I had a couple of things on my mind last Tuesday. Since I cannot write about one, I will write about the other!
The group of friends that I connected with about two months ago was again gathering for a wine and dinner party. Our first get together was all about French wines. This time around, we were going to explore some wines from Italy.
The evening started out with a delicious white wine known as prosecco. This is sparkling wine, Italian-style. Like champagne, prosecco goes through a secondary fermentation process, but is done in pressurized tanks as opposed to the bottle. Prosecco wine comes from the northern region of Veneto. It is made almost entirely of prosecco grapes, although variations do exist.
Prosecco can be frizzante, lightly sparkling or it can be spumante, fully sparkling. In the case of the spumante, some may have a small amount of pinot blanc or pinot grigio added. The one we enjoyed was a 2004 NV Silvano Follador, which runs about $12. It was light, crisp and lemony. Sparkling wine can really get the taste buds aroused, so we started tearing into the food.
For appetizers, we had an assortment of cheeses which included manchego (my favorite), dry jack and saltina (as the name says, it definitely was salty!) Some nice rice and sesame crackers were on the side. Antipasto was served, including Italian salami, coppocola, proscuitto, cured olives, grilled baby zucchini, eggplant and fresh garden tomatoes sprinkled with salt and chopped basil.
Before sitting down to dinner, our host decided to offer two very popular Italian wines, a dolcetto and a barbera. The 2004 Marenco dolcetto dà Doglioni was full of soft fruit with a bit of dryness.
The 2004 Guido Porro barbera d’Alba “Santa Catrina” was more earthy, complex and also on the dry side. Either of these wines would be perfect for pizza, and they are reasonably priced at $13 each.
Dolcetto, like beaujolais, is meant to be consumed in a few years. The high tannins in barbera produce a sturdy wine that can age well. Our host decided to put this to the test by offering one more of each wine, this time from a different producer and from an older vintage.
One of my dining companions proclaimed “If we have all this to go, I’m either not going to have enough palate or enough consciousness left!”
The second dolcetto was a 2000 Bartolo Mascarello dolcetto d’Alba. This wine still had strong fruit after six years, but also had more finesse and a great finish ($18). The second barbera was a 2000 Bartolo Mascarello barbera d’Alba.
I could not place the original aroma at first, but two others noticed strong smells of wet wood and must. Now, that does not sound appealing, but it really was not offensive. Since it was an older vintage, a few minutes in the glass helped to dissipate some of those aromas and left us with a great wine that had strong, but pleasant, earthy flavors ($23).
As we moved into the next round of wine, so too did we move into the next round of food. A five cheese tortellini pasta dish was planned. The water could not boil fast enough, but that happens when you stare at the pot. The pasta was gently tossed with butter, a few drops of olive oil and fresh chives – so simple and elegant.
The final wine that was presented pre-main course was something special. Our host brought out a 1995 Quintarelli Giuseppe Rosso Cá del Merlo. This marvelous wine is a blend of the three main Valpolicella red varietals: corvina, molinara and rondinella. This wine had great structure, which means the perfect melding of fruit, alcohol and acid. It was smooth and luxurious from start to finish.
The label was also very interesting. Upon first glance, it seemed like a child had drawn on a piece of paper, scribbled some words, colored the background green and then glued it to the bottle. If only my arts and crafts classes were like that.
I am amazed at how much I have learned and how much there is to know about the wonderful world of wine. While you can learn a lot in a formal situation, I think the most enjoyment and best education occurs when you are sitting around a table, laughing and talking with friends, focusing only on the moment and the memories that will be made.
Next week, I will share the rest of the dinner menu and more wines, including some chianti classico.
Cheers!
