo).
Black truffle: Central Italy (especially Umbria), Irpinia (Campania), Alta Langa (Piedmont), Pizzo Calabro and the Pollino area (Calabria).
Wine and truffle food pairings
Famed for their stunning aromatics, truffles have an extremely potent smell but little or no actual taste. This means that in order to fully enjoy them the ingredients they are shaved onto or incorporated within need some thought, as does the choice of accompanying wine.
Wine with white truffle
Eggs and cheese
Aged Chardonnay with judicious oak influence works well when shaving truffles on to neutral and creamy dishes such as eggs en cocotte (baked eggs) and cheese fondue. Examples from northeast Italy in particular allow the truffle to shine while balancing the dish with a kick of cleansing acidity.
Pasta and risotto
Tajarin (Piedmontese tagliatelle) with butter and risotto al tartufo bianco (white truffle risotto) also match complex white wines with a little bottle age. Try a quality Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, which can offer complementary honeyed and earthy flavours along with good acidity to balance.
Meat
With its lifted aromatics and pinpoint tannins, Carema from Piedmont pairs well with carne cruda con tartufo bianco (steak tartare with white truffle). This medium-bodied Nebbiolo-based wine is also a great alternative if you’re craving red wine with the dishes above.
Barolo and Barbaresco require a juicy fillet of beef with white truffle to balance their tannic heft. If you can’t find an older vintage, try a younger yet earlier-drinking vintage.
Wine with black truffle
Black truffles require slightly bolder and more rustic wines than white truffles.
Eggs and cheese
When shaved onto Scamorza cheese or savoury crêpes, they match full-bodied white wines made from neutral grapes such as oak-aged Vernaccia di San Gimignano.
Pasta and meat
Strangozzi (Umbrian ‘spaghetti’) served with shaved black truffle, as well as meat courses, go well with medium-weight Sangiovese-based reds. Try Montefalco Rosso from Umbria.
12 wine recommendations for truffle dishes
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Alois Lageder, Inedito II, Vigneti delle Dolomiti, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy
There's an extraordinary, multi-layered array of aromas on the nose, from mature and delicately oxidised to fresh, pure fruit. Intense, with a vibrant entry, the mid-palate has depth and fibre and a finish of infinite length and great aromatic complexity which combines chalky, mineral sensations with fresh and dried fruit, and pressed flowers and herbs. Inedito II is a cuvée of the nine vintages from 2013 to 2021, aged separately in oak and assembled in 2023. Quite unique.
Alois LagederVigneti delle Dolomiti
Tiberio, Fonte Canale, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, Abruzzo, Italy, 2019
A beguiling nose slowly reveals camomile and lemon balm underscored by earthier hints of bay leaf and hazelnut shells. Vertically fashioned, the palate is über-focused and bracing yet well-padded with succulent apricot. Chalky and saline accents lend intrigue, drawing out the tangy, tantalising finish. Tiberio’s Fonte Canale vineyard is a mere hectare or so, and the 90-plus-year-old, double pergola-trained vines are painfully low yielding, which makes for tiny quantities. By no means a substitute, the excellent value estate Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is more readily available and I often pour it as my house white.
2019
TiberioTrebbiano d’Abruzzo
Vignai da Duline, Ronco di Pitotti, Friuli Colli Orientali, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, 2021
Lorenzo Mocchiutti is a non-interventionalist grower with four hectares of vines on one of the most renowned sites of the Colli Orientali. Spontaneous fermentation is followed by ageing in used barriques, with minimal stirring of the lees and twelve months of refinement in the bottle. This is a wine with the energy and the complex, ripe fruit and floral character of the terroir in a great vintage. Ready now, but has lots more to give in the future. Outstanding.
2021
Vignai da DulineFriuli Colli Orientali
Barone Ricasoli, Castello di Brolio Sanbarnaba, Toscana, Tuscany, Italy, 2020
From a single 1.18ha vineyard at 480m in Gaiole in Chianti, within view of the famous Brolio castle, this Trebbiano Toscano is vinified in amphorae on its skins, before ageing for 12 months in a combination of amphorae (60%), tonneaux (20%) and stainless steel (20%). A slightly honeyed, appley aroma with floral lift leads to a textured lanolin palate. It has good underlying acidity along with a lovely line of salinity which balances its waxy weight, finishing with a refreshing twist of lime. 2020 is the first vintage.
