I loved and still love Italian Montepulciano d’Abruzzo: it’s a great low cost wine made from the Montepulciano wine grape, and perfect with so many Italian meals. However, my new love(s) in Italian wines are those made from the Negroamaro varietal. I’ve had a few now and they are all delicious, including one from the big producer Farnese. I love them for the same reasons stated by this blog, NB Wines, in their review of Mezzomondo’s Negroamaro Rosso Salento:
“I love dark, chewy wines made from grape varieties such as Tannat and Negroamaro. This one offers lots and lots of vanilla on the nose, and also blackberries, raspberries, and spices. It is long and lush and mouth-filling on the palate, which adds leather and tar and features firm tannins that end with an “oomph.” I find it a tiny bit sweet, but otherwise it exhibits good varietal typicity (by which I mean that it has characteristics of more expensive Negroamaros I’ve enjoyed). It is excellent value at the price, and a great place to start to explore this grape varietal and style of wine.”
The other negroamaros shared the same qualities: spicy, chewy, dark, and with lots of cherry and other berry flavour. In some ways, they remind me of Spainish wines, or ripassos. (But still alot cheaper.) They would be perfect with roasts, stronger cheeses, duck, and spicy Asian dishes.
In Ontario, Farnese and Mezzomondo is providing negroamaros in the general section of the LCBO. As well, in Vintages there are some winemakers supplying it as well. I highly recommend you get some soon.
Smart People I Know 
My god when will people STOP recommending red wines to go with ‘Asian’ food…
Wine doesn’t go with everything…
Excellent point! Asian food is something of a ridiculous notion. Asia covers alot of cuisines with many different ingredients and ways of cooking them. There is some commonality of course, just like there is some commonality in Mediterrean cuisine or norther European cuisine, but it is a lazy idea to state there is Asian cuisine. At best what I see now in Toronto is something described as pan-Asian cooking, whereby you see chefs take ingredients and dishes from many different regions of Asia and mix and match them to create something new.
This wine would go well with strong flavoured food that have a combination of sweetness and sourness and spiciness to it. There are many dishes from Asia that have these characteristics, and chefs like Susur Lee are masterful in preparing them. But Indian dishes can have these characteristics as well, and North American and Australian barbeque dishes also have these qualities (and this wine would go great with BBQ dishes also).
You are right: wine doesn’t have to go with everything. I think it can, but in some cases other beverages might work better. My favourite thing to drink with food from Indian restaurants in Toronto is beer, and for pepperoni pizza or spaghetti and meatballs or club sandwiches, I prefer Coke.