The wine department at Babbo shares one essential goal with the kitchen: to offer flavor sensations our guests can’t find anywhere else. In the kitchen, that means combining regional food products, Italian and American, in new and inventive ways. With wine, it’s all about finding the bottles that not only complement Mario Batali’s food but stand on their own as examples of Italy’s incredible gastronomic diversity. The all-Italian wine list at Babbo is ever-expanding and ever-changing, just like the menu. Wine is produced in every corner of the Italian peninsula, and Babbo showcases the specialties and peculiarities of each of Italy’s 21 regions. There may be no other country in the world with as many new and exciting wines arriving on the market, and although this is old news to some, many diners are just discovering how great Italian wine can be. We want Babbo to be a place where discoveries are made, and discussions ensue. Here’s a quick look at the Babbo approach to wine.

Babbo’s wine list boasts over 2,000 selections, and that number is constantly growing. Our objectives are simple: (1) To represent all of Italy’s winemaking regions, with as many diverse styles of wine as possible; best sellers wine store(2) To offer selections of older vintages of great wines; best red wine with fishand (3) To refrain from discriminating based on price or style. best wine for under 20 dollarsBeyond that, we’re out to assemble the definitive selection of great Italian wines. best wine forum One of the signature features of the Babbo wine program is the quartino, a new (and now widely imitated) approach to “by-the-glass” wine service. best spanish wine of all time

Conceived of by Joe Bastianich, the quartino is designed to evoke the casual, osteria-style wine service of Italy, while also offering guests an opportunity to experiment—and to drink better wine—while doing so.best country wine recipes A quartino is a small decanter that holds a quarter of a liter. That translates to one-third of a 750 mL bottle, or about a glass-and-a-half. If you don’t wish to order a whole bottle of wine, or if some people in your party want one type of wine and others something else, then the quartino offers flexibility. Often guest split a quartino or two of white wine with their appetizers, then move on to a bottle of red with their main courses. Why not just pour wine by the single glass? For one, the quartino allows the guest to control how much wine he or she drinks at a particular time. Part of the fun of drinking wine is swirling it around in the glass, smelling it, sipping and savoring it slowly.

You can’t do that if the glass is filled up to the rim. The quartino puts the control in your hands. Then there’s the question of quality. It is not unusual for us to open older vintages of Barolo or high-end “super-Tuscans” and serve them by the quartino. This is perhaps the ultimate benefit of the program: It offers you a chance to try something you haven’t tried before, or to taste a wine you might not choose to purchase a full bottle of. There may be no better way to experience Babbo than to try one of our two seven-course tasting menus. One is focused on pasta and the other is a more “traditional” mix of courses. In each case, these menus are offered with matching wines for each course, a great way to experience the full spectrum of flavors Babbo—and Italy—has to offer. Our mission at Babbo is to be authoritative yet accessible, whether the topic is food or wine. Yet we are very serious about wine service. We only use the elegant stemware of Spiegelau, because there are few things more disappointing to a wine lover than drinking a great wine from a clunky glass.

Diners often look on curiously when we take a small amount of wine from a bottle, rinse out a series of glasses with it, then place the rinsed glasses on the table to be filled with the wine. This “priming” of the glasses is a little extra touch that we feel greatly enhances the wine-drinking experience. The point is to rid the glasses of off odors or other impurities, so that all you smell and taste when you take a sip is the wine. Wine temperature, too, is something of an obsession for us. We store our extensive wine collection in temperature-controlled cellars, so that when we serve a fine, aged red wine it’s at cellar temperature—not room temperature. With whites, meanwhile, we prefer to leave them out on the tables once they’ve come out of the refrigerator. As the wine warms up slightly, it’s full spectrum of flavors come out. Finally, we always have two sommeliers in the dining room at all times, to answer guests’ questions and offer suggestions. Our wine list is long, but it shouldn’t be intimidating, and that’s why there’s always a wine professional nearby to help.

So if you love wine, and especially Italian wine, take a look at the attached list. Maybe you can shave some time off the decision-making process by perusing it before you come in. But by all means let us know what you think, what you like, what you’d like to see. As long as the list is, and as serious as we are about the wine program, we ultimately want it to be fun, unpretentious, enlightening, and, most of all, an integral component of your meal at Babbo. What’s a good Italian meal without Italian wine? Based in the magical city of Venice, Avventure Bellisime (Beautiful Adventures) offers wine tours not only from the capital of the Veneto region but also from Florence and Rome. The family-owned business founded in 1999 is known for providing quality tours at affordable prices and features both group and private tours for all three cities. Among the most popular Veneto tours is a day-long group trip through three medieval hill towns within the famous Prosecco region, and includes stops at a ancient castle and wine tasting at a popular local winery.

Home to more than 550 wineries, Veneto is Italy’s third largest wine region, where celebrated wines like Merlot, Garganega and Prosecco are produced in addition to other popular varietals, such as Pinot Gris, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. Visitors hoping to join an unforgettable wine tour while staying in Rome should contact Dark Rome above all others. By far the top-rated wine tour operator in the “Eternal City,” Dark Rome offers a number of phenomenal tours, including a half-day trip to the beautiful Frascati region and an all-day tour with a gourmet lunch to the breathtaking Val d’Orcia region of Tuscany, often portrayed in a bevy of travel brochures and digital media. Guests taking a wine tour originating in Rome typically meet their tour guides in Piazza Barberini, in the historic city center near the world-famous Trevi Fountain. A segment of City Wonders, Dark Rome also offers wine tours to other major Italian cities, such as Venice, Florence and Milan. Related: Top 10 Reasons To Vacation In Rome, Italy

Corso dei Tintori, 13 Known for exceptional service and quality, Italy and Wine hosts more than 25 group and private wine tours through the picturesque Tuscany region. Led by owner and founder Vittorio Del Bono, the Florence-based tour operator leads visitors to legendary wine destinations like Chianti, San Gimignano and Montalcino. Among the featured small group tours is an all day-wine tour to Chianti, best known for its red wines made from Sangiovese grapes and San Gimignano for its white wines from Vernaccia grapes, in addition to Tuscan dining at a local restaurant, wine tasting and transportation. Tours are available from the historic city of Florence as well as the equally fascinating and must-see Tuscan city of Siena, about 45 miles south. Via Degli Alpini 6 14019 Villanova d’Asti, Italy Wine aficionados visiting Italy’s wine regions will likely include Piedmont (Foot of the Mountain) on their itinerary. Located in the northwestern portion of Italy at the base of the majestic Alps, Piedmont produces more wine and makes the largest percent of fine wines of any region in the county.

Among the best tour operators are based in this prestigious wine region is Tasting Tours, led by Silvia Aprato, a certified sommelier and Piedmont native. Featured tours include a private, all-day tour with stops at three wineries that produce Barolo, one of Italy’s most revered wines made from the fabled Nebbiolo grape and a private, two-day tour for wine lovers seeking the ultimate tour package. Other acclaimed wines produced in Piedmont are Asti Spumante, made from Moscato grapes and Barbaresco, also a product of the Nebbiolo grape varietal. The Piedmont region is also recognized around the world as a major producer of the valuable and widely coveted white truffles. Walkabout Florence is another top-rated tour operator that provides exceptional tours of the fabulous Tuscany wine region. The recommended tour from the city’s best provider is the hugely popular Best of Tuscany Tour, which features stops in Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa and a Tuscan lunch at a prized Chianti vineyard.