2020
Barone RicasoliToscana
Cantele, Teresa Manara Vendemmia Tardiva, Salento, Puglia, Italy, 2021
This unmistakably Mediterranean white is made from late-harvest Chardonnay grapes which spend about six months in barrel (one-third new). Lemon curd, pineapple, capers and broom scents scream southern latitude. Full-bodied and attractively creamy, the oak presence is perfectly integrated, with light touches of cinnamon and toast framing fleshy tropical fruits, while ripe acidity keeps everything in check. Salted caramel and flint echo on the long finish.
2021
CanteleSalento
Il Palagione, Lyra, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy, 2021
An intense nose swirls with sage, hazelnut, citrus and pencil shavings. Its profound, energetic character has substantial weight, supported by a bright streak of acidity. Giorgio Comotti, who founded the winery in 1995, works with his sons Gregorio (oenologist) and Gabrio (agricultural technician). Their 20 zoned hectares are planted on a mixture of sand and clay. Organic.
2021
Il PalagioneVernaccia di San Gimignano
Pio Cesare, Barolo Ornato, Serralunga d’Alba, Piedmont, Italy, 2020
Ornato has been the Pio Cesare estate's cru since 1985. In 2020, the grapes were harvested on 5 October, after the heavy rainfall. Mineral and smoky, with intense violet notes alongside cherry kernel and rhubarb, it's full of graphite flavour and almost zestiness on the palate, supported by tight-knit tannins. Polished and thick on the finish. ’Compared to 2019, we used gentler extractions in 2020,’ explains Federica Boffa, now in charge at Pio Cesare.
2020
Pio CesareBarolo Ornato
Albino Rocca, Montersino, Barbaresco, Treiso, Piedmont, Italy, 2020
A pure violet perfume shines from the glass allied to dark wild fruits and watermelon. Full of sucrosity on the palate, this Montersino is vibrant and savoury, with elegant tannins and lifted, integrated acidity. There is a lot of limestone here at 400m where this vineyard is based and which imprints a remarkable finesse.
2020
Albino RoccaBarbaresco
Monchiero, Barolo, La Morra, Piedmont, Italy, 2020
From different vineyards in the township of La Morra, where sandier soils and gentle slopes make for a more approachable style of Barolo, this displays seductive aromas of kirsch, rose petals and candied orange peel, with a balsamic and ferrous frame. A bounty of sweet raspberries and cherries overlay deliciously open-knit, pinpoint tannins, while well integrated acids lift a suave, balsamic finish.
2020
MonchieroBarolo
Muraje, Sumié, Carema, Piedmont, Italy, 2020
Assembled from Federico and Deborah Santini’s diverse plots throughout Carema, Sumié sees a spontaneous fermentation in cement followed by two months of skin maceration. Ageing is in small used barrels. The 2020 wafts with raspberry, juniper, sage blossom and brushwood. Slim in build, truly lightweight and elegant, yet it pops with a fresh redcurrant flavour. Crisp, barely-there tannins are countered by long, piercing acidity. As resilient and enduring as it is delicate.
2020
MurajeCarema
Terre del Barolo, Barolo Vigna Rionda, Serralunga d’Alba, Piedmont, Italy, 2020
Fresh and reductive, with smoky and peppery notes accompanied by violet and restrained blood orange. On the palate, it has a finely woven structure with slightly bitter tannins on the finish, balanced by beautiful acidity, good fruit concentration and a slightly lower alcohol that enhances its elegance. It's worth following and, in any case, offers excellent value for money. Terre del Barolo is the most important cooperative in the Langhe. Here, with its best selection, only a few thousand bottles of its Vigna Ronda – one of Barolo's most prestigious crus – were produced.
2020
Terre del BaroloBarolo Vigna Rionda
Arnaldo Caprai, Montefalco Rosso, Umbria, Italy, 2019
Umbrian landmark estate Arnaldo Caprai is best known for its Sagrantino, but this entry-level blend of Sangiovese, Sagrantino and Merlot is the perfect companion for regional classics such as strangozzi with black truffle. Nuances of liquorice, damp earth and black pepper anticipate a medium-bodied palate loaded with beguiling flavours of ripe and creamy dark fruits. Velvety tannins frame the medium-long finish along with an energising spicy tang.
2019
Arnaldo CapraiMontefalco Rosso
