Like me, you’ve probably heard of Pecorino in connection to Italian cheese. But did you know that there is a Pecorino grape that makes a wonderful Italian white wine of the same name? Yeah, me neither.

One of the nice things about working in a wine bar/shop is you never know what wine rep is going to walk in the door. Well, you know who is going to walk in the door but, more importantly, you never know what they have in their wine bag. (No offense to all the great reps who work with me. Respect.) Especially on a Friday when they’re probably thinking about being done dealing with fussy buyers (like me) and chugging a cold beer, possibly with a whiskey back or three.

This Pecorino from Contesa is a lovely wine. It has a nice balance between being rich and refreshing. So why is there a cheese and a wine named “Pecorino”? Well Pecorino (the cheese) comes from sheep’s milk and, in Italian, pecora means “sheep.” That makes sense. So what does Pecorino have to do with wine? I’ve read two stories. One is that the grape bunches look like a sheep’s head. (That would be kind of creepy.) The other is that these grapes were a favorite snack of sheep as they were being herded through the vineyards.

What I want to get to the bottom of is drinking some Pecorino wine while eating some Pecorino cheese. It has to be a great match, right?

Pecorino (cheese) photo courtesy of Rubber Slippers in Italy.

Tags: contesa pecorino, italian white wine, pecorino cheese, pecorino grape