Luscious Pairings

At this time of the year I love to drink fresh and fruity white wines! So I opened this great Verdicchio bottle to pair with fave and Pecorino cheese.

Colle Stefano is an organic winery from Central Italy. The winery that is located in Matelica, which is part of the Marche region, has dedicated itself to the production of just one white wine. Their annual production of 80.000 bottles of Verdicchio di Matelica DOC is rather small. The Verdicchio from Colle Stefano is a regular winner of the 3 glasses Gambero Rosso award.

The harmonious bouquet was composed of intense aromas of pineapple, apple and lime. In the mouth, the Verdicchio from Colle Stefano was dry, refreshing, smooth and a little bit fruity. I tasted lots of minerals, too. The wine was well-balanced. Fantastic finale with a persistently long finish. The only problem with this wine is that after every sip you want to take another one! It is that good!

Colle Stefano Verdicchio di Matelica
Type white
Country Italy
Region Marche
Grape type Verdicchio
Drinking style Crisp, clean, dry

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I have to be honest…I am biased as I love Kiwis and their great wines but this Sauvignon Blanc is not bad at all!

I love to try new producers, new things, so I decided to give this a try! And I wasn’t disappointed!

Founded in 1974, Matua was the first NZ winery to produce Sauvignon Blanc.

Very light, bright yellow colour. Vibrant, fresh, pristine herbal and salad greens aromas. The same on the palate which is vital, tangy and crisp, with good intensity and flavour. Limey notes, not complex, but well-balanced, fine and harmonious. An appealing, early-drinking wine.

Great product and great value!

When I return to Franciacorta I feel at home.

Franciacorta is a splendid region of Lombardy, a stone’s throw from Brescia and within easy reach of the rest of Europe. Nature has over thousands of years sculpted this ancient land, creating a breathtakingly varied landscape awash with colour, that yields its most prized treasure, the wine. Yet its history has been moulded by man, who has toiled for centuries to create an impressive cultural heritage. This is where the most amazing “bollicine” come from. It’s the land for sparkling wines!

Among the most respected wine producers of Franciacorta sparkling and still wines in the region are Berlucchi, Bellavista and Ca’Del Bosco. Others include Mosnel, Muratori, Lantieri, Majolini,Ferghettina and Cavalleri.

But my favorite always remains a small producer Faccoli.

Their fantastic Dosage Zero is one of the best I have ever tried.

http://www.faccolifranciacorta.it/en

When I am in Franciacorta there are a couple of restaurants where I love to eat.

One is L’osteria della Villetta and the other one is Dispensa Pani e Vini. Both in these places you can enjoy the real and amazing cusine of the territory and drink the best sparkling wine in the world…

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There are some occasions in life that nothing else will do, but Cristal needs time and so you need to plan ahead. Some days ago I opened a bottle of 1996 that I had held since we moved to the States, it really made the occasion and from my personal point of view the patience and planning that had been involved added that extra level of enjoyment. It was a bottle of Champagne that I will never forget, being rich and yesty, yet poised at the same time, perfectly pitched and more than worth the wait!

Brilliant colour with pale gold highlights, indicating a year of very fine ripeness. A fine, steady flow of bubbles. There’s an impressive balance between ripe fruit and crisp acidity, rich and food friendly, but also a fine apéritif. Apricot and grape- fruit flavors are round and rich, but with considerable minerality as well. A rich bouquet with hints of zesty fruit, lilies and light toasty hint of hazelnuts develops in the glass as the fruit aromas become more intense and complex
A wine that you can never forget and that will explode all its potential after a few year.
Perfect pairing with some sushi or oysters.

Louis Roederer Cristal 2006
Vintage: 2006
Origin: France » Champagne » Brut Champagne
Producer: Louis Roederer
Grape Variety: Champagne Blend
Style: Full Bodied, Brut, 12% alcohol

I firmly believe that the best thing a wine writer can do is to educate the public on how to develop their own tastes. While I do include tasting notes and my own impressions of wines in this blog, I like to focus on general wine information and specifically the skills for how to taste wine. (See my preview post)

Luckily I had the chance to try again one of my favorite…Comitissa is an amazing different italian sparkling wine.

To present the wine and the producer could remember that the Lorenz Sparkling Martini Winery is located in the wine-growing village of Cornaiano and that since 1985 the Martini family working the traditional grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc, to produce “bubbles” classic method. one of the characteristics of the classic method produced in the province of Bolzano, a production almost confidential estimated at around 220-230 thousand bottles total, is represented not only by a strong character and gout de terroir, given by the position on high hills or in a situation of almost “mountain” of the vineyards, but also by the presence, just as happens in certain Franciacorta cuvée, of an addition of White Pinot grapes to the traditional Chardonnay and Pinot Noir

Straw yellow with a bright, fine and persistent perlage. A sophisticated bouquet of bread crust, fuocaia stone with a slight note of banana and citrus. Full bodied and persistent perfect as an aperitivo or for pasta or for fish main course

I always love to try new wines…one day my “wine menthor” said “you will be a good sommelier only when you have experienced a thousand of different cases”. Never drink the same things!

