This afternoon, after work I'm going to make a batch of Bagna Calda (1 and 1/2 cup garlic cloves baked with 2 oz anchovies, butter, and olive oil) When its done, I'm going to sit down outside with a loaf of bread, the garlic, maybe some bleu cheese, and a bottle of wine followed by a few pipefuls of stout tobacco. I'll listen to some music and gleefully anticipate the following 24 hours or so of solitude.

What kind of wine do the wine experts here suggest for this? I'm thinking Chianti maybe?

The name is wrong, it's called Bagna Caöda, a speciality of the Italian province of Piedmont.

You would usually drink a Barbera d'Alba.

I dunno, I guess we spell it differently here - google the way I spelled it. Besides, my keyboard doesn't make the o with two dots above it without a bunch of pain in the ass, so I'll keep calling it Bagna Calda, correct or not.

What's a Barbera d'Alba? Is that a brand/label or a type of wine? White or red?

It's red wine, Barbera is the name of the grapes and d'Alba means from Alba, a city. The wine is made in this part of Piedmont.

Wines from Barbera d'Alba

It's not very expensive, but still people like it.

I can't tell you exactly what it tastes like as I haven't been drinking any wine for years.





The two dots above the vowel, ö in this case are not mandatory, at least not in Italian. Unlike in German they're not Umlauts. They just point out that there is a pause between the two vowels.

It's kind of rare in English.

Examples:

Citroën - Citro - en

Caöda - Ca - oda

Mariä - Mari - a

What does Ca-oda translate to? I was told Bagna Calda translates into something like "hot bath."

kind of. Usually you'd say bagno caldo, it's probably some variation used in that particular region.