Pairing Challenge!

Blind tasting challenge for JC:
Monte Tondo Soave DOC Classico 2014 
Duca Sanfelice Ciro DOC Rosso Classico Superiore Reserva 2011

Soave is a white wine from northern Italy.
This one has 100% Garganega.
It has Honeysuckle, Candied Citrus, and slight bitterness of Almond skin. It feels soft than sharp. 
This is very friendly wine, palate-wise and price-wise.

Ciro DOC is a red wine from Calabria, Italy. 100% Gaglioppo.
I tried this wine at the Southern Italy tasting last week and liked it.
Floral aromas of violet and rose, cherry, coffee, and meat-like savoriness.

JC got both of them wrong. Long way to go.

Ciro has tannin and meatiness. To pair with this wine, we had Oven Roasted Lamb and Chicken for dinner.
Chicken and the wine wasn't a good pairing. Soave was better with chicken.
Surprisingly, lamb and Ciro weren't a very good pairing either. It wasn't bad, but I was expecting a great pairing.

We saved the wine for the next day and tried again, this time with Beef Sauce Pasta. The wine's tannin should have gone good with the fat in the beef sauce, but it didn't. They tasted bitter together.
The wine was really good with cheese, but I thought this would be a great food wine which would work perfectly well with salty, fatty meat dishes. 
Then JC came up with an idea. He opened a canned Sardine. 
Bingo!
Ciro works better with the savoriness of fish than that of meat.
Well, Calabria is the tow of the boots. People there must eat a lot of seafood. We should have known.