So this time I tried this lovely Chadonnay from the Finger Lakes. Fox Run Vineyards sits high on Torrey Ridge, overlooking one of the deepest parts of Seneca Lake. With fifty acres of east facing vineyards on glacial soils, the winery produces a remarkable range of limited-production, site-expressive estate wines.

This Chardonnay is from Doyle Family Vineyard on the east side of Seneca Lake. It is one of the oldest Chardonnay plantings in New York State

2013 Chardonnay displays Fox Run Vineyards’ trademark subtle melon, lemon and white nectarine aromas. In the mouth, this Chardonnay reveals its cool climate birthplace: the mouthfeel is creamy, but not leaden, due to bright acidity and moderate alcohol. It’s fresh and flavor-packed, with no distracting oak flavors

Food pairings that I especially enjoy with this wine include roasted poultry, cheese straws, mango salsa and spicy shrimp with tomatoes and capers.

Fox Run – Chardonnay 2013
Country: United States
Region: New York
Sub-Region: Finger Lakes
Appellation: Seneca Lake
Grape Varietal: Chardonnay
Type: Still wine

Here we are again!

What a lovely italian tasting experience! Thank you for joining!

Here are the wines we discussed and their pairings

Conti di Buscareto Rosè – Sparkling with italian mozzarella and tomatoes skewers

Arneis Blangè – Ceretto with  carrot and lentil gazpacho, paprika chickpeas and creme fraiche

Regaleali Bianco – Tasca D’almerita with hazelnut and 2 tomatoes crumble

Barbera d’Asti Tre Vigne – Vietti with “crostatina” asparagus and goat cheese tart

Ramitello – Di Majo Norante with pasta mortadella and potatoes

How to Taste Wine…a couple of tips

1. Look
Check out the color, opacity and viscosity (wine legs). You don’t really need to spend more than 5 seconds on this step.

2. Smell
Pick out at least 2 flavors and take your time identifying them. There are 3 types of wine aromas:
Primary Aromas come from grapes and include fruit, herb and flower notes
Secondary Aromas come from fermentation and yeast aromas.
Tertiary Bouquets come from aging, oxidation and oak such as baking spices, nutty aromas and vanilla.

3. Taste
Two elements make up taste: flavor and structure.
Flavors such as lemon, raspberry or coconut.
Structure such as the level of sweetness, body, alcohol, acidity, and tannin.
Profile The taste of wine is also time-based, there is a beginning, middle (mid-palate) and end (finish).

4. Conclude
Did the wine taste balanced or out of balance? Did you like the wine? Was this wine unique or unmemorable? Were there any characteristics that shined through and impressed you.

Bordeaux has been on the top of my to-do list for a long long time. Every time I tried to organize the trip I ended up on doing somenthing completely different….

This year I made it, helped by my farewell trip my coworkers planned for me.

I really wanted to go and see one of the most fascinating and interesting places of red and sweet wine production.

Bordeaux…just the name conjures up all sorts of extraordinary wine expectations. As the fourth largest French city, the largest controlled wine growing region (AOC) in France, home to over 10,000 producers and the artisan of close to 70 million cases of wine per vintage, Bordeaux is the modern-day red wine Mecca, beckoning pilgrims near and far to scout for, speculate on and ultimately imbibe in the crown jewel, Bordeaux’s exalted red wines. These range from inexpensive everyday wines through to some of the world’s most expensive and prestigious labels. Bottles of dry red wine produced under the region’s generic Bordeaux appellation can be bought for just a few dollars. Those from the top chateaux are regularly traded for several thousand dollars.

Located in the southwest corner of France, just miles from the Atlantic, Bordeaux benefits considerably from the coastal maritime influence, and typically enjoys wet springs, fairly gentle summers and mild winters. The Gulf Stream exerts a warming influence on the region, yet summer weather can be fickle and inconsistent, making for interesting issues when it comes to getting grapes to fully ripen.

Merlot is the dominant red wine grape in the vineyards of Bordeaux, followed closely by Cabernet Sauvignon and then Cabernet Franc. Petit Verdot, Malbec and even Carmenere are also permitted. When used in combination, these varieties are variously referred to as a “Bordeaux Blend”. Bordeaux’s white wines are generally blends of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle.

So unbelievable!!!

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Try a wine and savour all the authentic taste of a remarkable territory. Furore, the village clinging to the Divina Costiera, breathes the charm of the Gulf of Amalfi.

Try this suberb white wine!

With its audacious flavour, Fiorduva is a heroic wine filled with the essence of sea and rock, characterised by the colour of gold and the scent of the sun.

Fiorduva is an extreme wine.
The “Vini Estremi” (i.e., Extreme Wines) are heroic wines, children of the hard work, sweat and industriousness of man; they are often produced in unknown, geographically unbroken, at times impossible areas, and cultivated in tiny plots of land snatched away from the mountainside, the rocks and the sea.

This wine is bright yellow with golden hues. The scent is reminiscent of apricots and broom flowers, with a hint of tropical fruit. The taste is smooth, dense and characterised by a considerable aromatic persistence of dried apricots, sultanas and candied fruit.

Perfect with seafood especially with lobster ravioli

Fiorduva – Maria Cuomo
Type: White wine
Producer: Cantine Marisa Cuomo
Origin: Costa d’Amalfi (Italia)
Grapes: Ripoli, Fenile e Ginestra