A fine example of Gallo’s investment in America’s best Burgundy challenger to France: Gallo Family 2007 Sonoma County Pinot Noir, $15-20.

For a small-party meal with an Italian influence, I chose a Gallo pinot noir and thought it was every bit as good with this meal as a northern Italy red would have been.

This wine was of course clearly American, clearly from a county heavily influenced by northern California coastal weather all along the Russian River. That means it’s fruity and deeply colored, as the Italians would like it, but it is much fuller in the mouth, unashamedly inky, and lacking in traces of barnyard influence than a French pinot noir would be. There’s cocoa and coffee in the aftertaste and it’s smooth and silky yet generous in red stone fruit and satisfying weight.

The meal featured spaghetti ala carbonara (turkey bacon, a bit of cream, pecorino romano, olive oil and light “butter” added after whipped eggs have been “cooked” in the hot whole wheat spaghetti immediately after it’s taken off the heat, and drained).

Boneless, skinless turkey thighs filled out the main course nicely. They were braised in a half-and-half mixture of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and olive oil. Yes, I wrote “in.” The chicken emerges moist and rich from cooking in a half-inch of such a mixture, which is then added to the carbonara. With the chicken I produced a caper sauce, with lots of capers and their salty liquid and a bit of a roux, plus worcestershire sauce and enough water to make the sauce substantial but not thick like a paste.

I made a casserole of wilted fresh spinach spread across a thin layer of bread crumbs, topped with shredded pecorino romano cheese, then topped with slices of previously-roasted acorn squash and finished with pepper jack cheese and some more bread crumbs and dollops of a prepared barbeque sauce.

When Gallo began moving into Sonoma County about three decades ago, it seems few people noticed, though the family announced their decision to upgrade their reputation with massive production of world-class Sonoma wines. By now a substantial portion of Sonoma County (which in land area is the size of Rhode Island) is covered in Gallo grapevines. Not incidentally, but rather something to be appreciated: Gallo plants far less than half of the acreage it owns to grapes as a matter of stewardship of the land. –Bob Cramer, writing as The Fearless Taster.