05 Terredora Dipaolo, Irpinia Falanghina

Much like the fiano-based wines of neighboring Avellino, this 100% falanghina from Irpinia in the Italian shin of Campania is brimming with bright, spritzy flavors and aromas of orange rind, lemon zest, spearmint balm, and orange jellies. Tickled by a feather of carbonation, Dipaolo's falanghina is good reason to eat outside--hands drenched in olive oil with your feet in the grass. It drinks much like a muted Spanish sauvignon blanc, but with enough weight to go course-to-course from white bean and kale soup to seafood and on into squab, roast chicken, or veal. I imagine if chef Thad Morrow, mastermind of Champaign's star-worthy Bacaro Italian restaurant, could have invented a wine for his famed shrimp bruschetta with limoncello and mint (a treasure often purer than gold), this would have been it.