4 Mob-Worthy Italian Wines to Rejoice 35 Years of ‘Goodfellas’

“We have been handled like film stars with muscle. We had all of it only for the asking,” says Ray Liotta because the titular character Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 mobster traditional Goodfellas. Based mostly on the true story of Hill’s life in organized crime, the movie chronicles his rise and eventual fall within the American mob. All through all of it, the characters eat and drink very effectively.

“In Goodfellas, wine is in all places,” says wine author, educator, and bona fide Italian-American, Anthony Giglio. “And never simply as a drink, however as a cultural shorthand for sophistication, loyalty, and id. It connects the Italian-American gangsters to their roots: household gatherings, lengthy Sunday dinners, and rituals of respect.”

In an iconic jail scene, a gaggle of gangsters turns their little nook of wiseguys right into a protected social membership, the place dinner prep is sacred and bottles of wine are smuggled in for the event. 

To honor the film’s thirty fifth anniversary, at this yr’s Meals & Wine Basic in Charleston, Giglio paired mob-worthy wines with the movie’s essential characters in his seminar “Good Wines, Goodfellas: A Salute to the thirty fifth Anniversary of Goodfellas.”

So, what does Giglio search for when matching wine with huge personalities? “A ‘mob-worthy’ wine makes a press release with out shifting a muscle,” he says. “It’s about perspective, storytelling, and presence. The wine ought to look daring and assured, with aromas of blackberries, gunpowder, and a whiff of hazard. It hopes to be long-lived, however, que sera, sera.”

Giglio’s wine picks — eight in whole — have been all from Italy and ranged from mild and bubbly to intense and inky crimson.

The tasting kicked off with  2019 Barone Pizzini Satèn, an effervescent sparkler from the Franciacorta area. Produced from Chardonnay grapes, this glowing wine has notes of freshly baked brioche and light-weight citrus. Giglio selected to pair this with Lorraine Bracco’s character in Goodfellas, Karen Hill, the long-suffering mob spouse of Henry, who transforms from an harmless woman subsequent door to a risky, keen participant within the mob way of life.

Although Billy Batts, performed by the late Frank Vincent, is a minor character within the film, he performs a pivotal function, representing the old-guard mafia. Giglio paired this character with the 2023 Viberti ‘Derthona’ Timorasso, a fancy, acidic white wine from Piedmont.

Pink wine is prominently featured in Goodfellas. Bolla Valpolicella Classico is the wine smuggled into jail for the dinner scene. Although Giglio didn’t highlight this bottle within the tasting, he has a private connection to the model. “After I was rising up within the ’70s, Bolla Valpolicella Classico was the official crimson of our Friday-night pizzas,” he says. “Generally my mom and her mom would make Neapolitan pizze fritte (the dough is fried, then topped and baked). Different instances we’d order in. Both approach, the acidity within the tomato sauce brings out the sweetness of the Valpolicella mix. It is perfetto.”

A notable crimson included in Giglio’s tasting, which might additionally pair effectively with a crimson sauce or traditional Neapolitan-style pizza, was the 2021 Castello di Volpaia Chianti Classico Riserva, one other iconic wine made solely from Sangiovese grapes. Wealthy, elegant, and fruit-forward, this wine represented Henry Hill’s mentor within the film, Jimmy Conway, performed by Robert DeNiro.

Giglio capped this system with the largest and boldest wine within the tasting: 2018 Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva ‘Sergio Zenato’. The total-bodied crimson was naturally matched with the composed, managed, and larger-than-life mob boss character Paul “Paulie” Cicero, performed by the late Paul Sorvino.